Pham Quyen went to his mother’s room and quietly pushed the door open. Had he come late or been unable to come at all that evening, and if his sisters had made a slip of the tongue, that would have been the end of all tranquility in the house. There was no telling what his mother would demand that he do, pestering him relentlessly. If she knew Minh had gone into the jungle, she would lose her wits and plead with Quyen to organize a special commando team to go out and bring him back.
His mother slowly opened her eyes and stared up at him. The lines of her mouth began to twitch in a contorted tick.
“Quyen, you’ve heard, haven’t you? Our Minh is missing. What can we do? You take after your father, so gutsy and clever that I never worry about you, but I’ve always worried about your little brother. Not knowing whether he’s dead or alive. . shouldn’t we’ve heard some news of him?”
Pham Quyen forced a smile.
“The truth is, Mother, Minh’s joined the army. I sent him, Mother.”
The old woman sat up, straightening her backbone.
“He got a draft deferment, so why should he join the army?”
“He has to, if we are sending him to France to study. He has to finish military service first. If I get him into the medical corps, he’ll be out in eighteen months.”
“Well why did you wait until now to tell me and make me go through all this?”
Then his mother frowned again.
“So, where’s he stationed now? He’s not by any chance with the paratroopers or the rangers or the black leopards, or whatever they call them, is he?”
“No, Mother. I sent him to the Navy. He’s been in the orderly corps since dropping out of medical school. He’s wearing a white gown and working as an orderly on a hospital ship of a neutral country.”
“I see. So he’s nursing people. I suppose there’s not much to worry about then. I thought I would burn up inside.”
“Don’t worry, Mother. Just rest.”
As Quyen turned to leave the room his mother called out to him, “Why do you have that look on your face? Are you angry because I was so anxious?”
“No, Mother. I’m just a little tired.”
“Come home early tonight. We’ll have a family offering.”
“I’m very busy, Mother. You see, the general is going to Saigon. Even if I were ten people I wouldn’t be able to finish all the work that needs to be done. Now, just don’t worry about Minh anymore.”
“Wait. . you’re not lying to me just to put your mother’s mind at ease, are you?”
Pham Quyen suppressed an urge to shout at the top of his lungs: “You’ve been a lucky woman, Mother, your husband passed away without pain as he slept in a bath; even if you lose one of your children, even if Minh was dead, you’d still be luckier than all the other old mothers of Vietnam.” But he gave his mother a wide smile.
“I’ll bring you his enlistment papers in a few days. You’ll be getting a letter from him before long, I bet.”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine now.”
Mi, who had been eavesdropping, grabbed his hand as he came out of the room.
“Well done. I’m glad she didn’t press harder. And don’t scold Lei too much, please.”
Without replying to her, Quyen walked on into the living room to look for Lei. Judging from the clinks from the kitchen, she was in there eating. He started to say something, caught himself, and walked outside. Mi followed him out of the house.
“Are you coming home tonight?”
“I don’t know. I might be late.”
He drove back to the provincial government offices in a savage mood. Before going in he bought a bánh mì from a vendor out front. As he walked in the door, a lieutenant with a freshly washed face spoke to him.
“A telephone call came for you just now, sir. From the Thanh Thanh.”
Chewing on the bánh mì, Major Pham said to the lieutenant, “Bring me a cup of coffee from downstairs.”
As soon as he left, Quyen picked up the phone.
“Mmm, it’s me. What’s up? What a pleasant surprise, you calling me at the office.”
Mimi gave him the full story on what had happened to her that morning. Pham Quyen almost threw down his bánh mì. She also told him she figured that there might very well be something they hoped to get out of him, since they said they would be consulting with him on the case.
Quyen barely contained his rage. “I’ll have those bastards kicked out of Da Nang. Don’t worry too much, I’ll be over later.”
He slammed down the receiver. Then he wrapped up what was left of the bánh mì in paper and tossed it in the garbage.
“Shit! And they call this coffee. Tastes like caffeine tablets in water.”
“They brought it this morning from the kitchen at the Grand Hotel, sir.”
“I know. The slop they call food. . why can’t they eat like the French? Ignorant Americans.”
Sensing that the major was not in the best of moods, the lieutenant lingered for a while pretending to thumb through some papers, then at the first chance he slipped out of the room. At that moment the telephone rang.
“Hello, office of the aide-de-camp.”
But the voice on the other end was speaking English. “Excuse me. Is this the aide-de-camp’s office?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
“Ah, is this Major Pham?”
“You haven’t answered me, who are you?”
“Pardon me. I’m an investigator with CID.”
“You son of a bitch. Your name and rank, right now!”
The person on the other end of the line was not so easily intimidated.
“Please, Major, don’t get worked up. I have a signed confession which says you had your girlfriend dealing in C-rations and that both of you are narcotics users. I’m fully aware that you are at a desk where neither your own army nor the police can lay a hand on you. And I suppose the Allied Forces joint investigation team also regards you as untouchable. Are you listening, sir?”
“Yes, I’m listening, you son of a bitch.”
“Ah, thank you. We do, however, have certain channels. We can send these documents directly to the English newspapers and to the Anti-Corruption League down in Saigon. You don’t need to give us an answer right now. We’re at the Sports Club, so you sleep on it and let us know.”
The line went dead. Pham Quyen threw the phone down violently. He began to pace around the office. They had found his weak spot and were stabbing him right in it. What a shitty day! What could it be that they wanted from him? If they wanted nothing, then they would have just gone ahead without bothering to notify him. The League was not much to fear. If he spoke in advance about it to Liam, the general would not care a fish’s tit about it.
But he was worried about the English newspapers. Reporters being what they were, bastards aping the infantile liberals, they were sure to print a few lines that would make him a laughingstock. Or they might simply ignore it. If, by a stroke of rotten luck, the news desk in Saigon decided to target him and had their reporters in Da Nang start poking deeper on him, it would cost him a bundle. He walked over to the telephone, picked it up, and asked the operator to connect him with the Sports Club. To the person who answered, he said in Vietnamese that he wanted to speak with the foreigner who had just made a phone call. In a second he was put through.
“We were expecting your call. Would you like to meet with us, sir?”
“All right. I’ll see you there when I’m through with work.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Pham Quyen escorted the general to the airport and then went directly to the club. It was still early, so the place was nearly empty. As Pham entered, the waiter frowned at the sight of a Vietnamese army uniform. Madame Lin had invited Major Pham to several of her garden parties, so he was in fact more welcome than most of the foreign officers who patronized the club, but that was true only when he was in civilian attire. In that uniform it was not appropriate for him to mix with the American and Australian regulars.