((Story Ten: for the Screen) (The Revenge of Zuxin and Ming))

Ton Sun Nhut Air Base

The Story

Zuxin and Ming are now alone in the house, and have a plan; it must be implemented in one day and evening. They've already sold Zuxin's house; the property has been sold to Mr. Jong, a week ago for $5000-dollars, and will become a boutique, the money being distributed, between the two girls. It will take place tomorrow, the 2nd of January, 1979, the second day of the New Year; people will be traveling back and forth across the boarder between Vietnam and Cambodia, soldiers as well as citizens of each country will be tired, excess work means less double checking identifications, for all the celebrations are over.

Mr. Jong, is a rich man that goes to the cloths shop where Zuxin works, and likes Zuxin, and he has offered to help her, and she has offered herself to him, if he takes them to Phnom Penh in his car, on the 2nd of January, and arranges passports, he will have a weekend with her at any hotel he wishes.

Zuxin's husband is now dead, and buried, yet she remains ambitious, as does Ming, they want to better themselves, and staying in Saigon, raising kids that say: "You aren't my mother, you can't tell us what to do (only feed us, bed us, and be our slaves)" and don't appreciate their labors, she can do without them or that. Selfish they are, and so, they do not plan on trying to change them for the next ten years. Ming, is always a charming and understanding companion, and does not drink like a lot of self pitied folks so because of hardships, and she'd be a much better accompanying person to end up with.

They were both born to dream of a better life, not necessarily money, but a better background than this, what they were enduring, not really living: meaning, being a slave to disparity, to Mr. Manh, and his future whims and Yoon (assistant to Nguyen Khoa, at the sanitary plant in Saigon, who took advantage of Ming also, although never Zuxin, for some odd reason, perhaps reprisal, yet it was stunning to Zuxin that she would take advantage of her friend. Ming had already told Zuxin, how her husband forced her into an affair on the side, and was sorry to have to tell her. But under the circumstances that was forgiven instantly. She did not add Yoon into her new plans, figuring his day would come, he would take another chance too many, they all think alike, she told Ming, they all feel they got one more chance before it catches up with them, and then when it does, they can't figure it out-judgment day.

And if they survive through it (so she continues to explain) they figure they will do it right next time, forgetting they were originally in the wrong, and they try it again, and get away with it, and then again, and that is that, they face death in the face, and plead, but death does not discriminate, they are left with only a reception afterwards and even then, the robber, the kidnapper, the thief, the killer, they all try to sneak through the back door into heaven. They no longer play the game, "I'd rather be in hell, than have to endure the rules of heaven." This has all changed, to God have mercy on my soul, but God looks at his deeds, and the one's he has wronged, and if you do not speak up on behalf of them, they fall, sink into the abyss, never to be seen, never to be heard of again, and to Zuxin and Ming, this was befitting.

This is what she had told Ming as they sit in the house, figuring out the plan of escape, dotting the 'i's' and crossing the 't's'.

Day of Emancipation

If you wait long enough, the day always comes. It is the day, and they talk in the morning, and separate themselves, getting the children ready to go visit there Aunt's place, they have told her in advance that they were coming early in the morning to do some shopping, and they are standing at the door, Zuxin and Ming look at each other, at the two wild boys, the kids paying them no attention whatsoever, which is normal for them anyhow, just taking in a deep breath, as if to say, let's get on with it. Alas, the show will change for their whole lives, hereafter.

Zuxin is now without the house, the kids, $5000, dollars in her purse, or half in her's and half in Ming's.

"So far so good," Zuxin says to Ming, you can hear the aunt in the kitchen as they walk away, moaning and complaining, "I hope your mother, or whoever you kids call her, comes early to pick you rug rats up."

Ly (short for lion), she has taken to drink, the old aunt, and loses patience easily, and you can see her through the window pouring a glass of sake (a glass of an alcoholic beverage made from rice; or simply rice wine). Her sister Qui (turtle) is Vang's husbands' mother, and Ly and Qui are sisters, Qui has passed on; Ly being the older sister and in her 60s.

It is Zuxin and Ming standing at the corner now a block from Ly-s home, a bag in each hand, a big gag, as if it is a shopping day, they do not want to be suspicious, more incognita you might say, incase they bump into someone. She sees which way the taxis are set, they cross the street so they can catch one going in the direction they want, she must risk Mr. Manh and his wife Si are sleeping, expects them to be at home sleeping this morning, it is 6:30 AM, and she has something nasty in store for them. The way she has it planned, they will not be able to escape, or even fight the forces off, or outrun them, a violent reaction from fear will be delivered, she wants to cleanse herself physically and mentally from this lonely part of her mind, the part her and Ming have been swimming in.

They meet, Thiea, Chiem, and Cham, called by Mr. Jong, Zuxin's friend, as the 'Brutes,' or paid killers. They are large, ugly, broad and deadly looking, strong as bulls. She hands them fifty-dollars each, and says, "You'll each get the other fifty when the job is done."

Now they are standing outside of Mr. Manh and his wife, Si's home, the day has come, and now the time, hour, they go through the locked doors, Ming and Zuxin watch, one of the three brutes stands out by the street, incase there is an onlooker, he can subdue him or her. Another stands by the door blocking Thiea, the one with a crowbar, prying the door open, ripping the hinges on the other side of the door loose so he can push the rest of the way with his body weight, and muscular force through the door, and its side hinges that hold aboard across the door, thus hindering some of the noise; it is all within three to four minutes time.

They all walk into the house, Ming looks at Zuxin, says "Graduation day has come...," Zuxin has now taken her plan to the second level, she is efficient if anything, she can't persuade Ming to wait out side the bedroom, Ming wants to be part of this ordeal, this oddity in the raw, this sin for the damned.

There is a chair in the bedroom; Ming sits at one end of it, and Zuxin on the other. The three men, stand to the side of the bed, she makes a face as she looks at Mr. Manh sleeping, and tells Ming "How can he sleep so sound, and be so dishonest, so without courage and character, no kindness in his bones, she, his wife must be of the same mold, like two peas in a pod, or if not, then she has been blindly in love for a long time, and going to suffer for it."

Perhaps she was trying to convince herself what was going to take place, and hopped it was authorized by God himself, or perhaps she was asking God to overlook it, and had a little part of Satan in her soul for the moment, whatever, her manner towards the two sleeping became unthinkable. She even declined to listens to the second self, hidden in that room somewhere deep in her mind. And then Mr. Manh woke up, seeing the three men standing, hovering over him, and was about to scream, next Thiea, told him not to, with a nine inch knife at his throat.

Then old man Manh looked at the two girls,

"I don't know what you are up to, but you'll pay for this!"

"We already have, now it's your turn, and your wife's," then she woke up: I think she was pretending to be sleeping, thought Zuxin, because she was not as startled as she should have been. "What is going on," she said looking at her husband dumbfounded.

"Be quiet," says Thiea, his friends looking at both of them, Si, in her forties, her husband in his fifties. She has a fairly decent shape, and face looks as if it has had the Paris treatment, smooth silk like skin for an older woman, not under fed or pale, but rich with color, and her bones strong, not weak like so many from lack of proper nourishment.

"Chiem, cover their mouths with their own socks," commanded Thiea, and he did what he was told, as they sat erect in bed, against the mahogany wooden back to the bed: "No veneration for you today Mr. Manh, and because of your moral and mental cruelness your wife will have to suffer the consequences, as you will soon find out."

And Cham tied both he and Si to the bed, to make them unmovable.

Ming gets up, and Zuxin follows, tells him, "You look afraid, Mr. Manh," although she would have liked to tell him more, time was of the essence and the brutes needed to get on with the show.

"He looks afraid," said Ming to Zuxin, "Just wait a minute, and we shall see just how afraid he really is."

Mr. Manh got a few words out under the sock tied around his mouth, Ming and Zuxin could hardly make it out, but they did, he said,

"You girls got warped brains, this is a scandal," and Zuxin, countered this with, "Not yet, just wait a minute, and those words will come true."

And then all three brutes left to go to the other side of the bed, Si was striped naked by them, "They are not going to kill you Si, just do what your husband has done to us...!" and her husband looked now terrified, the wife, simply looked at him, dismayed, as if he was removed from the marriage already.

"Si," said Ming, "the case against your husband has already been tried, please believe me, he will suffer more than you, just fall to sleep if you can, and dream of what you'd like to do with him after this ordeal."

Then the three brutes unclothed themselves, and for three hours raped Si, quietly, she remained through this hell, as if she had retired from life it self, as if she was going to be a well-do-widow. At the end of it, she was untied, told not to leave, if she did she was told they'd run after her with a knife.

Now the three brutes, got dressed, took the knife over to Mr. Manh (it was close to 10:00 AM, and they had to meet Mr. Jong at 11:00 to hightail it out of the city, but as she would have said: first things first.

The wife looked brazen and boldfaced at her husband. The vice was committed.

"You do not have to watch Si," said Ming, it is our party, and we do not intend to kill your husband."

"I think it might be better you do, if you do not intend to leave town, he is a bad one," Si says. Then cringes and whines, and says,

"Kill him for me!"

"No," said Zuxin, "that was never in our plans. And we must follow the plan."

Swifter than a hawk grabbing its pry, Thiea took his knife, and castrated Si's husband, laying the remains on the bed next to him.

"You look helpless Mr. Manh, and you should know the police will not save you, didn't and will not, you are damned today."

If anything, it was anger keeping the castrated quiet and possible revenge. And then all five of the assailants walked out of the bedroom Thiea giving the knife to Si, leaving Mr. Manh tied to the bed. And Mr. Jong was waiting across the street to take them to Cambodia: the last thing heard from Si's bedroom was her husband saying "Please don't kill me," then a sigh, and nothing else was heard. And the three brutes got their second fifty-dollars, and Jong, got more than what he bargained for in Cambodia.