The Reeducation of Cherry Truong Read Online Free PDF Page A

their family gone?
    Tham calls out to Lum from upstairs. She says his name playfully, but the certainty in her voice lingers. Cherry asks to borrow Lum’s cell phone and steps outside, where several crew members are busy watering the thirsty, drooping rosebushes.
    â€œThis call is expensive,” her mother says when she hears Cherry’s voice.
    â€œIt won’t take long,” Cherry says. “I’m staying here.”
    â€œStaying where? What are you talking about?”
    â€œHere, Vietnam,” she says, struggling not to stammer. “I’m going to defer medical school for a year. I want to live here with Lum for a while. I need some time to think.”
    Cherry knows her mother is no longer confused because there is a cool silence on the line. She presses her ear into Lum’s cell phone, but there is only transpacific static.
    â€œYou did this on purpose,” she finally says.
    â€œMom—”
    â€œYou wanted to humiliate me.”
    â€œWhat does this have to do with you?”
    â€œDon’t be stupid. Everything you do is because of me.” She is yelling. Cherry holds the phone away from her ear. “We sent your brother away to protect your future. Daddy made me give him up for you.”
    â€œThat’s not true.”
    â€œWhat do you think you’re going to do there?”
    Cherry’s head feels like it’s spinning. “I’m not sure yet.”
    â€œNot sure yet?” her mother repeats mockingly. “You think you can live off your brother and the Trans’ hospitality forever?”
    â€œI’ll get a job.”
    â€œYou? You’ve never worked a day in your life, all so you could study.”
    â€œI’m hanging up,” Cherry warned.
    â€œI made this mistake,” she says. “I thought I was so smart and that is how I ended up with your father.”
    â€œMom.”
    â€œYou watch,” she says. “You’ll regret this, too.”
    Cherry closes the phone. A few seconds later, the phone shakes in her hand. Her parents’ number appears on the caller ID. She watches it vibrate several times before it clicks over to voice mail. The phone is silent, recording her mother’s message, but Cherry can imagine the words.

 
    1980
    Cuc Bui
Paris, France
    â€¦ Do you remember that fisherman’s pathetic map? It was so old and tattered. He got it wet several times until Cambodia became Vietnam, and then all the countries bled into the China Sea. It wasn’t helping anyway. We couldn’t see anything but water. We still blamed him, nonetheless.
    You looked so ill during the boat ride. There weren’t enough rations, and you kept giving the sardines to the children so they wouldn’t starve. If I had known how much you would suffer, I wouldn’t have insisted that you come with us. I hope you believe it was worth it. I think it was.…
    Hung Truong
    Pulau Bidong, Malaysia

 
    Chapter One
    HOA
    P ULAU B IDONG , M ALAYSIA , 1979
    Hoa struggled to ignore him, her eyes concentrating on the damp towel hanging in front of her, her movements quick and methodical. It was impossible: Bac Nhut was not asleep, he was watching her. Hoa had caught the old man’s eyes fluttering as she adjusted her canvas partition, his mouth too delicately closed, his head conveniently propped in her direction. Their families and neighbors were away at the mess hall for lunch, leaving the old pervert free to leer without witnesses.
    She was not afraid of her neighbor, only repulsed. Hoa felt confident she could defend herself from his thin, weak limbs if he dared touch her. Sometimes she wished he would—her desire to strike him, to expose his depravity, overwhelmed her usually complacent nature. For weeks, Bac Nhut pretended to nap in his shanty when Hoa returned from bathing, even though she altered her shower time every day. Revolting. Back in Vietnam, she’d tell her husband. No, she