Drunken Love by Que Son (to read list TXT) 📖

was a beautiful afternoon, there was not a strand of cloud in the sky, and the water around the island was crystal clear and of a greenish color. The authority there sent some people out and with hand gestures, made the boatpeople understand that they were not allowed to come ashore, but they must sail on. So on they sailed. They were happy to see land, but disappointed after not allowed to come ashore. They continued the journey but now they sailed close to the shoreline. The boat's small engine was holding out fine. And the next morning, seeing signs of human on the far off beach, they headed toward land, and this time, the local authority let them step on shore. After three days being tossed around on the sea, it felt good to plant the feet again on firm ground. In this fishing village, people came out and looked at them curiously, and with hand signals, asked them if they had gold or watches to sell. And some people did exchange things. After resting for a few hours, they sailed on, and the next day arrived in another fishing village. It was new year's day, the year of the Pig. But there was little celebration in this village; the people here was so poor, they scrapped their living from the sea and the infertile land they lived on. There was an empty thatched hut on the beach and the village elders allowed the group to stay there. And they stayed for two days, until the traditional three-day new year celebration was over. During those two days, Adam and some of the young men wandered into the village to look around, and whenever they approached a house, people would immediately stop what they were doing and gather up whatever they had in the front yard and run into the house and close the door behind them. He wondered what they were afraid of. On the last day of their stay there, he went into the village with three others to look for fuel and fresh water. The village's elders understood what they needed and gave them water and fuel but would not accept payment. And they continued the journey.

 

On the sixth day, still going northeast, and in a blue and bright afternoon they suddenly saw empty Coke cans floating on the sea. Everyone was excited. The end of the journey might be near. And in fact, two hours after seeing the floating Coke cans, symbols of prosperity and capitalism, they sailed straight into the port of Macao, a Portuguese colony on the coast of China. The port city's coast guards sailed out to meet them and directed them into the harbor, and then without much fanfare and without much questioning, took them to a barrack right in the seaport. Everyone climbed off the boat elated. They saw signs of prosperity everywhere, they saw tall and colorful buildings in the distance, the flashing red and yellow and blue neon signs, the cleanliness, even the air felt fresher and freer. Everyone believed that they had reached their destination. That night they stayed in the barracks and took warm showers and had clean white towels and were even fed with fried chicken and rice that were delivered to them in white Styrofoam boxes; and that night they slept on nice firm wooden bed…with soft pillows. In the morning the officials told them that they had to sail on to Hong Kong, another port city not far away, where they would be accepted for temporary settlement. The guards inspected the boat for its seaworthiness then escorted them out of the harbor for about half an hour then signaled to them to sail in the direction of Hong Kong and one guard even shouted "Have a good trip!" as their patrol boat turned around to head back to Macao. After an hour, two Hong Kong police boats intercepted them and took them to a floating platform anchored in the middle of the harbor. From the platform, Adam could see the famed city’s skyline and he was fascinated. He had never seen a modern city; and in his mind, Hong Kong was what the rest of the world probably looked like. It was nothing like Da Nang, the city he had left. All the tall buildings of this city were skyscrapers of different heights and colors, and big colorful advertising signs decorated the top of the buildings. Officers then came onto the platform and asked each person about his identity and where they came from and entered the information into their notebooks. After staying on the platform for two days and being questioned repeatedly, they were taken to a big black warehouse on dry land, and there, people in uniforms asked them more questions and each person was photographed and issued an ID card. On the walls of the interrogation rooms, there were signs that read, "We want facts and only facts." But generally, the officials were nice and polite. They knew who these people were and the reasons they came, because Hong Kong had been dealing with escapees from Viet Nam for the last three or four years. Adam and the others were given clothes, their hairs were washed clean of lice, and the food was good. People laughed when the boat owner wondered what had happened to his boat.

 

The registration and interrogation took a week, and when it was completed, they were transferred to another shelter, a large camp inside the city where they would begin life as refugees, under the care of the United Nations. Now all was well, he and his brother wrote home to let the family know they were safe. He also wrote a letter to Eve, telling her that he missed her. The letter contained 25 words and he was drunk when he wrote it.

 

After settling down, Adam and the others walked the streets of the city to look for work, and there was no shortage of it. After a few months Adam even managed to open a bank account to keep money he earned from work. His brother also worked even though he was under-aged, and he stayed in the factory and only went to the camp on weekends to visit. Life in camp was all fun and fun. All camp residents were allowed to go out and work and required to pay a fee each month for garbage collection, water and electricity, and mail privilege. There was a UN Office in the camp whose function was to resettle the refugees in a third country, because life in Hong Kong was only temporary, and everyone must eventually go somewhere else to settle down once and for all. Anyone who had relatives in another country could apply for resettlement in that country. If not, an international charitable organization would settle them. Most ended up in America.

 

Adam had a friend already living in the US and he contacted that friend and six months later he and his brother were on their way there, under the sponsorship of the friend. They arrived in Houston one night, and while riding to his friend’s house from the airport, he looked out the window of the car and said to himself why was there so much darkness? He saw no houses and no people, only trees and bushes, and cars speeding like crazy on the wide highways. It was his first night in America--the long journey was over. But the future was a big question. He was twenty one years old, still too wild and too stupid.

 

Adam wrote to his family again to tell them that he had arrived in the US and all was well and his family should not worry about him and his brother. Then he plunged head first into the life in the new land.

 

After four months in Houston, Adam and his brother took a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia, and there he found new friends. The same shit happened: the substance abuse began again, only this time the alcohol and the drugs were plentiful and cheap. He found work in a factory, and every weekend he blew it all on drinks and marijuana after food and rent. He shared a one bed-room apartment with five other guys, all his age or younger and all were wild and horny and potheads and drunkards.

 

The apartment Adam and his brother lived in was in south Philadelphia. It looked out over rows of roofs under which lived all sort of welfare mothers and working class heroes: Italians, Latinos, Blacks, Asians...and others. The apartment had windows that provided views of the city skyline, which composed mostly of the center city's tall office buildings. Adam and his friends often traded racial insults with the young neighborhood Italians and got into fights with them. The fights were mostly fought with bottles throwing at each other from distances. He was once ambushed by two Italian guys but escaped unharmed. The Latinos dealed drugs. The Italians got drunk behind their doors; and being longtime residents they looked down on the newcomers whom they assumed didn’t know what this country was all about; and they decorated their windows and doors with all sorts of red-white-and-blue things during holidays to set themselves apart from the "aliens."

 

Adam and the guys he shared the apartment with were young and directionless. Five or six guys in their late teens or early twenties cramped in a small apartment and they slept on the bed, the couch, and the floor. They worked or went to school during weekdays, and partied all weekends. The Italian girls came to their places on weekends to participate in the booze and pot parties. Some of the girls were attractive, a few were barrels of fat and meat. And all got fucked.

 

One time a guy brought home a sexy Latino girl who couldn't talk. She could only utter a few words. Like when she was asked where she lived she pointed a finger in some direction and said, "Over there." Adam thought she was retarded. And the time she was there, and it was days, she just lied in bed with her legs spread, inviting any erected penis. Adam and his friends were all young and horny and they all had a good time fucking. The girl meanwhile wanted nothing in return. Not even beer or weed. Only food. Then she left, disappeared for a month then showed up again and started all over the whole fucking thing. This affair went on for almost a year. Then one day she left and never returned. A guy later reported that he found her dancing in a strip joint in North Philadelphia. Another guy said he saw her pushing a baby carriage on the street with a child that looked half Asian. Another thing Adam remembered about this girl was that she had a front tooth missing that made her smile funny.

 

For Adam and his friends, the weekend parties started promptly on Friday evenings at six when liquor would flow like a river and marijuana would burn like forest fire. Neighbors smelled the scent from the apartment and heard the music of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and the merry atmosphere and they came in to share the booze and the smoke and the fun, and those neighbors included horny white, Latino, Italian and black girls. It was a non-stop orgy every weekend and everyone was high and drunk and all fucked to their heart's content from Friday night to Sunday night. And while romp was raging inside the apartment, the winter grabbed the city with relentless cold and snow.

 

Adam did not think much about Eve in those days. He had too much distraction. But one day while intoxicated he received a letter from Eve. She wrote she missed him like crazy and wished one day they would meet again and she was sure about that--because the earth was round. Frantically, he wrote back telling her that that was it between them,