Butterfly Yellow

On his day off, LeeRoy drives off in his truck on his own. After filling up on breakfast at a country diner, he heads to a nearby rodeo and walks around, buying himself a couple of funnel cakes. A girl approaches and begins flirting with him, leaving him confused and overwhelmed. This is the first time he’s been flirted with, and he suspects the muscles he’s developed from a summer of hard labor are the cause.

The girl’s boyfriend arrives and takes her away to watch him try the rodeo; however, he is thrown off in seven seconds. LeeRoy finds himself instinctively wanting to discuss this encounter with Hằng; he wonders what she is doing and contemplates his growing feelings for her. Even though the day hasn’t yet reached noon, LeeRoy decides to head back to the ranch. He has lost his appetite and the rodeo isn’t exciting him anymore. He plans to ask Hằng to join him for dinner at a restaurant nearby.

Hằng spends most of her free day flicking flies from the horses, which reminds her of the worms that once attacked her skin. She waits for Linh, and when he finally emerges, he brings oil to rub on his horse to keep the flies away; it smells like what Bà would use to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

Hằng hangs onto the drawing she has for the day and wishes LeeRoy were present to help her practice her sentences. She sees Chú Quốc’s car approaching and runs into the stable, asking Linh to hide her. Angie enters along with her father, and Hằng watches jealously as Angie laughs and chats with Linh about horses. Cora arrives and is furious, ordering Chú Quốc and Angie to leave.

Chú Quốc yells at Hằng to tell Cora how Linh was kidnapped, but Cora’s anguish guilts Hằng into silence. She watches Linh cling to Cora for safety, and remembers how when she was 11, she had the safety of her entire family, too. She doesn’t want her brother burdened by painful stories, just like she herself was oblivious and happy at 11. Hằng finally confesses the truth.

LeeRoy arrives to find the group of adults yelling at each other. Chú Quốc drags Hằng to the car while his daughter tries to stop him. Hằng escapes and runs back, with Chú Quốc and Angie in pursuit. Angie introduces herself to LeeRoy and calls him cute, which causes Hằng to stare at him, smile, and echo the sentiment.

In the car on the way back home, Angie tries to cheer up her father by playing music by Trịnh Công Sσn, “the premier poet songwriter whose sad lyrics have always drained her dad’s anger” (196). Watching her sing along, her father finally smiles.

Chú Quốc wonders if Hằng is lying to maneuver closer to Linh and his mother. Without Hằng’s testimony, they cannot proceed with legal action. Angie understands that her father never stopped feeling guilty about the life he has lived in America while his family suffered back in Vietnam. He wants to make up for it by providing for his brother’s children. However, Angie counsels her father to calm down, as his intensity is scaring Hằng and Linh.

Chú Quốc finally agrees there is no use in pressing Hằng to attend medical school when she is not interested; he will also abandon the plans to adopt Linh.

Everyone is nicer to Hằng after Angie and Chú Quốc leave, and the tension dissipates. Cora begins the process to legally adopt Linh. Hằng, however, wonders what will happen in five days’ time when school reopens and LeeRoy leaves. She is nervous about whether she will be allowed to stay close to her brother.

The day’s work involves harvesting melons to be sold at the end-of-summer fair, the next day. LeeRoy and Linh join Hằng on the porch after breakfast, and she tells Linh that day’s story about what once was his favorite snack. Mr. Morgan arrives with a melon which he slices in four for all of them to share; it tastes delicious. Together, the group carefully fills crates with melons to be sold for three dollars apiece at the fair.

When half the crates are filled, the weather becomes rain and quickly turns to hail. Mr. Morgan brings out rain barrels to collect the ice, and rushes to cover the melon vines. As Hằng runs to get a ladder, she slips, falls, and is attacked by fire ants. LeeRoy rushes to help take off her shirt and wipe her down, and everyone sees the red lines that cover Hằng’s body from her throat to her toes. Ashamed, she grabs her shirt and runs away, instructing LeeRoy not to follow, even as he chases after her.

LeeRoy runs behind Hằng for ages, plastic tarp in hand, until Hằng finally stops and sits down. LeeRoy joins her, pulling the tarp around them for protection. LeeRoy tries to convince her to come back to the house to get warm and dry, but Hằng refuses to move, requesting LeeRoy to keep talking: “Thóc mo. Ai lai-kờ ít” (211) (Talk more. I like it).

LeeRoy monologues about how he did his senior paper on “the geological, historical, and political significance of the Palo Duro Canyon” (211). He explains that the site used to be an ocean, which scientists concluded based on the different fossils and rock formations found there. Hằng’s upper arm relaxes against his, and she urges him to keep going.

The word “ocean” brings back memories for Hằng. Although she cannot understand much of what LeeRoy is saying, his voice is soothing, and she urges him to keep talking. For the first time after leaving Bà, Hằng feels safe sitting next to LeeRoy.

Images come back to Hằng, of a body drifting away from her and touching the bottom of the sea between Vietnam and Thailand. She remembers a pirate slashing the older monk’s robes and blouse, surprised to discover a woman’s body beneath. Readers are led to understand that these monks are actually Hằng and her mother. The older monk gouged out the pirate’s eyes, while the younger monk jumped on his back and scratched and bit. The pirate slashed the older monk’s throat and threw the body into the water, and the younger monk jumped in after.

It hurts to remember, but Hằng decides to relive the memories to release the pain; she stops distancing herself from the scenes. She remembers kicking and screaming, trying to reach her mother, even as the body floated away. Hằng continued flapping in the water, forcing herself to stay afloat. As LeeRoy urges her to return to the present, Hằng refuses, saying, “Du thóc, Ai bét-tờ” (217) (You talk, I better).

LeeRoy continues talking, detailing how Colonel Mackenzie led troops to the bottom of the canyon and raided the Comanche village in the Battle of Palo Duro, shooting dead more than 1000 horses in the process. The terrible extermination signaled “the end of the Indians in the Panhandle” (219).

Hằng catches hold of a plastic oil jug to stay afloat as she watches the boat burn in the distance, and the pirates race away with captured girls. Eventually, she reaches an island. A Vietnamese woman and her helper drag Hằng to shore and safety, giving her coconut water to drink. There had been 57 people on the boat meant for 10; only eight survivors remain, including another young girl the same age as Hằng. Hằng adds her mother’s name, “Ðỗ thị Mỹ Thu,” to the list of people they have lost.

After being fed and cared for, Hằng falls asleep, only to wake up to the cries of pirates. Women and girls are hidden for their safety in rock crevices, and Hằng holds tight to the other young girl. Someone tosses two reeds into their cave, instructing them to jump into the sea and stay underwater, breathing through the reed and drifting until they are rescued.

LeeRoy feels all talked out for the first time, but Hằng smiles and points at the different creatures they can see around them—a mouse, a lizard—and LeeRoy talks about them all, in turn. He likes seeing her happy, and wonders when he turned into such a sap. Even though he is not sure she is still listening, he keeps talking.

Inside the cave, Hằng and the other girl feel hundreds of hookworms burrowing into their skin. Outside, the island is set on fire. Unwilling to go to the sea again, the girl runs out through the smoke and into the flames; hearing the pirates shout, Hằng jumps into the water.

Hằng is slammed against rocks by the currents, but continues to stay underwater, breathing through the reed, waiting. Eventually, she is rescued and led to a woman’s corner, where the other girl lies naked on her stomach; her back is charred, and blood trickles down to her knees from between her legs, implying that the girl has been sexually assaulted, and the same fate likely awaits Hằng.

LeeRoy has never seen Hằng look so downcast. He wants to offer her a hug and reassurance but knows that won’t help much. The rain clears up and the sun comes out; LeeRoy knows they should be getting back, but he keeps talking. When Hằng stops responding, they sit together in silence leaning into each other, LeeRoy matching his breaths with hers.

Hằng begins to itch uncontrollably. She and the girl are both given a bitter, herbal drink. Eventually, they are stripped down and their fingers tied with twine, to prevent them scratching. Tiny holes are pricked into their skin, and they are put into hot baths to draw the hookworms out. The worms leave red scars as they exit. Hằng eventually turns over and gets up; the other girl, however, lies silent and unmoving in pain.

LeeRoy hears Hằng stifle a cry with her head on her knees. He cobbles together a rap to encourage her to cry, which gets her to look up and half-smile. Hằng writes out her own “poem” in the mud with a stick, but it disappears in the muddy slake. She begins to recite the lines out loud, describing everything that has happened to her since the war. LeeRoy enthusiastically applauds her as “the first Vietnamese rapper in all of Texas” (238), even as he contemplates all the backstory behind each of the lines. He knows not to push her or ask for more information; someday, she may be ready to tell the whole story. Cora and David approach in a truck, and LeeRoy offers Hằng a piggyback ride to meet them, which she accepts in a fit of giggles.