Living in the Highest –Go Van Le Story

12 Nov

Posted by: ArTanGeL / Category: Poems & Stories

by: Mariko

How could he have failed his country? How could he have failed his family? These thoughts kept going over and over his head as the ship was moving away from the shore. This is gonna be the last time that he will see this shore wherein his forefather, great-grandfather, grandfather, uncles and every forebears that he had fought to gain freedom of oppression from all the enemies of their land. How sad,he thought..He looked at his wife sitting in one corner huddled like a lost child. She was able to salvage at least their valet containing jewelries and a meager amount from the sale of his tanneries to a communist businessman a year before. Life was good way back then. Business was booming. His small packing and canning business was thriving. Thanks to the Army. When supplies for their american armies comrade ran out, the South Vietnamese Army would go to his warehouse and pay him good dollars for all his produce; and in the event, he became a symphatizer and a protector of his beloved Vietnam. For all it was worth, they wouldnt surrender South Vietnam to the Vietcongs without a fight. They would have to kill them first.

And kill them, they did..His two aunts and uncle living in the border were shot by the NLF. They were told to run and save their life..which they did and in the process were executed. When Le heard that the Vietcongs were preparing to take over South Vietnam in 1974, he began to make preparations to escape the country. He knew that if he stayed, he and his immediate family will be persecuted by the enemy. He arranged for his son to be repatriated ahead of him and his wife through an Army commander friend of his. He lost contact with his friend and didnt know where his son was.

He was standing at the ship’s railing looking out to the sea. He was feeling depressed and hopeless. Whats gonna happen to them in the US? He cannot even speak english and he did not know a single soul in there. When he paid for his and his wife’s passage on this ship, he was told that the moment they step on the US land, they’d be brief by the government and will be referred to the social service and after that, they’re gonna be on their own. It made him feeling restless and sleepless. He turned to look at his wife beside him. She was holding the bible and mouthing “Dont worry Le, God is gonna take care of us”. But those words did not even register. In his mind, he was thinking of the vast challenge ahead. He’s tired, and he thought “What If I’d just jump from this ship?”. He started to walk towards the edge and look on the waters.

After the ship docked, everything was a blur to Le. He was asked by the authorities for his and his families passport and a letter by his commander friend affirming their person. He was later escorted to a social service office and was accompanied by a very friendly and welcoming officer and were taken to see a doctor. They were pronounced healthy except for a little form of malnourishment which they got because of all the hardships that they had to face before boarding the ship and while on-board.

They were interviewed and asked lotta questions ( they were helped by a vietnamese interpreter ) and were sitting at one of the cells of the bureau when they were summoned to see somebody. They were out of the door and were shown a couple whom they thought they knew. They looked familiar to him but…he couldnt placed the faces. couldnt remember, unless “Holy Christ!..he couldnt be!!” Trang, one his grandfather’s brother who were trying to convince him to leave Vietnam seven years ago. He looked old and frail but healthy and smiling. He ran and hugged him, they were both crying like children. just couldnt stop themselves.

After getting clearance from the social service, and chatting with his grandfather for a bit in between sobs, they went to his gramps place. It was not big, but he owns the house. He was able to buy himself a bakery at one of the busiest mall in his local area and asked Le and his wife if they wanna work there. Of course Le accepted. Trang is family and they need a job to survive in America and what good place to start than with a relative.

Le and his wife decided to live at the back of Trang’s Bakery. There’s a small empty storage room in there where he and his wife could sleep but it has no washroom. There was an adjacent washroom to the bakery so everytime they need to use it to take a bath or just relieve themselves, they would just go there. Le made a plan to save all of his and his wife’s income by not renting a place of their own for now. If he will rent, all of their earnings will go to their daily maintenance aside from the fact that he has to buy furnitures and vehicle for the two of them. They will be paid 17 dollars each per day and he was calculating in his head. In five years, if he will scrimp and save, he’ll be able to save 50,000 dollars and will be able to buy a small business just like his grandfather. He will not be buying clothes for now because his uncles has a lot of hand-me-downs for him and her and that will be enough until their lives get better. Now and again and especially at night, bits and pieces of his life in Vietnam would flash in his head..The opulent life, the money, the business,his farmlands..ahhh his farmlands..he still has the deed for it..but then he would finally go back to reality..This is it, he thought..I have to make it here or break it..but breaking it was not a choice..

The couple would just eat leftovers from the bakery and at nights, would sleep at the small storage room that Trang had not been using for years. They put in a second hand bed they bought from the thrift shop nearby and a small dresser where they could stash in their meager belongings. Some pictures of his son and his brothers and sisters, some deeds of the lands that they once owned in Vietnam and documents pertaining to their personal identities. On Sundays, they would attend the local Baptist Church and on Mondays thru saturdays, they worked at the bakery. Those were the routines of the Ngo’s and little did they know that almost three years had passed and they had saved a little bit of money.

One day, his grandfather had a heart attack at 71 years old. He couldnt recover from it so the family decided to sell the Bakery. Le loved working on it and thought, whats gonna happened to them now? Trang was selling it for 90 grand and as much as he wanna buy it, he couldnt..He only saved 35 grand. However, being a savvy businessman that he was, he negotiated to buy the bakery from his grandfather and agreed to pay his balance monthly. Without hesitation, his grandfather agreed and Le now owns the Bakery.

That Sunday, he kneel down on the church pews and thanked God. HE did not forget him and his wife after all.. A tear fell while he silently prayed and remembered Psalm 23..The Lord sheperded him and his wife and he did not want any…and he will dwell in the House of the Lord forever..That Sunday, they stayed longer in the church and petition God for his Son..Every day and night that they were here, he had been praying for him..He knows that God is looking after him too and he has faith that one day, they’re going to be reunited again.

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