Department of Student Loans, Kidnap & Ransom
Page 18
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Eight days later, The Executioner, having long ago checked out of his hotel and into Mrs. Anh’s guest room, stood outside Annie and Rose’s school, waiting for class to be let out. He had been able to quickly train the local contractors that Marv had hired. So, for the last two days he was able to commit to a leisurely schedule, which now included picking up the girls at school, filling in for Mrs. Anh. As the girls ran over to The Executioner, he spotted some of their classmates looking at them and alternately giggling and whispering into each other’s ears. It amused him greatly.
When the weekend came, The Executioner was taken around Saigon by Rebecca’s mother and daughters, visiting shrines, temples and parks. However, Mrs. Anh insisted that the War Remnants Museum was not a place worthy of a visit. She was apparently embarrassed by the collection of victory trophies that Vietnam had collected in the form of American helicopters and assorted military equipment. The Executioner had to visit that museum on his own, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. His grandfather had gotten through the Vietnam War in one piece, and The Executioner had no feelings one way or another about the whole American misadventure in Indochina.
On his last day in Vietnam, The Executioner walked together with Mrs. Anh to pick up the girls at school. Through her phone she stated that when Rebecca was a schoolgirl, she had walked to and from school by herself or with her classmates. But now, she said into her translation app, girls regularly disappeared in Vietnam. Mrs. Anh spoke further, telling The Executioner that decades ago this was something unthinkable – she remembered that it only happened in Cambodia and Burma. But now it happened in Vietnam, especially to the prettiest of the young girls. Annie was ten years old, but in two years she would be the exact type of girl that traffickers kidnapped.
The Executioner knew how the business worked. A girl would be kidnapped and then immediately taken through a zapping booth to destroy any child-locator implant she may have, making her untraceable. Within a few days the girl would be locked in a room in another country where she couldn’t speak the language. If she was lucky she would become someone’s wife, the least worst of the terrible options. But, like most of the women, she would more likely be drugged and raped every day of what remained of her life by a succession of paying customers until she eventually died or committed suicide. Very few survived more than five years.
The idea of what happened to trafficked girls had always disgusted The Executioner, but Mrs. Anh’s mention of her worry for Annie and Rose had made it tangible for him. The thought now truly bothered him. And it worried him.
As for Mrs. Anh, she was also worried about her daughter. Out of earshot of her granddaughters, she told The Executioner of her fears. She said that she didn’t trust Marv, and that Rebecca, now approaching her mid-thirties, might be abandoned by him. Mrs. Anh also confided that she herself was starting to get health problems, and that it might soon be Annie and Rose that looked after her, instead of the other way around. Mrs. Anh’s plan was to convince Rebecca to return to Saigon. They could sell the house and downsize to cheaper accommodations, using the leftover money to live off of until Annie and Rose were grown. Rebecca would probably still have to work, but Mrs. Anh figured they could manage.
While Mrs. Anh thought that Marv might replace Rebecca, The Executioner knew for a fact that he would. In the time that he had worked for Marv there had been a succession of foreign women living with him as his short-term wife. The joke amongst the men who worked for Marv was that no woman made it anywhere near age 40 in his house. He didn’t say anything to Mrs. Anh.
That evening, while helping Annie and the now very talkative Rose with their homework, The Executioner thought about his time in Saigon and at Mrs. Anh’s house. He had, in less than two weeks, cleared his mind of so much. Drinking tea in the backyard garden, walking through Saigon’s parks as Annie and Rose pulled him along, and his halting but pleasant evening chats with Mrs. Anh had all been the exact opposite experience of the stress he went through with work. He had the strange feeling that he should not be leaving. He felt at home.
As he left Mrs. Anh’s house to make his way to the airport, The Executioner promised the girls that he would visit Saigon again, and that their house would be his first stop. Annie and Rose, for the first time, hugged him, restating their demand that he talk with them online regularly.