The Family Recipe

Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

Bingo

Bingo knew something was terribly wrong when all her siblings were suddenly thrust into a group chat, but even more indicative of the world ending was that Jane had added Jude. She couldn’t remember the last time when all five of her siblings were in a group chat—without any snide side texting going on—or a time when all four sisters weren’t ganging up against Jude, or a time when they weren’t forced to pick sides between Duc or Evelyn. While her siblings’ names began to pop up on her screen, one by one, rapid-fire responses flooded the screen and pushed the others’ messages down the queue.

They were starting to finally communicate with one another. Really communicate.

The dark horse appeared: Georgia finally entered the chat. No one had heard from Georgia in almost a year, besides sporadic messages that provided proof of life. She had presumably dropped out of the rat race, and was living her granola lifestyle off in her van somewhere.

[Georgia] we should go to vietnam. confront duc in person. face him. together.

It was a strange proposition, but they didn’t have a lot of options; in fact, no one had a better idea. A series of ellipses appeared, disappeared, appeared, disappeared, until their phone screens were still. Jude was probably wringing his hands about how far the trip would be, and all the amenities he needed to bring to survive. Jane hadn’t been back to Vietnam since she was a teenager, and probably had trauma from her last trip there with Duc. And Paulina probably didn’t give two shits; she just wanted a plan of some kind, her Type-A personality was in disarray. But to Bingo’s surprise, everyone began to warm up to the idea. It was the first thing any of them had agreed on in a long time.

[jane] agreed. meet back in houston first? then fly from here? Or fly out from where we are?

[jude] i don’t care as long as i’m flying first class

[paulina] can’t wait for our “family” reunion

[georgia] so excited to finally get to go to vietnam!! do u think we have time to go to ha long bay??

[jane] this isn’t a vacation, georgia. also ha long bay is overrated.

[jude] where is duc anyway? which part of vietnam. does anyone even know?

[georgia] i have it on good authority that he’s hiding in the town of sa pa, at a buddhist temple at the top of fansipan mountain

“What the hell,” Bingo said out loud.

[paulina] how do you know this

[georgia] a few locals in new orleans here confirmed it, he still talks to them about the store

[paulina] locals? Like who?

[georgia] someone just told me ok. trust me.

[jude] to sa pa it is then

After a momentary pause in conversation, the real question emerged, the one that everyone had on their mind. That had weighed heavily on them when the truth had finally been revealed.

[jane] who do you think our real father is?

[jude] forget you guys, who is my father?

This time, it was a painful type of silence. To her siblings, it remained one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the universe. Who was their real father? And to whom did they belong? Was he kind? Had he loved them at all? Did he even care? Half of who they were belonged to these two mysterious men, their shadows haunting them their entire lives, without any of them realizing it. The whole time, they’d been focused on their mother, splitting themselves up, the girls with their mother, Jude with Duc. Each one approaching the jury box with their own arguments. The whole time, they had never questioned who Duc was.

[paulina] does it really matter in the end, does anything really change?

Bingo remained silent, not ready to contribute to the conversation. Because she had a suspicion about who their father was. As she watched her siblings plan their trip to Vietnam and plot their confrontation with Duc, she began to hatch her own plan. First, she wanted to take in the view. She looked out the train window. Nearly thirty hours had passed on the train, and she found herself in Tennessee, watching the Great Smoky Mountains pass her by. Summer was starting to creep up on them, and how strange it had been, coming up on a year. Bingo had experienced (and survived) her first East Coast winter, and she had fallen in love in Philadelphia, and with a woman.

Wildflowers bloomed tall and feral, nearly scraping the sides of the train car. The forest was lush, vibrant, and bursting with green. The mountain range seemed like it belonged to another world. Bingo had never been to this part of the South, nor had she ever laid eyes on the Smoky Mountains before. A first of many firsts.

The train ride from Pennsylvania to Texas was a little over two days long, but Bingo didn’t care. She had never taken a cross-country train before, and she suspected she wouldn’t be back on the East Coast for a long time. She imagined Duc and Mr. Ng?, train-hopping in their youth, when they first stepped foot in America. Philadelphia, New York City, New Orleans, San Jose, Orange County, Houston. How had these two Vietnamese refugees seen more of the country than she had in her entire life? The two men had been seeking more than just work; they had been seeking a city to call their own. It wasn’t too far off from what Bingo had tried to do. Jumping from Houston, to Portland, to Philadelphia.

Bingo removed the photo from her back pocket. The black-and-white photo of her mother and Mr. Ng?. It was the one thing she had taken with her from Philadelphia. The answer had been in front of her all along. She knew the identity of one of the fathers. But why? Why did he pretend to just be their father’s lawyer for so long? Always lurking in the background? How could he have lived with this lie for so long?

But the photo told no lie to her. She saw how much yearning Mr. Ng? had in his eyes when he stared at Evelyn.

She took out her phone and began to put her own plan in motion.

She thought about the one constant male figure in her life, who was always lurking in the shadows, watching closely but never interrupting. Though he wasn’t at the forefront of their lives, he was in almost every childhood memory—and his presence became even more fortified when their mother left. She remembered when Duc couldn’t pick them up from school, he’d be there, in his ill-fitting suit, carrying a worn-out briefcase, dabbing his forehead with an old handkerchief to mop up the sweat. She especially remembered the day she had come out to her parents, to Duc and Evelyn, and Duc had merely grunted a response back. But every Pride month since she had come out, Mr. Ng? had made sure that Duc’s statue of David replica on his front lawn, in front of his McMansion, held up three flags: the American flag, the Vietnamese flag, and the Pride flag.

It had taken more than a village after Evelyn left, to raise five children, and two men had tried their best.

He picked up immediately. As he always did. “Hello, con? Everything okay?”

And Bingo asked for help for the first time in her life.