We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 08

"Uh uh, no way," insisted Norma, "Denver is an AFC town, I'm staying right here with my Bulldogs and my Falcons." The truth was, the boyfriend that she never told Karole about is waiting to whisk her away to a motel shortly after the graduation ceremony.

"At least keep me updated, call me anytime something happens, I don't care what, ok?" begged Karole.

"You just want to know about all the dick I'm getting," grinned Norma conspiratorially.

"You know that girlfriend!" They leaned on each other laughing and shared their last kiss before heading off to their separate futures.

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Don is sitting in his wingback chair holding a baby while in the background Lanh naps on the couch, a relaxed smile on her face. There is peace in his expression that hasn't been seen in ages as he holds the baby bottle for the child, yet there were tears drying on his cheeks.

"Unka Don's here! Unka Don's here!" The twins raced across the lawn of Campbell's farm, their mother Ahnjong, a high-powered corporate lawyer of Korean descent dressed in jeans and a tank top, chased them across the lawn terrified that they'd get run over by Lanh's huge SUV as she backed up to the back door, where Ralph had built a wheelchair ramp for Don. The Campbell farm has become a sort of recreation area for the Nguyen family. Family picnics and gatherings are held on the wide lush lawns and at the pond. Except for Trung and Angela they all got married here in the Apple Orchard Gazebo that was built "temporarily" for Lanh and Don's wedding. Since Kim-ly moved in it's been a haven for the growing families including all four of Sandy's girls and their kids.

As the SUV pulled in, the twins came running because there's no better fun for a three-year-old than to ride on the lap of their favorite uncle as he wheels through Grandpa Ralph's house in his wheelchair or takes them for rides in the hay wagon, or rides in the rowboat out on the pond. For the past three months when "Unka Don" comes home from rehab the twins Anh and Him-chan are there, ready to help. They set the brakes for his wheelchair, they help carry his bags in the house, they fetch him drinks, and they're ready for snacks with Unka Don at the big dining table in the dining room.

Since returning from Germany Don has been in rehab at the USAF Hospital in Grand Forks North Dakota, and University Health, the big new UND hospital that now specializes in trauma recovery. He has lived there for three months getting his body back together, now he's on a split schedule, two weeks in the hospital, then a week or two at home, depending on his recovery progress. Officially he is assigned to the staff of the 27th Fighter Wing education office and working remotely at the hospital and the family farm. Colonel Gilliam is putting his Ed.D to use in streamlining and upgrading the educational programs in the 27th Fighter wing.

Now it's time to relax. This weekend is the Fourth Of July, and the family has gathered to celebrate with Don and Lanh. Lanh shut off the engine and hopped out of the driver seat of the SUV as normal and went to the back and opened up the hatch while Anh (Little Annie) and Him-chan waited by the passenger side door for Don to get out. They're used to Lanh unfolding the wheelchair and coming around to help Don get out of the SUV and into the wheelchair and were chattering in excitement waiting for Auntie Lanh to hurry up with Unka Don's chair. Tam stepped out onto the big front porch to watch, she was nursing her youngest boy Arlo, her other two boys Chip and Liam came racing out of the barn when they heard that Don had arrived.

Instead of pulling out the wheelchair, Lanh grabbed Don's suitcase and called "Are you coming em yêu?"

"Be right there!" Don called. His door opened and his "Fan club" watched in amazement as Don planted a cane and stepped out of the SUV and stood on his feet. He stepped forward toward the twins and they gasped.

"HE'S WALKING!" cried Him-chan as Don stepped up to the small crowd of small people and rubbed them on the head. It was slow, painful, and uncertain, but it was walking.

"Come on Unka Don! We're making hammerburgers!" Anh grabbed the little finger of his free hand and led her Unka Don to the house where he grew up. She was sure that standing up the house looks a lot different than when you're in a wheelchair and she didn't want her Unka Don to get lost. Him-chan followed dragging Don's backpack which weighs almost as much as he does.

The parents of the twins, Ahnjong and Huy wanted to honor their ancestry when naming the twins, with Ahnjong being Korean and Huy being Vietnamese, they decided to name their girl with a Vietnamese name, and their boy with a Korean name, so Ahn and Him-chan were selected. Having the first letter of their name match the first letter of their parents' names pleased the legalese filled minds of their parents. To Lanh it made no sense at all and now there's three "Annies" in her life to sort out.

With Lanh and Little Annie leading the way, Don stepped into the kitchen where his stepmother Sandy gasped in surprise when she saw him on his feet. "OH MY GOD!" she gasped and gently threw her arms around him "You look so good standing up! You should do it more often!"

"Thanks mom," he said rolling his eyes. Even though she's been married to his dad as long as he's been married to Lanh, he still can't get over the fact that the woman he knew his whole life as the church pianist is now his stepmom. Lanh's mother Mai came bustling into the kitchen when she heard his voice and practically shouted in surprise when she saw Don standing. She called for Kim-ly in rapid fire Vietnamese. Kim-ly came out of the apartment and saw Don standing and ran up behind him, throwing her arms around him. "You're fixed!" she cried.

"No, I'm still firing live rounds," he replied with a grin. Kim-ly gave him a swat in the ass to which he remarked "Ok, I deserve that one." Don was worried about Kim-ly, when he first started dating Lanh, she treated him like a little brother, but as time rolled on, she was showing more and more affection towards him. He mentioned it to Lanh, and she told Don that he was imagining things, but he still remembers sitting in the hospital in Germany, fighting the pain and the fog of anesthesia and Kim-ly whispering in his ear, "I thought I lost you."

"You're walking so good!" cried Mai, as she admired her son-in-law's mobility with a tinge of sadness. There's something broken in his heart, and she sees it in his eyes.

"I hope so, I've been sitting on my ass for seven months dreaming of this moment," Don hugged his mother-in-law, then he whispered "Mẹ là mẹ chồng yêu thích của tôi." (You're my favorite mother-in-law).

She looked up at him with a smile and in Vietnamese quietly said, "Very good! You're getting much better." Lanh had told her that she's been teaching him Vietnamese, and he practices with her to the point where they can spend the entire day speaking her parent's native language. He stutters and sputters and quite often gets it wrong, but he tries. If asked he will refuse to admit that he can speak Vietnamese because his enunciation is so horrible, but he understands every word he hears now.

"Now we can talk sexy to each other on the phone while there's someone in the room with me," he grinned. They do but quite often Lanh breaks down in giggles at his "creative pronunciation."

"Oh, stop," Mai smiled. "There's someone in the living room that wants to see you."

"Ok, let's see who it is," said Don and he hobbled to the living room followed by an animated cloud of nieces and nephews watching his every move. In the living room he found Ralph and Duong watching a Minnesota Twins baseball game and they leapt up to greet him, then Tam stepped in from the porch with her youngest son Arlo. "Can I hold him? Please?" Don asked.

"Sit first," said Tam sternly. Don shooed Chip and Liam out of his favorite chair, then slowly sat down, and Tam handed him her beautiful little boy. "He's pretty fussy," she warned, "I can't get him to calm down."

"Aww, he wants to see his Unka Don, don't you little fella?" said Don as he tried to contain the squirming three-month-old who looked up at him curiously. Tam was worried that he would break free of Don, so she stayed close just in case. After teasing and tickling little Arlo, Don began to softly sing:

"You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant (including Alice)

You can get anything you want... at Alice's restaurant

Walk right in it's around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant."

By the time he sang the little folksy refrain a third time, Arlo was asleep. "Where did you get that old song from?" she asked. She hasn't heard it in decades.

Don looked at her like she was crazy. "Arlo," was his only explanation. She shook her head, still not getting it. Don sighed, "Arlo Guthrie? Woody Guthrie's boy? Alice's Restaurant?"

Realization dawned over Tam, "Seriously???" Her head slowly turned, her gaze fell on her husband who, if he could see the look on her face, would be running. Fast.

Her husband Jake was sitting in a chair near Don reading a braille book, turned to her general direction. "I thought you knew..." then he started singing softly and Don joined in:

"I don't want a pickle

I just want to ride on my motor sickle.
And I don't wanna tickle

I just want to ride on my motor sickle.

And IIIIIIIII don't wanna die

I just want to ride on my motor syyyyyy........ cul."

With a huff, Tam put her burp rag on Don's shoulder and stormed out of the room. Men! But for his part Don leaned back and enjoyed the afternoon, the warm sun streaming through the window, the warm sleepy baby in his arms, the monotonous drone of the baseball coverage, his wife curled up in the love seat near him. He thought that maybe the pain was worth it because it released him from his sworn duty. He's done playing soldier, he's Home. The thought that he was Home made his heart leap... Home! That wonderful, heartwarming word, the single syllable that describes so much comfort. Home -- so heady and delicious. A fragment of the poem "Soldier from the wars returning" by A. E. Houseman came to mind.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;

Kings and kesars, keep your pay;

Soldier, sit you down and idle

At the inn of night for aye.

... and he thought horribly injured Wendy whose husband and child fled in horror, of poor Cynthia lying alone in the cold dirt, soon to be forgotten, and the tears began to flow, and not for the last time.

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A large family frolics on the shore of a lake at sunset. There's a large bonfire, children splashing each other in the lake, parents on lawn chairs watching the fun, in the background can be seen the smoke trail a bottle rocket as it begins it assent.

Don and Lanh relaxed on loungers looking up at the night sky, not a cloud in the sky, the stars were burning brightly, and little waves gurgled on the shore of the pond. "Whatcha thinking about?" asked Lanh.

"The stars, I don't remember looking at them while I was in." To a veteran the term "while I was in" means "while I was on active duty," but Don is still on active duty. His job is to rehabilitate now. He continued, "I saw them while working nights, but I wasn't looking at them, except Arcturus. I was mostly looking for my airplanes... I barely saw them at all in Korea."

"It was too smoggy," she agreed.

"And smokey!" he said, "during rice burning season it was the worst!" In the autumn the farmers burn off the rice stubble from their rice paddies and the air was thick with acrid white smoke that stung the eyes and nostrils.

"Don't remind me!" then she added, "but I'm glad we decided to go there."

"Yeah," smiled Don. "I think we were the leading importers of illicit custom-made Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins jackets for two years running."

"Gawd! And how many mink blankets and quilts did we send back?"

"We still have a half dozen, maybe more in our hold baggage," said Don referring to their household goods the USAF has in storage until Don and Lanh announce the location of their permanent home.

"Gifts," said Lanh.

"I should have gotten more brass while I was in Turkey." Don is crazy about Turkish brass items and sent as many pieces home as he could afford every time he went on temporary duty to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. "I love those shepherds' lanterns."

"Speaking of buying things," said Lanh squeezing his hand, "I need to start looking for work, your pay is going to be slashed substantially in five months."

"Yep, Merry Christmas Sergeant Campbell, now get the hell out." Don's last day of active duty is scheduled to be January first, then he becomes a ward of the VA. He will lose his BAS and BAQ, these are the allowances he gets for food and housing which is a substantial amount of money, and his base pay will be slashed in half for retirement. "Maybe I can get a paper route."

"Northern Colorado University has asked me to interview, and so has the Weld County Children's Hospital. When you go back to rehab, Kim-ly and I are going to drop you off at Grand Forks, then we'll go to Denver for some interviews." It wasn't a question, Lanh was in the driver's seat now and Don was comfortable with that. There's a lot of strength in that tiny body of hers and he can't drive now, so he has to follow.

"Unka Don! Look!" Suddenly Anh and Him-chan appeared out of nowhere and held their sparklers in front of Don's face, close enough for the sparkles to touch him as the sparklers burned down. Don was suddenly blinded.

"Oh how pretty!" laughed Lanh. She was laughing mostly at Don's reaction.

"There goes my night vision," said Don. How did these munchkins sneak up on him so expertly? "Come here you!" He pulled the giggling, sparkler wielding twins on to his lap. "Now watch what your daddy and uncle Trung do." Over by the shore of the pond Huy and Trung had set up their fireworks and mortars. Kim-ly arrived with a cooler full of wine coolers and the little ones were soon joined by Tam and Jake's boys Chip and Liam. Soon Bao and Rosa appeared with their girls Chau and Sophia.

When Bao hurried off to join Huy and Trung with their fireworks preparations, Chau and Sophia joined their cousins playing with Auntie Lanh, Unka Don, and Auntie Kimmy who sat to Don's left. They laughed and played and giggled, running around Don's lounger, wrestling on his lap, and generally exhausted Don, but he did his duty and kept the little ones from playing in the fire or falling in the pond and away from the three Nguyen brothers as they prepared their display, and their moms got a well-deserved break.

They were all here, all of the Nguyen family and their spouses. Mai and Duong sat in their lounge chairs further up the bank and could look down on their family as the grandchildren played among the assembled adults. This was it; this is what their parents risked their lives for, this one perfect evening filled with love, and laughter, cold beer and mosquito repellent. This was worth all the pain and suffering it took to escape a murderous communist regime and bring their family to freedom. It was worth the sweat, hard work and tears to raise their children and get them all here at this place at this point of time. They held hands and chatted softly in their native language until they were joined by Sandy and Ralph.

"You ok there gyreen?" asked Duong as he handed Ralph a beer from his cooler.

Ralph twisted off the cap from the bottle. "Just wishing my Emily could see this."

"And my Wally," added Sandy as she sipped her wine cooler.

"I'm sure they're watching right now," said Mai. They were interrupted by the cough of a mortar and suddenly a sparkling, glowing chrysanthemum of color erupted in the sky, then the pop of the charge going off reached their ears long after the firework exploded. Don gathered all the children to him to watch the show.

Don was covered with six nieces and nephews, the only one missing was Arlo, but he was nearby sleeping in his father's arms. Don and the children watched the fireworks show in one happy pile complimenting each mortar and rocket with a group "Oooooo" or an "Ahhhh." Lanh watched Don and the children rather than the fireworks and wondered if she had the right to separate Don from this, he looked so happy, but if she gets that job in Colorado, she knows he'll pick up and move without a question. He said he would and that is that. She looked up at the stars and wondered if this was the right direction to take their lives.

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Lanh is alone in a rowboat in the middle of the lake. She's standing at the stern shouting encouragement to Don who is swimming in the lake

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Lanh as they rowed out to the middle of Lost Long Lake.

"I'm positive," said Don as he pulled at the oars of Grumpy Ode's Jon boat. His arms were coming along quickly, but his legs needed a lot of work. The bones were healing nicely but the leg muscles need help. Don hated the exercises that rebab has him going through, he was an athlete, he knew what he had to do.

The cabin at Lost Long Lake had passed to Don's Aunt Melinda, his mom's oldest sister. Everyone in the family said that it belonged to Lanh because Ode gave it to her, but there was nothing in his or Hilde's will about the cabin, so it passed to Aunt Milly who honored her dad's affection for Lanh and let Lanh borrow the cabin any time she wants. "If you claim in court that Dad gave it to you, I won't fight it," Aunt Milly told Lanh shortly after Lars' funeral. Her husband Rick isn't a hunter or a fisherman, so they rarely use it.

"I couldn't do that," said Lanh softly remembering the kindly old gentleman that everyone was terrified of and the sweetness and respect he showed her. While Don was in Basic Training, he helped take care of Lanh who was lonely and sad. When Don was in Germany and she was alone, he brought her out to Lost Long Lake quite often and helped her with her ice fishing skills and soon she became an avid angler. Hilde passed away while they were in Germany and Ode passed away while they were in Grand Forks, and they attended his funeral. She still remembered how nice the VFW Honor Guard was after his funeral, listening to Ode stories long into the night. She couldn't besmirch his memory by dragging his family through court.

It was getting late in the summer, the leaves were starting to turn, small patches of autumn color were beginning to appear on the trees, evenings were starting to get cooler, and the kids were heading back to school. Don felt he had to do this before the lake water got too cold. He and Lanh are spending this "Rehab Release" week at the cabin fishing, talking about the future, and slowly rebuilding their sex life. Don hoped that his idea would help with the latter. As they got to an area he liked, he shipped the oars and slowly moved to the stern fishing platform while Lanh got ready with the boat hook they brought.

Don slipped off his sneakers and dangled his weak, pain riddled legs off of the stern, his feet dangling in the water. He started taking deep, deep breaths, hyperventilating, building up the oxygen level in his blood. Then before Lanh realized what was happening, Don slipped out of his flotation vest and slid into the water.

Lanh jumped up on the stern fishing deck with the boat hook and looked into the water, he was supposed to keep his life vest on! but she couldn't see anything, no bubbles, no hint of movement, no Don. She looked around desperately, until he surfaced just a couple of yards from the boat. The look on his face was blissful, the happiest he had been in ages. After a decade Don was in the water again, back where he belonged, the scene of his greatest successes with Lanh at his side. "Pace me," he said as he started a lazy Australian Crawl.