With nothing else to do he slept through the breathless heat of the afternoon, and that evening he wandered out into the fields to watch the women harvest the opium. The seed pods had grown fat and green and the women used a special three-bladed knife to scour the skins, letting the thick white sap ooze out of the cuts. The sap would congeal in the cool night air and turn from white to the jelly-like opium, the color of molasses.
Traditionally the Hmong only used the opium themselves as a medicine for the old and the sick. He supposed these women could not possibly imagine that it could one day find its way into a briefcase in a Saigon bar, nor could they conceive of the astonishing amounts of money it would attract.
The sun settled over the vast jungle, green and gold. He went back to the headman’s hut and he paid for another chicken for dinner and then drank the rest of the whisky with the headman. Afterwards the old man had a pipe of opium to help him sleep. Reyes lay on his bamboo mat in the darkness and listened to him snore. He lay in the darkness, staring into the rafters, and wondered what the next day would bring.
Chapter 28
Tou didn’t say much but he could not seem to stop smiling. The fact that he might be about to get himself killed amused him no end. They set off at first light, just as the women were heading back to the fields to collect the new opium before it spoiled in the sun.
Steam rose from their backs and his cotton drill shirt was soon soaked through. After an hour they stopped to get water from a stream and Tou made him a cup from a piece of bamboo.
The jungle closed in around them, dark and brooding, the sky blotted out by the jungle canopy. Somehow Tou knew which way to go, sometimes using his machete to cut a way through the undergrowth. They were either climbing or hacking their way downhill, but the boy had the lungs of a mountain goat and Reyes struggled to keep up. Occasionally they reached a ridgeline and Reyes was afforded a brief glimpse of the vast forest and then they plunged on again.
Reyes said if they didn’t slow down he was going to die. Tou just smiled.
By his watch they’d been walking for about three hours when Reyes heard a sharp metallic click very close by and he saw Tou freeze. Soldiers in jungle greens and forage caps appeared from nowhere, holding M-16s. Pathet Lao.
They looked very young and very nervous. Reyes supposed they were siclo drivers or rice farmers no more than a year ago and they didn’t have a clue what they’re doing. They looked as scared as he was. There were no more than a dozen of them but they were all shouting at once, telling them to get on the ground and Tou shouted back, saying they were friends, they were unarmed.
Reyes was wrestled to the ground and kicked. This had happened to him before, so he held his hands up in the air and didn’t resist. He didn’t want to spook them. They had Tou on the ground as well, he was still smiling, and he caught his eye and winked at him and Tou winked back. The chief was right. The kid was all right.
They tied their hands behind their backs and searched them. Reyes tried to work out who was their commander, saw one of them searching his knapsack, he was older than the others—he had a bandana and carried a pistol instead of a rifle. He kept shouting the word ‘spy’ at Tou and Tou shouted back, “No, not spy, friend.”
He kept quiet. It wasn’t the time for talking just yet. They had to get these guys calm again, let them take charge. They didn’t want any guns going off by accident; it was the sort of thing that could happen when young men got excited.
If they were still alive in ten minutes, they probably had a fair chance.
They were dragged into a seated position, and the guy with the bandana pulled the papers from his shirt pocket. It was his accreditation papers showing he was a journalist for Time magazine, fakes Buzz had given to him before he left Saigon. He studied them as if he knew what they were, even though he was trying to read them upside down.
This isn’t the guy you have to talk to, Reyes thought. Or at least I hope not. He looks at the papers as if he knows what they are, pretending to be a lot smarter than he is. Last year he would have been riding me around Vientiane in his cyclopousse. Now he got to kick a white guy around. I just made his day.
Reyes followed most of the conversation between him and Tou. He wanted to know what they were doing here, and Tou told him Reyes was a writer with a big magazine and he wanted to do a story about the Pathet Lao and how they were beating the Americans. The guy clearly didn’t know what to make of it. When you can’t read, what the hell is a journalist? But he liked being important enough to have an American prisoner.
Reyes looked back at Tou who gave him yet another smile. Things were going well. They hadn’t been shot yet. Things could only get better from here.
Chapter 29
There were no more than a dozen huts in the clearing, surrounded by dense jungle. Reyes imagined you could fly right over the top of them and not see them from the air. They were brought in at gunpoint and some women and children came out to stare. The guy in the bandana strutted along in front of them as if he was bringing in Richard Nixon himself.
He guessed this was a big moment for them. Once they were at the forefront of the fighting, but now the NVA had taken over the pursuit of the war. It must rankle with them, Reyes thought. They were wild cards, like the Viet Cong, an irritation in Hanoi and Beijing now the war was swinging their way.
They were led to a hut at the edge of the compound. Two men with M-16s stood guard outside. They were shoved inside and a bar was thrown over the door.
Reyes rolled onto his back. So far things had gone much as he had expected. He waited for his eyes to get accustomed to the dark. There was an overpowering smell from the pigs rooting around underneath the hut. “Are you all right?” he asked Tou.
The boy said he was, but his wrists were hurting where they had tied the ropes too tight.
Reyes sat up. He could make out a pile of rags in the corner and slowly the rags sat up and stared back. He realized there was someone else sharing their five-star accommodation.
“Hello, Connor,” Reyes said.
“Reyes? Is that you? What the fuck?”
“This is my pal, Tou. He doesn’t speak any English, but he says he’s pleased to meet you. We were passing by and we thought we’d drop in.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I heard what happened to you and I had an ugly guess that they hadn’t killed you yet. Seems I was right.”
“Have you brought help?”
“No, there’s just me and Tou. How are you doing?”
“I don’t understand.” His voice cracked. “Jesus. I don’t want to die, Reyes.”
“You’re not going to die,” Reyes said, though that remained to be seen. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
“How?”
“Well, I haven’t worked that out yet.”
“Did the Embassy send you?”
“No, the Embassy doesn’t give a hot goddamn about you, Connor. You got to admit, you haven’t exactly charmed anyone down there. Now how the hell did you get into this mess?”
“I heard about the CIA and their guns for opium program up here. I wanted to see it for myself.”
“Did you have a guide?”
“He tried to run and they shot him.”
“Well, hang in there, Connor, I have a few plays up my sleeve. Are you all right?”
“I don’t think my hand’s too good. I think it’s infected. It feels like it’s the size of Japan.”
So that’s what I can smell, Reyes thought, it’s not just the pigs. “It’s going to be all right,” Reyes said with a lot more confidence than he felt.
He didn’t know how to feel about things. He was glad he had found him, for his conscience’s sake; but now, even if they made it out alive, Magdalena still had a husband. Still, that was a problem for another day. First, he had to try to sweet talk his way out of this.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” Connor said.
“Your wife ask
ed me to find you.”
“Magdalena? Why did you agree to do a damn fool thing like that?”
“I like you.”
“You don’t give a damn about me. Stop fucking with me, Reyes, and tell me the truth.”
They heard a commotion outside, someone shouting orders, and the door was thrown open. The sunlight hurt his eyes and Reyes had to squint to see what was happening. An angry little man with a potbelly marched in and started shouting some questions at Tou. He guessed their visitor was the group’s commander, he looked like he was in his forties or fifties and he wasn’t armed. He pointed his finger at Reyes and then turned and walked out again.
“What did he say?” Connor asked him.
“He called me a big ape,” Reyes said. “Then he threatened to shoot us.”
Connor groaned. “Some rescue.”
“It’s all right,” Reyes said. “Look at it like the first bluff in a game of poker. If they were going to shoot us they would have shot us already. If they say they’re going to, he’s waiting for us to make them a better offer.”
“How do you figure that?”
“These guys didn’t become communists because they wanted a better life for everyone, they wanted a better life for themselves. I heard this guy was a professor once, at the university, he’s not some pig farmer. I figure he’ll be open to negotiation. I’ve been in and out of scrapes like this all my life, Connor.”
Connor believed him. It showed just how green he was.
Chapter 30
MAGDALENA
I stood under the shower, wondered where he was, what he was doing. Was there some way I could have stopped either of them from leaving? They were both headstrong men, I had done my best to talk sense into them, but what else could I have done?
Every possible scenario ran through my head: what if he found Connor, what if he didn’t? I even thought about what I would do if Connor came back and Reyes didn’t.
I knew I couldn’t stay married to him now, no matter what happened. Perhaps it was true you only really loved anyone once in your life. Connor had been my compromise with life; I couldn’t keep up the sham anymore.
I walked out of the shower still drying myself with the towel. Angel was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, smoking a cigar. He smiled. “Hey, baby. You are looking really fine. Look as good as you did when you were eighteen.”
I wrapped the towel around me as best as I could and tried to recover. “How did you get in here?”
“How can you ask me that question, baby? You still don’t realize who the fuck I am, do you? I go anywhere I want these days.”
He drew on the cigar and looked at me slit-eyed through the smoke. “I hear your husband’s dead. I warned him, you warned him. What you gonna do? You can’t help some people.”
“What do you want, Angel?”
“I came to commiserate, like friends do. What are you going to do now? Widow at your age, it’s not right.”
“I’ll get by.”
“You never had kids. Now why is that?”
“How is that any of your business?”
“See, I look at Esme and me, we got four kids now, things are pretty good for her. Italian girls understand about what men need, they know how to make a marriage work. She gave me three good boys and a baby girl and no trouble. She didn’t mind about you, not really. I could have set you up for the rest of your life, pink Caddy, apartment overlooking the beach, all the luxuries that come from being married to a rich, successful guy and none of the downside, no stretchmarks, no extra pounds, no babies squawking around. You ever think about that?”
“Not once.”
“Yeah? Maybe you should think about it, because where are you now? Stuck here in this hotel room in this shithole, your husband...well he ain’t coming back. You’re thirty years old already and what are you going to do?”
“I’ll be just fine, Angel. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“Well I hope this husband of yours had good life insurance. You don’t want to end up back in the diner. Could have been a movie star once. What happened with that? You never could take a break, huh?”
“Anything else you want to say before you leave?”
“I want a favor. You owe me favors.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You forgotten about Miami already?”
“You were the one who ruined my movie career.”
He made a face. “I wouldn’t have hurt you, you know that. Don’t be stupid.”
“Get out of here.”
He drew on the cigar, flicked the ash on the carpet. “Reyes has something I want. I know he’s lying to me and I want you to find out the truth. If you don’t, I’ll kill him, and I know you like him better alive, isn’t that right?”
“Go ahead and kill him. If you can find him.” For the first time he didn’t look so cocksure of himself. At last: something he didn’t know. “He’s left Saigon.”
“He’s fucking what?”
“Didn’t you know? He’s gone back to America.”
“You better not be lying to me!”
“Or what? You just said you’d never hurt me.”
“I fucking lied.” He jumped up and ripped the towel off me. He grabbed me by the throat and pressed me naked against the wall. “You let me down once, I let it go. I don’t do favors a second time.”
“You’re hurting me.”
“This ain’t nothing yet. Where’s he gone?”
“I don’t know.”
He kissed me hard, bruising my lips. When he finally pulled away he drew back his hand and slapped me. Angel, he was my beautiful boy once. “I’ll fucking kill both of you if I don’t get back what’s mine,” he shouted and walked out.
Chapter 31
REYES
Pot Belly sat on a bamboo mat in the middle of what looked to be their parade ground. He had a wispy beard like Ho Chi Minh and John Lennon glasses. He had it all going on, this guy, and straight away Reyes figured he knew what he wanted. He saw the chink of light he was looking for.
They were led out, single file, guns trained at their heads. He got his first look at Connor in the light and it wasn’t encouraging. He had several days of stubble and his face was a mess from a fresh beating. The fingertips protruding from the filthy bandages on his right hand were swollen and red. He looked feverish and stumbled every few steps. He needed a hospital.
Pot Belly looked at Tou and told him to tell the American spies that he was going to shoot them.
“We’re not spies, sir,” Reyes said before Tou could answer. “I’m a journalist for a big American magazine and he’s my guide. The man you have beaten is my colleague. Why would you do such a thing? It’s uncivilized. I thought only Americans abused their prisoners.”
This shook them up. They all started talking at once. He must be a spy one of them said, why else would he know how to speak our language.
Besides, what were they doing so close to our camp if they’re not spies?
Reyes started talking over the top of them. “My brother is married to a Hmong woman who came to America,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. I want to tell your side of the story. Look in the pocket of my backpack if you don’t believe me. I want to show the world the Pathet Lao’s brave struggle for freedom.”
Pot Belly told one of his soldiers to fetch the backpack. When they brought it back he emptied out the contents onto the bamboo mat in front of him. He picked up the crumpled back issue of Time magazine and stared at it like he was holding a sacred relic. The communists might hate Americans, Reyes thought, but everyone loves Marilyn Monroe. He had brought his 1959 edition with a picture of her on the cover.
The mood changed almost at once. Pot Belly pointed to her breasts and chuckled. Several of his soldiers smiled along.
“I write for this magazine,” Reyes said. “In America I am a very important man.”
Pot Belly picked up his accreditation and stared at it. If he really was a university pro
fessor, he knew what a writer was. For the first time he looked a little less sure of himself. Then he found the photograph of him from Palm Springs back in the early sixties, he was in the back of a large group of people behind Marilyn and Frank.
They all stared and pointed over Pot Belly’s shoulder.
“Do you know Marilyn Monroe?” Pot Belly asked.
“Yes I do, sir. I took her out on a date a couple of times.”
Pot Belly made a circle with the thumb and index finger of his left hand and used the index finger of his other hand to make the universal signal for intercourse.
“Three times,” Reyes said.
“What was she like?”
Reyes leaned towards him and grinned, like he was about to tell a dirty joke in mixed company. “She’s not really a blonde,” he said.
Pot Belly liked that. He repeated the joke to his men and took credit for it. Reyes turned to Connor. “Look at that. There’s Jack Kennedy, Bobbo Salvatore and Jack Ruby in that photograph but the only one he recognizes is Marilyn Monroe.”
“That photograph must be worth a fucking fortune,” Connor said.
“I got a feeling it’s going towards part of your ransom.”
Pot Belly flicked through the rest of the pages of the magazine and now everyone was straining for a look, a couple of them even put down their guns so they could get closer.
“We could walk out of here right now and they wouldn’t notice,” Connor said. ‘Is it true, by the way?”
“Is what true?”
“Did you really sleep with her?”
“You’d love to know, wouldn’t you, Connor?”
“What were you doing in the photograph?”
“I got invited out to a few of Frank’s parties at Palm Springs.”
“How did you that happen?”
Saigon Wife Page 11
