“Everything’s fine. We’re sorry you had to interrupt your holiday, but it was very kind of you to do so just for me.”
“Nonsense, you are a fine young woman, you will make a man of Kiet. He needs a strong woman behind him and you will do for me.” At that moment, Kiet, or Mike to most people, came in with two chairs, but his father still talked as if he weren’t there. “Kiet is a good boy, but has had it all too easy. He’s spoilt… his mother’s fault more than mine, but I bear some of the blame too, of course. Now he needs a strong woman to get him on the straight and narrow.”
Dok Phi Sua crossed to her son, put her arm around his shoulder for the briefest of instants, squeezed him and then sat on the chair that he held for her. “Are you all right, dear, for everything, you know?” she asked
