Always the same threat now, Ruth going public, but he can’t imagine this in a newspaper: “Man Overcharges for Motel Room.”

Al puts out his cigarette. Slowly. He pushes his dog out of the way with his foot. He has a fifties hairstyle still. Ruth thinks he sprays it. Aurora swears he keeps a stash of Brilliantine behind the counter. He says, “This is why everyone here hates the hell out of you, Ruth.” But he goes back and gets the money for the little “gook foreigner.” His eyes reveal how much he dislikes her.

Lin looks at Ruth. Lin has a smile in her eye. She’s only heard a few women talk that strongly. At home they have other ways of getting what they want, not so direct. Ruth is dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. Women at home in Vietnam wear skirts and blouses these days, but it’s changing there, too. Ruth has brown strong arms, not at all dainty. She picks up Lin’s things. Lin, usually strong, carries the fishbowl gingerly and walks like she is once again a girl, her heart afraid, but also trusting this woman who is called Ruth.

Ruth stops at the door. “You know what they hate, Al? They hate that I am honest. They hate that I believe in truth. Ponder that awhile, why don’t you?” She lets the screen door slam.

There is something calm and steady about the woman with strong arms, and in spite of what she has said to the man, she has a gentle nature. Lin can see it in her warm dark eyes.

As they drive, Ruth smiles at Lin. “I see him in your face.” She also saw her once, in a dream, on his lap. She has seen her running about the green fields as a child. She has seen her surrounded by flowers without knowing the meaning of it, but she can smell them now, as if Lin’s skin is made of flowers. She has known Lin for a long time, in her dreams, even in brief waking moments, but she doesn’t tell Lin that. “You want to find your father.”

“Do you know where he is?”

She hands her the money Al returned. “Yes.”

She doesn’t say that he is a wounded man and you don’t ever know what you will find with him. She only says, “We’ll go there. I’ll take you.”

Lin looks at Ruth and thinks of her father and feels her heart beating quickly in her chest.

At the little house with flowers outside, Ruth and Aurora offer Lin fruit, bread, and tea. “Wait here! We’ll get your room ready. Eat. You must be hungry.”

The two women make up a bed for her in the back bedroom. “Oh my God,” says Aurora. “What do you think he’ll do?” She pats down the bed and turns down the sheet so that it is welcoming.

Ruth takes things out of two drawers. “I have no idea. He’ll probably deny everything. But isn’t it so strange how I always dreamed her?”