On the river a caravan of five barges laden with tons of rice cut slowly through the chalky water, pulled along by a creaky old steamer. A family sat on the steamer’s fantail, eating breakfast as that day’s laundry flapped above their heads like circus pennants. Little boats cut up and down the river, powered by long-stemmed outboard motors. At the dock just below them, the Riverside Hotel’s ferry was loading up for its fifteen-minute journey upriver to the famed Oriental pier. And all along the river, as far as they could see, clusters of tall, modern buildings jutted up against a crisp blue sky.

“Welcome to paradise,” he said dryly, standing next to her. “The river is polluted, and there’s so much chlorine in the swimming pool that it will flake your skin.”

“But look at the buildings and the boats and the temples!” she said. “They are glorious, Cong Ly. New and shiny, so modern! And the people seem so happy, not like Viet Nam!”

He put a hand on her shoulder, amused. “I think you should give it at least another day.”

One day in Bangkok had created in Van’s mind a fanciful, even poetic vision of another world. Despite its dirt and traffic, the city’s pleasures and promises had grabbed her like a vise from the moment she exited the aircraft. “I don’t ever want to leave this place.”

He chuckled cynically. “And she hasn’t even seen Hong Kong.”

“Is it better?”

“That depends on what you’re looking for. It’s thick with buildings, crammed with people. But they live far better.” His arm swept before him in an arc as he spoke. “If this were Hong Kong we would be looking out at the harbor into the sea. Ships of all sizes. Mountains over there. Narrow streets packed with shops that make Bangkok look like—like a starving stepsister.”

Her eyes were transfixed with the magic of these new and sudden possibilities. “Then I want to go there too. Let’s go!”

“You would need a new visa.”

“I could get one! You could pay the bribe at the Vietnamese embassy here, Cong Ly! Everything is possible with the bribe. Ca phe ca phao!”

He shook his head. “Not very likely. Anyway, I don’t want to go to Hong Kong. I don’t even want to be in Bangkok any longer than I have to. I have a job to do, Van.”

She gave him a look that bordered on amazement. “You would rather be in Viet Nam than here, I think?”

“Actually, yes.”

“Why?”

He laughed. The Why thing again. “Why do fools fall in love?”

“I don’t understand you.”

“In a world of five billion people, what makes two people develop the chemistry that causes them to single each other out and fall in love, Van?”