We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 09

"This room is kind of like Vegas, or maybe a confessional. Heart to heart talks happen here, rule of the parlor is that anything can be said, no harm no foul, but what is said here stays here," said Tam with a serious scowl. Even though she was wearing the Santa beard and hat, there was an air about her that radiated her serious mood.

"You've said that," nodded Karole. "So am I in trouble?"

"No," said Tam leaning over and patted Lanh on her knee, "we just want you to know that you're not alone."

"When Tam was fifteen, she was gorgeous," started Kim-ly.

"She is now," interrupted Karole. She found Tam to be beautiful, her slim figure was perfectly proportioned, and her skin was without blemish. She's woman in her 30's who has three boys and a disabled husband, holds a position of power at the local university and there's not even a wrinkle on her forehead. From the floor up she was perfect, tiny feet, her legs were slim and beautiful, not a hint of cellulose on her thighs, small round bubble butt, slim waist and flat tummy, B-cup breasts to die for, and thick black hair without a gray in sight. If Karole were still interested in women, she'd be asking Tam for her phone number right now.

"You should have seen her before she let herself go," grinned Kim-ly. Seeing disinterested stares from Karole and Tam she shrugged and continued. "When she was a kid, she was gorgeous and cute, and awesome. You'd never know that she raised Lanh for seven years, graduated high school at 12 with a 4.0, and had her BA at 15 'cause she was always smiling..."

Normally Tam doesn't smile, she's got a bit of a resting bitch face, but Karole knows that when Tam smiles, her smile can light up a room. "Wait," said Karole, "Tam raised Lanh?"

"I don't know, ma had issues that we won't get into," Kim-ly shrugged trying desperately to change the subject. "Anyhow..."

"I took care of Lanh for her because she had her hands full with Kim-ly and Bao terrorizing the house," said Tam. "Those two were more trouble than a dozen drunk bikers."

Undaunted Kim-ly continued on. "So here's gorgeous, cute, awesome fifteen year old university student Tam Nguyen, tearing up her classwork and becoming the darling of the applied sciences division. She's got so many textbooks and notebooks that it wasn't unusual to see her trucking around the campus pulling a little wagon filled with all her books 'n shit..."

As Kim-ly spoke, Tam was transported back to a time she consciously suppressed. Although she loved caring for Lanh, her little sister/daughter was eventually strong enough to enter public school as long as "Momma Tam" was home for her at the end of their school day. Quite often, when Lanh's tiny body was exhausted from her day of learning her ABC's and she went to bed, Tam would sneak out to a study group which met in her uncle's restaurant.

There was a 20-year-old man in the study group that took a liking to fifteen-year-old Tam, Dante Pederson always complimented her and treated her nicely, and while she didn't need help with her studies, he was always there to assist. Best of all he gave her rides in his car. It was a beautiful black '72 Camaro with wide gray racing stripes on the hood and trunk, five spoke mag wheels, and when he hit the gas, the roar sounded like it rose from the depths of hell. It was the finest example of American Iron that daddy's money could buy. It was so cool.

Dante took his insanely beautiful partner anywhere she wanted to go, and she couldn't wait until she was eighteen so she could legitimately date this boy, she was sure Duong and Mai would love him, but Dante had no desire to wait so, like he did with all the other young girls in his life, he dumped her. But first, like all the other young girls in his life, he raped her.

She awoke from the nightmare standing on a street corner in downtown Minneapolis, shivering, weeping, freezing. An older couple tried to help but Tam was so distraught that only Vietnamese would come out of her mouth when she spoke, and when they tried to zip up her jacket she panicked and ran blindly and after what seemed like miles, she somehow ended up at the place she always ran for solace: Grandma Tri's house.

Neither Tam nor Grandma Tri ever told anyone about that day and overnight she became fearful and mirthless. Everyone that knew her saw the change, but Tam's silence was absolute, she only spoke in class when called on and she spoke with Lanh who had her own problems as she navigated the horrors of second grade. Many thought the reason Tam became cold and silent was because her parents wanted to strike out on their own and were moving to a small town out in the woods. Tam delt with that issue by burying herself in her studies and taking lessons in Vovinam, the Vietnamese art of self-defense, and Muay Thai, the art of offense. She changed her major to psychology to figure out her own inner turmoil without having to speak to someone. With these studies she soon became an expert at analyzing a person's psychological make-up, and at turning them into a quivering heap of bruises and broken bones if they dare touch her.

Tam became even more sullen, unwilling to break out of her self-imposed shell of self-loathing and self-pity. She didn't actually hate men, however she feared them, and she had no liking for women either. How many wonderful suitors did she scare away because of her fear of what happened to her? The only man she truly hated was Dante Pederson, who in a fit of drunken bravado raped her one day. One day on the anniversary of her rape she tracked down Dante Pederson and beat him until he stopped trying to get away. She confessed to the police and EMTs that she was the one who crippled him for life, and they laughed. A tiny seventeen-year-old girl did this? She was obviously covering for someone. For her part Tam assumed that causing him pain like the pain that he caused her would be cathartic, but it only made matters worse. The only people she could talk to were her mother and Lanh, Kim-ly and her brothers were too busy to care, and her poor father was heartbroken that his baby girl drew away from him with every touch and he blamed himself.

People avoided the silent, brooding beauty who roared through her undergraduate studies and into grad school earning numerous academic awards along with black belts. Her self-imposed emotional isolation ended when her younger sister Kim-ly came to her in tears and said, "Please don't beat me up, but I've got to talk to somebody!" Had she become a threat to her own family? That thought was as shocking as what Kim-ly revealed to her. Like Tam five years earlier, Kim-ly was a young teen in college, much younger than her classmates but acting like a seasoned veteran, and she too had been raped by an older classmate.

Together the sisters worked at mutual healing and getting Kim-ly a black belt, unfortunately the family had moved to Grant Valley and Tam and Kim-ly were separated by a two-hour drive. Women react to the horrors of rape differently, where Tam had become sullen and silent after her trauma, Kim-ly became more outgoing and sexual, almost daring someone to touch her so she could either fuck them senseless or break their arm. Kim-ly was always outgoing but now she was more so. The only man that was worried about the change was her twin brother Bao.

Bao and Kim-ly did everything together, from schoolwork to social interactions; they went out on double dates together and when there were no hot prospects to entertain them, they dated each other. Tam was sure they gave their virginity to each other.

When ma and ba moved the family to Grant Valley, Tam and Huy remained in Minneapolis to finish their post grad studies thus separating her from her "daughter" Lanh. Tam did everything she could to help Lanh and Kim-ly long distance because helping her sisters aided in her own healing, but it wasn't the same. Kim-ly became more outgoing, and Lanh retreated into an emotional shell that nearly cost her life. Tam saw her beauty as a curse and was looking for a man who wouldn't notice her beauty and see her for what is inside, and she screwed up by telling Kim-ly...

"So, I figure I'd hook Tam up with her very own Prince Charming," Kim-ly cheerfully told Karole as she brought the story of Lanh, Tam and Kim-ly to a close. "There was this fellow on the faculty right there in her own little schoolhouse..."

"That schoolhouse covers fifteen acres and has a faculty of over four hundred," growled Tam.

Kim-ly continued as if Tam hadn't spoken, "The point is, Mr. Perfect was right there! They actually knew each other for a couple of years but NEITHER of them had the guts to ask the other out." Kim-ly smiled in a self-congratulatory manner and said, "Lucky for the both of them, I had the guts to ask. I set them up and the rest, as they say, is history." She stood and took a deep sweeping bow.

"You set us up for dinner at the Rain Forest Café!" growled Tam. "I had to describe a million things going on and he could barely hear what I was saying because of the damn waterfalls."

"Just part of a well-engineered plan," said Kim-ly smugly. "There is so much noise, so much going on that you'd have to spend the evening describing everything to him and you had to be close so he could hear you. All just part of a brilliant plan," she emphasized this by making a circle with her thumb and index finger with her left hand, and repeatedly drew her right index finger in and out of the hole while giving Karole a broad wink.

"And that was your idea all along?" demanded Tam.

"Well... I had a coupon," Kim-ly shrugged.

"Honey," Tam said to Karole with uncharacteristic warmth, "the point is, there's someone out there for you..."

"Stop!" Karole shook her head and held up a hand. "Y'all kin save that little speech for when ah'm not feeling like a bloated whale, ah'll need it an' appreciate it then, right now ah'm just overwhelmed with all this... Christmas! Ah ain't never seen such a thang!"

Tam and Kim-ly looked at each other in shock, what could possibly be wrong with Christmas? Finally, Kim-ly asked "How do you normally celebrate Christmas?"

Karole shrugged. "Ah dunno, have a barbeque fer one, someone in the neighborhood would rent a bouncy house so all the kids go an' jump up an' down till we puke, oh! an' Christmas kicks off softball season for the kids so there's always games..."

Kim-ly and Tam looked at her dumbfounded. "Girl, you just described the fourth of July but without the fire works!"

"Wall, there's fireworks too, ah remember one Christmas where momma's beau Cletus... or was it Darryl Joe? No wait! It were Uncle Shivers, he got t' drankin and he darn near blew his whole hand off 'cause he were so dern drunk he fergot t' throw the cherry bomb! He an' momma were soooo fuckered up..." Like Lanh, Tam, and Kim-ly when excited Karole's accent came back with a vengeance.

"Uncle Shivers?" asked Kim-ly, her mouth hanging open in shock.

"Yeah, I think his real name was Cuthbert... yeah Cuthbert Hawkins, which is prolly why he didn' mind bein' called Uncle Shivers by everone. He got that name 'cause when he got t' drankin he started shakin' real bad. Momma said that there's a time an' place where that could be real useful to a woman, ah didn' know what she meant 'till ah went to college and my roommate Norma showed me exactly what momma meant." Karole smiled at the memories. "Ol' Norma... the things she had in that underwear drawer of hers! Why ah could..."

"SO! Softball on Christmas huh?" said Tam desperate to change the subject.

"Wall acourse! It's too dern hot any other time a year!"

"Of course!" agreed Kim-ly with a slap on Tam's back. "Everyone knows that!" To a Minnesotan the idea of softball in January was just as alien as ice fishing to a South Georgia native. "Now about Norma's underwear drawer, what exactly..."

Tam was saved by her middle boy Liam who ran into the parlor out of breath. "Momma!" he gasped. He's been all over the huge house looking for his mother and no one ever thinks of going into the parlor, that's Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Ralphs special room.

"What is it dear?" asked Tam hugging her savior.

"Unka Don said to tell Aunty Karole that there a roara!" His eyes were wide with wonder.

"Well, tell her!"

Liam spun and stood in front of the tallest woman he's ever seen in his young life. "Unka Don says to go out front, there's a roara!" Then he dashed off away from all these old people.

"A roara?" Karole asked.

"AN Aurora," Tam corrected.

"Come on," said Kim-ly, "This is what living up north is all about."

"It's ten below zero!" whined Karole.

"Yeah," responded Kim-ly, "Good thing it's not very cold out!"

Soon Karole found herself standing on the front porch of the Campbell farmhouse dressed like a Minnesota farm wife, a quilt over her shoulders and a scalding hot cup of Folgers in her hands as she gazed at the most wonderous sight she's ever seen in her life. Suspended in the air above her and stretching off to the north was a glowing, shimmering curtain of luminance. The curtain gracefully waved back and forth like a very slow-motion flag in a breeze, a flag that stretched for ten thousand miles. It was made up of millions of vertical spears of light all lined up next to each other to appear like a curtain. And as it majestically waved in the sky, sections changed colors. The majority was a luminescent green, but sections appeared to change to a pastel pink, and others appeared to be a light baby blue. As she watched another curtain appeared, and then another, and soon there were four curtains floating roughly parallel in the sky. And all the time, just at the edge of audibility there was a ringing, Karole could hear the Northern Lights singing to her.

The children had taken a good long minute, maybe two minutes to watch this surreal marvel, then went inside to play Duck Duck Gray Duck, and their parents followed. They've seen this their whole lives, nothing special here, just a miracle of celestial beauty only shared with those strong enough to live up north. And soon Karole was alone with Aurora Borealis and Krissy and the night.

She let her mind wander as she stood in the light of the heavens and the Christmas lights lining the porch, her ears filled with that gentle ringing from the sky and the soft sound of Bao's acoustic guitar leading the children in Silent Night. Who would have thought that a skank ho from the sweltering Okefenokee would end up alone and pregnant and finding peace near the Arctic Circle? Her reverie ended when she heard a step on the wooden porch and the now familiar squeak of snow being compressed under foot, and she heard Lanh and Don talking in gentle whispers somewhere behind her.

"I miss this so much."

"So do I," came Don's sad agreement. "I should have gotten out; I never should have reenlisted..."

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda... they never solved anything." Lanh hugged Don, "we'll be back soon, there's only two more years left on my contract. We can start packing when we get back to Colorado if you want."

Don chuckled and held Lanh close, but Karole felt sick as her self-doubt came roaring back. They were planning to leave her! That's what she gets for thinking this all was a done deal. Oh well, she'll have Krissy... Then as she wallowed in her morose self-pity she felt a pair of arms hold her from behind. Don had come up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her, crossing just under her heavy breasts. Lanh came up next to her and joined the hug from the side. "What do you think?" she asked. "Could you live in this big old drafty nut house with us?"

"What?" Karole was shocked.

"There's five bedrooms in this house, six if you count Kim-ly's room," said Don, "And Dad and Sandy are starting to consider retirement maybe even pulling out and heading to Arizona, so there will be plenty of room for you and Krissy."

"Ahnjong says she knows the head of HR at the hospital," said Lanh. "She will know the moment a position opens in your department..."

"Free daycare," added Don.

"Free milk too," smiled Lanh as she laid her head on Karole's arm.

"How long have y'all been practicin' this sales pitch?" said Karole with the broadest smile of the evening starting to appear on her lips.

"Since the day I met dumbshit," said Don using his "pet name" for Karole's ex-fiancé Jayce, and he had met Jayce a day before he met Karole.

"You get to see that as often as you want," Lanh gestured to the celestial light show which now covered over half of the visible sky.

"Does it always ring like this?" Karole asked.

"You can hear it?" asked Don. Working around high-performance jet aircraft has ruined Don's hearing and he can no longer hear the high-pitched singing of the Northern Lights over the ringing of his own tinnitus.

"That means it's welcoming you home," sighed Lanh.

Home! That short, wholesome, yet evasive word that never really had much of a meaning to Karole. For years Home meant a couch in an ancient trailer where she had to watch black and white re-runs while her mom and some guy drunkenly guffawed at hackneyed lines of dialog or drunkenly roared in lust in the next room as momma "paid the rent."

"Ah'll ponder on it a bit," she said softly as she looked up into the shimmering skies.

"Ok, take as long as you want..."

"Sold," said Karole. "Can I pick my room now?"

Just then Mai stepped outside and joined in. "Look, it's a big change from what you're used to, to a houseful of crazy people, I bet you never met an Asian before you met us, am I right?"

Karole shrugged then nodded.

"You take it one step at a time," Mai said. "You come in and snuggle on the couch and just watch. We'll bring you your snacks and hot chocolate, and next year you'll have a baby, and you can join in the craziness a little more, and a little more every year and soon you'll be crazy like the rest of us. Fair enough? I don't want to lose one of the best waitresses I've ever had."

Karole nodded and smiled while Lanh hugged her. They returned indoors and when the frigid air from outside hit the warm humid air inside there was a plume of white fog causing all the kids to yell "CLOSE THE DOOR!"

"They learn from their grandfathers," said Lanh as they settled on the couch.

Relieved of any duty to participate in the holiday festivities Karole wrapped up in a heavy terrycloth bathrobe and the sheet filled quilt and was waited on hand and foot by ten-year-old Sophia and five-year-old Anh. The two girls kept their new aunt supplied with punch and cups of a potato dumpling soup called knoephla that their grandpa Ralph makes every year. The tree was up and now was the moment Lanh had been waiting for all year, she patted Karole's hand and rose from the couch. "I'll leave you with your angels here, I've got tradition to uphold."

Kim-ly sighed, "I guess that means me too," and she got up acting as if the act of getting to her feet was the most difficult thing she could humanly do. Lanh carried a heavy box up from the basement and she, Kim-ly, and Don opened it and went about their traditional Setting Up of the Railroad ceremony. The young children watched in envy as the grownups got to play with toys, but the older ones, Chau, Sophia, Chip and Liam knew to stay back until the train is up. This is Uncle Don and Aunt Lanh's toy train. Bao brought out his guitar and started to play festive songs and Sandy soon brought out her Casio keyboard and joined in. Tam brought Karole a fresh egg nog and sat down next to her. "What do you think so far?" she asked.

Karole paused to consider her words. "Ah could get used to this."

"You're smiling!" taunted Tam, her own smile was even more beautiful than Lanh and Kim-ly's descriptions. "I think you really are getting used to this."