We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 14

"What is a maternity ow die?" asked Karole. She made a face that showed she thought an áo dài was something poisonous.

"It's an áo dài you wear when you're pregnant. They're really roomy." Lanh looked up an áo dài on her phone and showed the picture to Karole.

"That's so purty! It's pants and a long blouse, and it looks comfy. That's what you wore at your wedding, right?" Karole stopped there, trying to remember when Lanh showed her wedding pictures.

"I wore two," said Lanh. "First a pure white áo dài, then a western wedding gown, then Tam's red and gold wedding áo dài."

"All the wedding pictures I saw were you in a white 'merican gown..." Karole was searching through her memory but she was getting confused.

"Let me show you," said Lanh. She ran to the parlor where Sandy had wedding photos of her own girls and photos from Don and Lanh's wedding lovingly hung on the wall. Lanh plucked four pictures off the wall and brought them out to Karole. "Here's me in my white áo dài," and she showed Karole a picture of her in front of the tractors in the áo dài along with the gold embroidered vest that her Grandma Tri made for her. Then she showed Karole the pictures in her western wedding gown, she wore the white and gold vest with the gown and posed in front of the tractors also.

"How did you find a wedding gown that matched your ow die?" asked Karole as she pointed out the gold dragons and flowers on both the white áo dài and the white gown. Her pronunciation of áo dài was getting closer.

"It was a vest that I wore on both. On the wedding gown it hid a stain that no one could get out, and on the áo dài it hid my nipples," said Lanh.

"She said that without blushing!" whispered Trung to Kim-ly.

"I've been working with her," said Kim-ly with a grin.

"Here's me in Tam's red wedding áo dài," said Lanh as she showed Karole the picture of her and Don, again in front of the tractors.

"Red?" Karole's brow wrinkled as she studied the photo. At first she recoiled... but as she studied it, the concept grew more appealing.

"Yes, in Asia, red means good health and fortune and is very popular in China and Vietnam. This is my favorite picture," said Lanh and she handed Karole the picture of the head table at their wedding reception with everyone smiling and laughing and paired off with who would soon become their partners. They were all there, Bao and Rosa, Trung and Angela, Ralph and Sandy, Huy and Ahnjong, Sydney and Craig, Mai and Duong, Tam and Jake, and in the center was Don and Lanh with Kim-ly behind them, hugging them both, and a white blob over Kim-ly's shoulder...

Karole looked at the blob and started to feel dizzy... and she began to remember...

Everyone at the head table had finished eating but many of the guests were still getting their dinner from the Odegaard brother's BBQ and Karole was there watching everything, she drifted in and out of the crowd listening to the conversations, an invisible spirit enjoying the party. She heard and understood every conversation even though there were several languages she didn't understand, Vietnamese, Norwegian, and that strange version of English spoken by Norwegian Minnesotans. The photographer was using the break in the program to snap pictures of the guests eating, guests in line at the BBQ table and the beer tap, and the wedding party at the head table, relaxing and laughing together now that the pressure of the ceremony was over.

There was the ceremonial first piece of cake and Karole watched in glee, but Lanh didn't do what the women expected, they urged her to shove a piece of cake into Don's face, but Lanh was adamant against doing that, so Kim-ly took a small daub of frosting on her finger and put it on Don's nose. Lanh then kissed it off causing all the women to say "Awww" in varying degrees of appreciation of Lanh's sweetness and disappointment.

"Back off!" hissed Past Karole. "We're here to observe, not participate."

"Ah'm diggin' this," said Karole. "Ah ain't never bin to no weddin.' Ah wuz always the outcast nerd or slut dependin' on whutcha wanna hate me for that week. Ah ain't never gonna have me one ah my own, so I'm gunna live it up." Besides, Karole was falling in love with these two kids from a far-off foreign land where winters are cold enough to kill you and you have to wear a sweater on summer evenings.

"There's more to see, we need to go," whined Past Karole.

"You' the one that needs to back off," said Karole. "Ain't no such thing as a southern girl that can walk away from a party. Besides, you're quite a pushy thang for a ghost."

"I'm a SPIRIT," snarled Past Karol, then with a long-suffering sigh she intoned as if reciting a formula in class, "A ghost is the nebulous image of a dead person manifest to their final animate condition, a spirit is the noncorporeal personification of the earthly essence of a living person..." She rolled her spirit eyes, which were identical to ghostly eyes. "It's not like I haven't explained this like a thousand times over!"

"You need to calm down, you're taking this too personal," said Karole as she examined the snack table. The trays were covered with a mingling of traditional Norwegian and Vietnamese delicacies. "If ah ever get married ah'm havin' Lanh's mama fix me up with these Vietnamese snacks."

"Can I get the head table to gather together?" called the photographer. "Let's get a nice happy picture of you folks with the guy or girl of your dreams, shall we?"

"Don't you dare!" threatened Past Karole knowing exactly what Karole was going to do.

"Oh, come on!" said Karole as she drifted back to the head table. "It's not like they can see me!" The participants gathered up with what would soon be for many of them their future life partners, all centered around Don and Lanh sitting in the middle, their faces aglow in love and the rush of a little opportune lovemaking back by the pond. Mai and Duong sat nearby smiling joyfully at their baby's happiness as Karole drifted into position. "Wouldn't it be a riot if this turned out?" she said as she lined up next to Kim-ly who hugged Don and Lanh from behind.

"Karole pulleeze!" groaned Past Karole.

As the photographer cracked a few jokes to get people smiling Karole took a long appreciative look at Trung who was right next to her. "He even made a cheap rental tuxedo look good!" she thought as she reached out to touch him. Just as she did touch him, she felt a snap like a jolt of electricity travel up her arm at the same time the photographer squeezed the shutter and the flash unit on the camera flared...

"I was there!" Karole gasped.

"What?"

Memories of what happened just before she ran across the parking lot to push Lanh out of the way, memories of Past Karole and Future Karole in the parking lot, showing her Don and Lanh's past life, then showing Karole views of her future came flooding back...

She remembered Don and Lanh's first dance... their first date at the ice-skating rink... their first kiss... their first time... "You really did wait!" gasped Karole as she remembered seeing Lanh's blood from their first-time making love, they were on the picnic table back by the pond, she remembered how Don was so concerned...

"We'll get an áo dài for you too... are you ok?" Lanh was still focused on the áo dài but then she noticed that Karole wasn't paying attention, she was looking up at the ceiling, her eyes were flickering side to side as if she was reading a book or watching a wide screen movie and she wasn't responding. "Karole? KAROLE? We need to lay her down, Trung, can you help her upstairs?" Lanh asked.

"Yeah," and he helped Karole to her feet but as she rose her legs turned to Jell-O, so he got her up on his back and carried her piggyback up the stairs with Kim-ly, Lanh, and Don following. Trung eased her into a bed in one of the four empty bedrooms, the yellow room.

"This is where Karole and I crashed Christmas before last," whispered Kim-ly. She sat down on the other bed in the room and whispered, "I'll stay here with her, you go call Tam, this is right up her alley."

Karole continued to "read the ceiling" while Trung continued to pat her hand and gently shake her shoulder. "She'll be ok," whispered Don.

Out in the hallway Lanh tried dialing Tam's number for a fifth time, her nervous hands were shaking so badly that she misdialed four times in a row, and finally got through on the fifth attempt. As she tried to describe to Tam what was happening, in the bedroom Karole suddenly sat up.

"I saw it all," Karole gasped. She felt like she had been held underwater for hours, and now she can breathe.

"What?" said Kim-ly, "What did you see?

"Everything, I saw it all..." Karole's voice trailed off and she looked at Kim-ly with glazed eyes. "It started with a dance... a bowl of pho..."

"What?" Kim-ly shifted over to Karole's bed and sat next to Karole then pulled her close just like they were back in December just before Danh and Krissy were born. "What did you see?"

"Everything... I saw Don and Lanh meet... at a school Christmas dance... so sweet... but they beat him up because of Lanh, they hurt him so bad he couldn't eat for days... he had no money for school cafeteria soup... Lanh took him to the restaurant, and they gave him pho..." Then a broad grin spread across her face. She looked at Kim-ly and said, "you brought it to him!"

"You got beat up?" Trung whispered.

"They beat the living crap out of me," Don winced remembering the pain and humiliation of that night.

"What... what are you talking about?" asked Kim-ly.

"I'm talking about you!" Karole twined her fingers in Kim-ly's hair and said "I saw you take Lanh to the school dance where she met Don! I saw them beat Don so bad that he couldn't eat so Lanh skipped class and took him to your restaurant, and you brought him pho, and he said he couldn't afford it."

By silent agreement they never told anyone about that day, Don didn't like being reminded of his high school beatings and Lanh refused to admit skipping class. "Oh my God!" gasped Kim-ly, "that was eighteen... almost twenty years ago!"

She grasped Kim-ly's hand and hoarsely said, "I saw it all, I saw their first kiss, I was there when they found out she couldn't have a baby... I saw it all..." her face suddenly went pale and she gasped in horror. "I saw him crushed, dying from the purple fumes. It was horrible... I followed him in the ambulance... then on the airplane to Germany..."

"Karole?" asked Kim-ly. "Special K?" Karole looked horribly shaken.

"I saw it all, his recovery, his retirement," Karole said with a tear, "everything up until the day I moved in and Lanh brought me brownies." Exhausted, she leaned her head on Kim-ly's shoulder and fell asleep. Kim-ly lowered Karole to the bed and Krissy climbed into bed and snuggled up with her mommy and Danh joined them because it seemed to be the thing for him to do.

Kim-ly led a shocked Trung and Don out of the room leaving Krissy and Danh behind with Karole and found a shocked Lanh in the hall. "You heard that?" Kim-ly asked. Lanh only shook her head dumbly; all she saw was Karole fainting, which scared her. "Come on," whispered Kim-ly, "Let's let her rest," and she led everyone including a saddened Danh downstairs to wait for Tam leaving Karole to sleep with Krissy.

When the psychologist arrived, she asked what the problem was and a terrified Lanh said, "She had a fit or something, we were talking and her eyes started shuddering back and forth, then she slumped over. We took her upstairs to lay down and she continued to do that, then she passed out."

"Did she say anything?" Tam asked.

"No," said a tearful Lanh.

"Yes," contradicted Kim-ly as the guys nodded. "While Lanh was calling you, her eyes stopped moving and she said, "I saw it all, from their first dance to the day that Lanh brought her brownies."

"She saw what all?" asked Tam, now she was as confused as Lanh.

"She saw Don and Lanh I guess," said Kim-ly with a shrug. "She talked about the day you and I met Don at the restaurant when he was beaten up so bad and we gave him pho."

"I had forgotten about that," said Tam.

"I didn't," said Lanh quietly. That memory was so precious to her, the man whose child she is now carrying took a beating for her on the day they met... and Karole remembers it? She was 10-years-old living in Georgia, how can that be? With a little gasp Lanh dashed out of the kitchen and upstairs.

"Honey!" called Don, but despite her injured leg Lanh was quick as lightning and Don was terrified of her slipping and falling down the stairs and losing the baby. Don was much slower and reached the top of the stairs wheezing and gasping for breath and he found the doorknob on the yellow bedroom locked, but he could hear Lanh and Karole talking. Karole was telling Lanh everything she saw, leading up to that spring day when Karole opened the front door of her new house and watched Lanh faint.

"She locked the green bedroom door too," whispered Kim-ly as she slumped down next to Don. The bedrooms are in pairs with a Jack and Jill bathroom between them and Lanh hit the privacy lock on both bedrooms.

They listened through the door to Karole as she told Lanh about her visions, "Ah saw the pain in Kim-ly's heart as you and Don suffered through your trials, it was horrible, she cried... oh she cried when you lost your chance to adopt... but ah saw the love grow in her for you and Don. Y'all coulda chased her away an' y'all had every raht to do so, but y'all opened your hearts to her and in return she gave you lil' Danh..."

"Let me show you a secret," said Don softly. He stood up and reached up to the top of the molding above the door. "Every door with a privacy lock has an emergency key," and he found the emergency key on the upper molding, a slim piece of steel, a thin flathead nail with the point ground down flat. He put the flattened point of the nail into a small hole in the doorknob and pushed on the flat head of the nail and a click was heard as the door unlocked.

Karole and Lanh sat side by side on the bed and they barely looked up as the door opened and Don and Kim-ly walked in. Lanh looked up at her big sister with tears in her eyes and in a tiny voice said, "You cried when we lost Sue Lin?"

Kim-ly bit her lower lip and nodded sadly. "She knew you were hurting," said Karole, "so she begged Tam to go with her to Germany to be with you."

Lanh stood and clung to Kim-ly and soon they were both crying over so much past pain. As they wept Tam appeared at Don's shoulder with a notepad, pencil, and a box of tissue.

"I see you come fully armed," said Don.

Tam shrugged, "I'm a professional." And she joined her sisters to find out what Karole was talking about.

Kim-ly and Lanh sat on either side of Karole and joined the conversation while Tam sat on the opposite bed and started scribbling notes in her pad. Don and Trung stayed and listened to them chat then decided to leave and let them chat. "This may go into extra innings," said Don, "you guys can spend the night if you want."

"Ok, just don't get any ideas," whispered Trung, "The blond is mine."

Don started chuckling and he scooped up a sleepy Krissy, "Don't worry about it," he said with a smile and led Trung down the stairs leaving the sisters with Karole. "The blond is safe from me."

"How can I be sure Mr. Babymaker?"

"Well, for one thing, she's not related to you..."

Sandy and Ralph came up from the basement and peeked into Lanh's sitting room and were surprised to see Trung sitting with Don in the wingback chairs each drinking a beer as they watched the fire in the fireplace. "Oh, I didn't expect to see you Trung!" said Sandy. "Is Karole here too?"

"Yes, she's upstairs with Lanh, Kim-ly and Tam," said Don.

"Tam's here too?" said Ralph and he headed upstairs to talk to the girls.

"How's Dad doing with the vacation now?" asked Don quietly.

Sandy leaned over the back of Don's chair and kissed his head. "He's warming up to the idea, but you know your dad, he'll grouse about it all the way there."

"Just so you know, Karole and Trung will be staying the night in the yellow bedroom. Krissy is already asleep with Danh," and Don pointed to the crib.

Sandy tiptoed over to the crib and peeked in. "She's getting so big! She's going to be tall, like her mommy and her stepdaddy," she said with a pat on Trung's shoulder. When Sandy first saw Trung caring for Karole the day they arrived she made no secret of the fact that she was planning to play the organ for their wedding. "Good night boys don't stay up too late; we have work in the morning."

"Yes mom," said Don and Trung in unison.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Winter slowly began to release its hold on the north country and one by one the calves were born. Luckily there were no complications and soon there was a pen full of "baby cows" for Danh, Krissy, and Lanh to coo over and name. All of the calves were born without any problem, which was a good omen that cheered Don's heart, and he prayed that their babies would be born problem free and healthy also. Lanh's morning call of encouragement, "there's a new baby cow to name!" got Danh and Krissy motivated enough to eat breakfast quickly, put on a fresh pull-up, get dressed then head out to the cow pen to see the baby cows. They helped name the baby cows and with Lanh's help they soon had Candy, Puppy, and Fishy (the toddlers had been watching Lanh's fish tank when Fishy was born).

Every morning Trung, Karole, and Krissy would show up at 4:00 AM to help with milking. While Trung, Don, and RJ milked the cows, Karole and Lanh and sometimes Kim-ly would make breakfast and let Ralph and Sandy sleep in for the first time in their lives. "Any new cow babies this morning?" Lanh asked eagerly one warm spring morning. It was vitally important to name a calf before they got more than two days old because... just because. "Deal with it," was Lanh's only explanation.

"Nope, got the last of them yesterday, besides, it's raining today," said RJ, "not a good day to be calf watching." He sipped his coffee then turned to the kitchen crew. "That was a fine breakfast, Miss Lanh. Very fine."

"Karole made breakfast," said Lanh as she helped Kim-ly clear the table.

"You told me you can't cook," said Trung in shock.

Karole innocently said, "No, I said I don't cook. Besides, why should I admit to being able to cook if you're going to do it for me?"

"What are you two up to today?" asked Lanh as she came up behind Don and wrapped her arms around him.

"Trung and I are going to head over to the high school and check out the facilities, then we'll take Krissy and Danh over to the elementary school to read Uncle Jakes new story book to the kindergarten class. Do I have any errands to run?"

"We need you to swing by Earl's Plen-T Good Grocery," said Kim-ly and she handed Don her shopping list.

"Sardines?" muttered Don, scanning the list.

"Get the ones in mustard sauce," insisted Lanh.

~~~*~~~

Coach Mach's office was exactly the way Don remembered it, with the exception of a few pictures on the wall featuring Don and Rosa wearing their medals and several other student athletes with their own trophies and medals. "Looks like you've added a few more trophies to your wall," said Don.

"You're late Campbell," said Coach Mach without looking up from his clip board. "You're never going to graduate at this rate."

"I'll just let my wife support me in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed," grinned Don. "How ya doin' Paul?"