“’Mit, hello! No can do!” Bach said in English, smiling cheerfully, though she had no idea what she had just said.
But Smith seemed to understand that the little girl empathized with him. He patted her on the head and smiled down at her.
“Bye bye for now,” he said.
When she returned to the verandah, Bach saw Miss Trung across the hedge that separated their houses, out hanging clothes to dry while talking with someone.
“Well, he was full of sadness today so he left early. His close friend was killed in combat yesterday.”
She bent down to pick up more clothes.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” Miss Trung said suddenly. “Go away now. My nipples and your wife’s nipples look the same.”
It was Mr. Ba Ga she had been talking to, Bach realized now as she saw him walking away down the red dirt road. He was known as the most lustful person in the neighborhood.
Miss Trung continued hanging up the clothes. She sang to herself as she worked:
We had agreed to meet this afternoon
But you didn’t show up.
A gentle breeze cools my heart.
The sky is foggy—
or is it your burning cigarette that makes
the air turn smoggy?
How do you feel about standing me up?
You promised you would be there,
but you never showed up.
Someone wearing a blue shirt
is walking away into the night.…
Bach leaned her chin against her palm and sighed. Miss Trung’s singing sounded so melancholy. And Smith’s friend had been killed—no wonder he hadn’t brought her any candy this time.
Bach’s village was now called an American Service Hamlet because many of the homes there had rooms for rent. These rooms were usually occupied by young women who worked for the Americans. The biggest American employer was the Bien Hoa Airport, which was nearby. The American soldiers stationed there hired the young women to clean and do their laundry, and some of the women also offered a massage service.
All of the young women who rented rooms in Bach’s neighborhood worked as maids in the American offices. This included Miss Trung, Miss Xuan, Miss Hong, and Miss Tuyet. At the end of the day, they each brought home an American man. They’d spend a few intimate hours together behind closed doors; then the Americans drove away in Jeeps, headed back toward the airport. The girls would then joke around among themselves for a while or go outside to wash.
The people who lived in the American Service Hamlet hated the American soldiers and looked down on these girls, though they relied on them for the rent money. There were at least five households in the neighborhood that survived only on income from renting out rooms in their homes. Other people in the neighborhood profited from the girls as well. Mrs. Nam Bong provided a monthly meal service to Miss Trung and her girlfriends, who paid a full month in advance but often didn’t eat every meal, so Mrs. Nam Bong was able to make a decent profit. Ms. Xi, who had been a street cleaner before, got a janitorial job in an American office thanks to Miss Trung. She would pick out candy, canned food, newspapers, and books that the Americans had thrown away and sell them on the street to earn money to raise her son Teo, who didn’t have a father. And then there was Mr. Tam, the tuk-tuk driver, who hated Americans more than anyone else but still didn’t refuse his services to the girls who worked for them.
There were thousands of ways to hate the Americans and the girls who associated with them. It was a constant refrain among the older generation in the American Service Hamlet whenever the American soldiers came to look for the girls: “Damn it! They’re invading our country and they also get to have fun with our girls.” Or, “My gosh! The Americans stink like owls! I can smell them from all the way over here.” But the Americans just grinned. They had no idea what these local people were saying.
Meanwhile the children in the hamlet would chase after the soldiers, shouting things like, “Hello, Tom! No can do!” Sometimes the soldiers would give them candy. When the girls who worked for the Americans returned to their rented rooms, mischievous boys hiding up in the trees would use slingshots to shoot “bullets” of wadded paper at their buttocks.
The adults knew about the children’s behavior, but nobody yelled at them. Ms. Hai, who made a living selling cigarettes, said, “I have no pity for those girls. The kids are only punishing them for flirting with the Americans.” One time Ms. Xi argued back, saying, “But if the girls didn’t flirt with the Americans and bring them around, who would buy your cigarettes?” Then the two women got into a fight.
It seemed like the Americans were afraid of the young men who lived in the hamlet, especially the school dropouts, draft dodgers, and members of the local security militia. In the afternoons some of these men would get together to drink, use empty pots and pans as musical instruments, sing war songs, and taunt the American soldiers. Mr. Tinh, a leader of the security militia, said that he would never live under the same sky with the Americans because they had “stolen” Vietnamese girls. One time, Mr. Tinh and some other men from the hamlet beat up Tom and John, who were friends of Miss Hong and Miss Tuyet. The men put sacks over the heads of the two Americans and poured shrimp paste over them. But when Tom and John came back with their guns, the entire group ran away. Not long after that, both Tom and John were called up into combat. Miss Hong and Miss Tuyet soon found new American boyfriends.
Smith was also a target. One day a group of drunken men grabbed Smith and tied him to a fence pole
