Reunited After 25 Years 32

Andrea looked forward to dinner out with Anton all week. They hadn't gone out to dinner together in a long time, and she was thrilled that Anton had suggested it. However, when they got to the restaurant, she was puzzled when Anton requested a table for five.

"Another couple and their guest are joining us," he explained when he saw the puzzled expression on his wife's face.

They'd been seated less than five minutes when, to Andrea's consternation, Denny, Darya, and Fawn entered the restaurant and approached their table. She did her best to swallow her feelings as she pasted on a smile and greeted them.

"This was a great idea, Mom," said Denny. "We see so little of each other these days."

"I agree," said Fawn. "I have been here for all this time and have seen hardly anything at all of your lovely mother, Denny. A bit more of Dasha's father but still not very much."

"I think it is wonderful all five of us are having dinner together like the loving family we are," Darya added.

"And like I told you before, Fawn, I am more than happy to help you with the immigration process, green card, finding a job, anything at all. I just went through it myself so I know all about it," Anton told Fawn.

"Thank you very much! I am so happy I know you, Mr. Kolchin," Fawn replied.

Denny and Darya chattered throughout the meal about their classes, their jobs, and their friends. Fawn talked about her family and friends in Vietnam and her life there. Anton interjected a few words when appropriate. Andrea was silent for practically the entire time, an occasional tear dropping to her plate. Anton tried to draw her into the conversation several times but finally gave up.

As they were leaving the restaurant, a young couple walked in. The woman carried a beautiful baby girl who looked to be several months old. She wore a pink dress with ruffles and a matching hat and socks with tiny patent leather shoes.

"Oh, she's adorable!" Andrea exclaimed. "Can I hold her?"

The woman smiled and handed the baby to Andrea. The infant opened her blue eyes to see who was holding her but didn't cry.

"How old is she?" asked Andrea.

"Three months on Sunday," the baby's mother told her proudly.

"What's her name?"

"Caitlin Rose."

"Hi Caitlin!" Andrea cooed. Caitlin opened her mouth in a toothless grin. "Oh, you are so precious!" Andrea crowed. "Thank you so much," she added, handing Caitlin back to her smiling mother.

Anton was silent for most of the journey home, so much so that Andrea feared that he was angry at her, but when he finally spoke, he sounded not angry, but sad.

"She had a very hard life in Vietnam, you know," he told his wife.

"How do you know?" asked Andrea.

"She told me before, when you were not there," Anton replied. "Her family was very poor. Often they did not have enough to eat. Her mother had to sell her body sometimes just to have enough food. Other children made fun of Fawn for being half American. She was very lonely. Fawn wanted to become a scientist, but her mother could not afford to send her to school. She had to work as a waitress like her mother."

Then where did she get the money to come to America? Andrea wanted to ask but didn't. "You feel sorry for her."

"I know what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land," said Anton. "That is why I want to help her as much as I can."

"That baby sure was cute, wasn't she?" asked Andrea.

Anton sighed. "That was only time you looked happy tonight was when you held that baby."

The following afternoon, Andrea drove to the cemetery where Dennis was buried and walked to his grave, where she stood staring at the American flag atop it and the carved inscription. 'Loving son and husband.' "Ha!" she said bitterly, scooping up a handful of dirt and tossing it at the headstone.

"Why'd you have to do it, Dennis? Why?" she asked. "Just look at how badly things are messed up now, and it's all your fault!"

She sat at the base of the grave and sobbed until she could cry no more. Then she drove back home.

She walked into an empty house to find a note on the table.

Andrea,

Gone to help Fawn with paperwork. Back by dinnertime.

Love,

Anton