Chapter 2

“Then one day, the mighty Thunderbird appeared in the sky above the land inhabited by the Quileute people. A benevolent being of great power, the Thunderbird warned Whale not to interfere with the people under his protection. But Whale did not listen, and in his arrogance, continued to deprive the tribe of their livelihood, leaving them starving and miserable.

“Thunderbird saw what was happening below and it caused him great pain. So he swooped down from the sky above, diving toward the ocean with a speed so fast that it caused the very air to ripple around him. Thunderbird warned whale to never harass the people of the tribe again. And when Whale refused, Thunderbird fell upon him, and clutching Whale in his powerful talons, lifted him high into the air…

“The resulting tsunami was felt on both sides of the Pacific, and Whale never bothered the Quileute people again.”

I blinked my eyes. When Sally’s dad told one of his stories, it was like I was in a trance, and now that it was over, I was still shaking off the effects.

Sally nudged me. “You think you’re the Thunderbird, don’t you,” she whispered. “Billy Smith is Whale.”

“Are you staying for dinner, young lady?” Sally’s dad asked.

I looked at Sally. She nodded her head, so I did too.

“Desi, dear,” said Betty, tapping the back of Desi’s hand. “Please stop sampling the noodles and keep them in the bowl until we’re ready. It won’t be much longer.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Desi hung her head like a pouting child, but under the hair hanging in her face I could see a grin.

“Karin, would you give the broth another stir, please?” Betty said. “Then we can start assembling the bowls. Provided there are any noodles left.” She looked directly at Desi as she said this.

Karin and Desi had been visiting their former mistress’s home for many years of Tet holidays and had long ago mastered the assembly of the Mì Quảng bowls in preparation for the broth. They had had even mastered the technique of thinly slicing long slabs of mushroom caps to use in place of meat, putting a vegetarian twist on the traditional dish.

“Ready for the broth, Mistress.”

As it was every year, the final ladling of broth was done by Betty Nguyen. Originally, she had said it was so her girls would not risk burning their lovely bare bodies. But even now, with Karin and Desi clad in their aprons, Betty still ladled the broth. It was a tradition.

Rather than moving into the dining room, the three women pulled stools up around the great butcher block table, two of them in aprons, and one in a silk robe, for eating in the cozy kitchen had become a tradition as well. ‘Easier to get seconds,’ Desi had always said, but in truth it was just the way it had started so many years ago and there was no real desire from anyone to change things.

Betty Nguyen fetched a kettle from the stove and poured the hot water into each one of three antique tea cups. The water from the cups was then poured into the teapot. This was where the tea leaves steeped, and after a time the finished tea was poured into a tall, central cup she referred to as the soldier cup. From there it was finally redistributed back to the smaller, individual cups.

“ThÆ°Æ¡ng nhau múc bát chè xanh. Làm tô mì Quảng anh xÆ¡i cho cùng,” Betty said as she poured the tea.

“To love is to fill a cup with green tea and enjoy together with a bowl of Mì Quảng in each other’s company,” Desi and Karin translated.

“I’m so happy to see you girls, again,” Betty said. There was a small tear forming in the corner of her right eye as she said this, and she turned away for a moment to discretely wipe it away.

“It’s been too long, Mistress,” Desi said, for once being serious.

“Too long,” said Karin.

And for a time, the three women seemed to be doing exactly what was described in the traditional Vietnamese couplet—enjoying green tea and Mì Quảng in the loving comfort of each other’s company.

“Would anyone like seconds?” Betty asked.

Both Karin and Desi nodded enthusiastically.

“Tell us more about Sally,” Desi said, while the bowls were being prepared again.

“May I record, Mistress?”

“Of course, dear.” Betty Nguyen waved her hand in a dismissive gesture and smiled. “Though, you’ve probably heard the story twenty times by now, I’d think you’d have it memorized.”

Karin tapped the record/pause button on her phone, and then turned to inhaling the fragrant steam rising from the hearty soup that was set in front of her.

“Sally and I were best friends,” Betty said. “And, unfortunately, as I mentioned, that’s all we ever were. All the way through high school. I never knew how to tell her the way I felt about her. And she never said anything, so I figured that was all we’d ever be.

“I still thought about her. I wanted her to be more, but…” She sighed.

“I am Thunderbird,” I told myself as I marched toward the teenage boy beside the bleachers, standing with his back to me. “I am Thunderbird.”

The poor girl shrinking away from him was crying, so I assumed they were not having a friendly chat, or even a lover’s quarrel. This looked like something else—something more sinister.

“Leave her alone!” I shouted as I closed the distance.

He turned toward me, looked me up and down, and spat on the ground. “Or what?”

I balled my hands into fists. “Or I’ll make you sorry you didn’t.”

The girl was frozen. I could see her eyes darting back and forth, as if she didn’t know if she should believe that I could make good on my threat, or if she should just take her chances and try to make a run for it while I got my ass kicked.

“You and who else, wetback?”

“Jesus, you really are dumb.” I stood toe to toe with the mouth breather, looking up into his eyes, not flinching once. “You can’t even get your racial slurs right, can you? Now, get lost before I pop you one.”

I watched him hesitating, sizing me up. I think there were probably two thoughts going through his mind. One, is this a boy or a girl, because honestly I looked and dressed a little on the androgynous side during my teenage years. And two, if this is a girl, is it okay to hit her?

I used his moment of indecision to lay a gentle hand on the girl’s forearm and encourage her to move out of the way. That’s when he finally made up his mind. He took a swing at me.

I don’t know what he was thinking, or who he was used to fighting, if anyone, because he telegraphed his movement from a mile away and I easily stepped outside of his reach. While he was trying to come up with a plan B, I stepped in with three quick jabs to the stomach. And after he doubled over, I grabbed his head and slammed it into my knee.

I heard something crunch, and there was a lot of blood. I was pretty hopped up on adrenaline at that point. I got myself into a fighting stance, dancing around him, and tried to make myself look more formidable than what he wanted to deal with at the moment. But, I was ready to lay him out if he made a move, principal’s office be damned.

“You stupid bitch,” he said, as he backed away holding his nose against the crimson flow. “You better watch yourself. I ain’t done with you.”

He stared at me for a while as he backed slowly away. Then he turned and shuffled off the field.

“You okay?” I asked the girl.

“Yeah,” she said. “You?”

I am Thunderbird, I almost said, but didn’t. Instead I asked her if she wanted me to walk her home.

And that’s how I met Natalie.

“I know Natalie,” Sally said, when I told her the story later that evening. “She’s a good kid. Too shy though, never one to speak up for herself. I’m not surprised something like this happened.”

“Are you saying it was her fault?”

“No, not at all. I’m just saying she’s the kind of girl without a lot of friends. Like the wounded gazelle on the Serengeti. One look at her and you know all the lions see her as prey.”

“Is that another one of your dad’s sayings?”

Sally shook her head. “Nah. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Sunday nights at seven.”

I smiled. “We don’t have a television.”

“Natalie will be alright,” Sally said. “She’s got you to look after her now.”

And then Sally took my hand in hers and held it. I remember it as clear as yesterday. Right there at her family’s kitchen table, Sally Morning Sparrow held my hand and told me that Natalie had me now.

What does that mean? I remember thinking. Was Sally giving me up because Natalie needed me? Did she feel like she had to give me up? That I wanted her to?

Of course, I had never even told Sally the way I felt about her at that point. Too young, too stupid, I don’t know. I wondered for a long time after that moment if somehow she always knew, and just assumed that I did too. But things had lingered too long without saying, and when she saw that maybe someone else needed me too, that she was ready to step aside.

Man, that was a lot for my adolescent brain to handle. So I said nothing. I sat there at Sally’s kitchen table, holding her hand, and like an idiot, I said nothing. After a while I guess she got tired of waiting, so she let go of my hand and pushed her chair back.

“You coming over for dinner tomorrow?” she asked.

“My mom’s got the day off,” I said. “I should probably spend some time with her.”

“Okay. If you change your mind…”

I pushed my chair back and stood up. “I’ll let you know.”

“That part always makes me sad,” Desi said. “I always felt like you and Sally should have been together.”

“Well, we did cross paths several years later, after college. But she had moved on, had a family, even. We had been away from each other too long.” Betty laid her hand on Desi’s bare shoulder and rubbed back and forth a few times.

Karin wondered briefly if Betty was trying to comfort Desi, or herself.

“Besides,” Betty said, “If I had settled down with Sally, I never would have met you girls.”

Desi leaned her head on Betty’s arm and sighed. Karin stood up from her stool and moved over behind them, encircling them both in her arms.

“One should not dwell on the past, or the future, but keep the mind in the present,” Betty said. “And in the present I have you two, and that is all that I need.”

“Is that one of Sally’s dad’s quotes?” Desi asked.

“Buddha, actually. Paraphrased.” Betty’s lips stretched into a taut smile, and Karin hugged Desi and Betty a little tighter.

“Would anyone like a little dessert?” Betty finally asked.

“You made dessert?” Karin said.

“Not made, bought. I bought some ice cream. It was on special.” Betty shrugged as if that was enough to explain it all.

“So, you and Natalie had a bit of history too, if I remember.” Desi was prompting Betty back to the story as Betty headed for the freezer.

Karin tapped the record button again.

That afternoon was not the last time I walked Natalie home. At first, she offered to pay me. She said she’d buy my lunch everyday if I’d walk her home.

“I can buy my own lunch, thanks.” I didn’t tell her I was on Federal Free and Reduced.

“I feel like I owe you something, you know?” Natalie was fidgeting.

Natalie fidgeted a lot. I guess you could say she was a fidgety kind of girl. But I liked her anyway. She was quiet, and polite, and kind of cute in her own fidgety sort of way. If I wasn’t so hung up on how I blew it with Sally, I might have even told Natalie this.

“I walk to school with you, because there’s safety in numbers,” I said. “You remember what that mouth breather said. He said he was gonna get me. We’ll if that ever happens, you and me, we can take him on together.”

Natalie thought this over for a while, trying to add it all up, how she was going to come to my aid in a scuffle.

“You ever watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom?” I asked. “The lions only go after the ones that look weak. We just gotta look tough.”

Natalie smiled. I wasn’t sure how she was going to pull off looking tough, but my little pep talk seemed to perk her up. I felt a lot like Thunderbird.