She had tried to tame him with her biscuits and tea, her dainty cups and saucers. Instead, they crumbled under his touch. She showed him photos of children he didn’t recognize. It was yet another life where he would have to amputate a part of himself to survive. He was already a man with only nine fingers and nine toes. He was incapable of being retrained and retamed and knew it. He didn’t want to disappoint her anymore than he already had. She had such big dreams for him. He had touched her hope on his fingertips. The metal shavings of the brand new key she had made for his arrival flaked like dust to the ground. So he placed the key on the kitchen counter. He closed the door behind him and set out for the streets.

After what he’s lived through, I don’t blame him.

Except for the nights, he chokes my dreams and I can’t move.

Except for the evenings, I seek him in other men.

Except for the man I foolishly hope to see in you.

The psychic said my husband and son from a past life will be born to me in this life. They were warriors who died in battle. The psychic was close but not entirely right. I was conceived in warfare, raised in a refugee camp, and came up in an urban combat zone. I am a soldier. I am a survivor. Ba isn’t dead. He is only wounded. You and me baby boy, together will be a we, the search party reunited to find him.

RELIEF

RELIEF

My mom and I return to Vietnam for the first time in seventeen years to see Baby Boy. He’s my mom’s niece’s two-year-old son. I don’t know what that makes him to me. Just that he’s a baby that can supposedly read and because of this everyone thinks he’s a miracle. Some even believe that he could be a reincarnated holy person.

My mom reminds me, “He’s the most famous person in our entire family. Baby Boy’s been on Vietnam’s version of Entertainment Tonight. They’ve dubbed him Buddha Baby.” She used to swear that she would never return as long as the country was still under Communist rule. In the end, it only took a celebrity, which says something about how American even she’s become.