Drunken Love, Que Son [jenna bush book club TXT] 📗

It took Adam a few days to re-adjust himself to the environment. For the first few days, he felt as if he was floating in the air: people and things around him seemed surreal. Twelve years in America had really did damage to his memories of home: he felt extremely difficult when trying to cross the streets which were choked with motorcycle traffic. The way a waitress served him in a coffee shop fascinated him: she handed to him all he requested with both hands and with her head slightly bowed, in a most respectful manner. You don’t find that in New York. And the language the people spoke delighted him when he listened. And the way people looked: they were so raw, especially the laborers, they were so lean there seemed not to be an ounce of fat on their body, it was all meat and bone and skin. But somehow Adam found that nothing much had changed. The streets, the houses, the corners, the river banks, and the trees were all the same--only the people were older. It was a world that almost had nothing resembling America, except that here lived people too.

After visiting the relatives as required by courtesy Adam began to meet his old friends and they had a wild time together. Mostly what they did was getting drunk and fooling around with the prostitutes. One night he went to one of his friends' house. The friend wasn't home and he waited and half an hour later the friend came back and they went out. They wandered the dark streets for a while then went into a restaurant and drank a lot of beer. At midnight he and the friend left the restaurant and wandered around some more, talking about the old times when they were in high school together. At a corner they stopped by a cigarette stall to buy some smoke. There were two women sitting behind the stall and the small oil lamp was not bright enough for Adam to see their faces clearly. It was pitch dark. There was no moon and no stars. And the street was deserted. Hearing the women's voices, Adam knew that they were young. One of them suggested that they spend some times together. They bargained and quickly agreed on a price. He went with the skinny girl. He and the girl climbed a wooden staircase to a small room that looked like an attic. It was hot. There was no candles or no oil lamps for them to see each other clearly, but he could see vaguely the form of the woman’s body. She was wearing a white silk pajama and she spoke with the Hue accent, the same as his. Her lips were blood red and her eyes were large. She took his hand and led Adam to a bamboo bed, then she went to the window and drew the curtain. Then she lied down on the bed that groaned under her weight and slowly took off her pajama. It was an ivory white body She whispered, "C'mon." He undressed and lied down next to her. There seemed to be no air in the room. He felt suffocated. Then he turned and touched her skin. It was incredibly smooth and cool and it sent a shudder through his body. He was immediately aroused. The woman, lying on her side facing him, and without a word, took hold of his penis and stroke it gently and steadily. Drops of sweat were rolling down on her face and her breasts. He had an erection. She then spread her legs and took him in. It was a tight and well lubricated pussy. He thrust and pumped gently, trying to prolong the overwhelmingly good sensation that made him forget the oppressively hot night. His sweat fell on her white face and her small breasts. He did not do anything fancy. Just a methodical fuck. It was past midnight and it was so quiet, all he heard was the groaning of the bed and the lizards' wailing and his and the woman’s fast breathing. After about ten minute he ejaculated. She immediately grabbed his ass and kept him tightly inside her until the last drop of his semen was discharged and the erection was gone. He was sweating as if in a steam bath and it felt sticky when he rolled off her. "I made you come properly, didn’t I?" The woman said. Then put on her pajama, got off the bed, climbed through the window and quietly disappeared into the dark. Adam dressed, went downstairs and sat waiting for his friend. No one was watching the cigarette stall. He would not recognize the woman if I saw her again tomorrow morning. The city now was totally silent. It must be one in the morning.

Adam slept in his old room, and in the middle of the nights, he woke up and unable to go back to sleep because of the sweat that poured out of his body. So he lied there and remembered all that happened in the house between him and Eve. There was the staircase and the room of his sister where he had seen Eve for the first time. And there was the bed where he had lied sick with love for her and where he received the first token of love from her, a roasted corn. And there was the roof where he and Eve had their meetings at nights under the starry sky. And also there was the living room where one afternoon he held her hands and had the first sexual experience of his life. He must find her because the trip would be wasted if he did not. And besides, finding Eve was one of the things he had intended to do. He remembered her face, her hair, her small breasts, her ass, her walk, her smile--and how little she talked. All the memories of love came back to him and it saddened him. He thought if nothing had happened, she would be his wife now and they would have had many children and would probably be happy together.

One morning Adam asked his sister in law about Eve but was told that she was no longer in the country. That she had left two years after Adam, now living in America--and married with two children. Adam felt like he had stepped on a banana peel and tripped when he heard this. What he had hoped to hear was Eve living somewhere in the country, perhaps still in Ca Mau. Eve was in America? And she had been there for many years? So she had been living under the same sky with him all this time--and no one told him. He felt betrayed--and bitter. The sister said that the reason Adam had not been informed of Eve's situation was that nobody knew where he was all those years. Adam did not ask any further questions. It was over. The sister then showed him pictures of Eve's days in Ca Mau after he had left. He looked at the old black and white pictures of that familiar face, the face that he loved and had hoped to find again. One picture showed Eve in a profile shot, with beautiful proportionate features, but her eyes looked sad. She was looking into the distance as if she was waiting, expecting something. The sister then showed him pictures of her wedding with David, taken in San Jose. She looked strange in these color pictures. The layers of makeup made her an unrecognizable person to him, even though the main features of her face were still there. And when Adam looked at the groom, he was disappointed. How could a pretty woman like her married such a man? He had a fat face, all red, a protruding big nose, and a small mouth. In other words, not a pleasant face to look at, according to conventional eyes, and did not look bright at all. But looks can be deceiving.

The days after that Adam went to the spots around the city where he had had his meetings with Eve when they were still together. Nothing had changed. The park by the river where he had his first rendezvous that summer night with her was still there with the same flower trees and the marble benches. He visited the corner where her grandfather’s house was in the center of the city, even the big tree was still there, and on the second floor of that house he recognized the veranda where he and Eve had sit next to one another for hours on many occasions. In fact, there was not a place in the city that did not remind him of Eve. And he felt sad. They were probably not meant to walk the road of life together. He tried to chase thoughts about her out of his mind. Eve in America all these years and he did not know. What the fuck.

One month later Adam returned to the US. He brought with him an old picture of Eve that his sister-in-law had given him. The day he was back to New York and saw Jane, they had a big fight in his apartment: she was mad because she thought while on the trip back to the village, he had cheated her, like most men would do in the absence of their wives. But after the ill feelings subsided, they made love.

Then one day about a month after the visit, Adam received a letter from Eve. He was surprised. He thought his sister-in-law must have leaked his address to her. In the letter, Eve explained that she got married because circumstances had forced her to, that before she married she believed Adam had been married too and forgotten about her. She then said how disappointed she was with her husband, David, who had turned into a gambler and an adulterer, and that she now lived for her two children only. She even gave him her phone number, and invited him to visit her family in San Jose. Adam was moved by the letter but was confused. She still remembered and thought about him, he thought.

Should he respond? He asked himself this question over and over and two days later, he called her. A male voice answered the phone, Adam thought it was Eve's husband and he asked for her and moments later he heard a female voice. It was not the voice of the Eve that he remembered. She sounded strange, speaking with a mixture of the Hue and southern accents, but Adam had no doubt that it was her. He could not describe his feeling the moment he heard her voice, but he knew it was confusion, and the first thing he said was "Is it you, Eve?" She said yes it was her, and seemed to recognize him immediately. In the background he heard the crying of children, and it was hard for them to hear each other.

The conversation was brief. Adam told her that he still loved her and wanted to reunite with her. Eve said she understood his feeling, and that she still loved him too, but did not know what to do. She said the burden on her shoulders were too great: she had two children and both parents to take care of, and she did not think she should transfer the responsibility to him because that would be unfair for him. Then she asked him about his situation. He told her he was still single but having a relationship, that his life had not been peaceful the day he came to the US. He added that he was shocked to find out Eve had been in the same country with him all these years. Eve again said she circumstances had forced her to choose another man, and it was too late