The Tangled Garden

Vi rode her old trusted bicycle along the Ottawa river; the breeze cleared her mind after a sleepless night following an argument with Phong. It had become a pattern; she and Phong could no longer maintain a conversation. Every time they talked, they would end up hurting each other. Yesterday he called her, telling her about a mutual friend he had run into. They had a pleasant talk reminiscing about their time at the University of Montreal, and recalling friends they had not seen for almost fifteen years.

“Do you know Paul and Maryse just had a baby boy? I’d never thought those two would be together. He was smitten with you,” Phong said.

“Yeah, but I was with Thierry…”

“That jerk!”

“Well, that’s over now,” Vi answered, steering the conversation away from her ex-boyfriend. “I’m glad that you’ve found Mai. She’s so good for you…such a gentle and kind soul.”

“Come on now! Don’t be such a hypocrite. Both you and I know how you think of Mai.”

Vi felt a lump rise from her stomach to her chest, “I… It was ages ago, I wasn’t sure about her. Don’t you see that I treat her like a sister now? How can you…? Call me a hypocrite?”

They traded barbs, but her words were no match for his sharp tongue. He twisted her comments, shouting, drowning out her voice. She hung up. It was time for his insults to end. How could Phong, whom she had known since childhood, and with whom she had shared joys, dreams, and hardships, accuse her of hypocrisy? Lately, his cruel words, uttered during heated arguments, festered and pushed her into very dark places. Reliving yesterday’s conversation with Phong, she felt tears streamed down her cheeks.

***
Phong was the younger brother of her best friend Hà, whose family had lived next door to hers when they were growing up. Being the only child, Vi always wished that she was born into a large family like Hà’s. She was always at their house, spending countless days playing with Hà and Phong, the two youngest, or telling them fantastical stories that she’d made up.

The end of the civil war forced them to grow up. Vi’s father, an officer of the defeated Republic of Vietnam Army, was jailed and then killed in prison. Her mother died of sorrow shortly after. Meanwhile, Hà’s family disappeared one by one, until their house was boarded up. Alone, with the money left by her parents and the help of their friends, Vi managed to escape by boat to a refugee camp in Malaysia before resettling in Canada, never expecting to see her childhood friends again.