Sisters and Brothers

The reader finds adult Hayslip in a market, where her niece's son and taking her to see her sister, his grandmother.  Upon saying hello to Hai, Hayslip is greeted with coldness and is told to go back to her niece's house and wait.  she does as she is directed, and soon Hai arrives at the house.  Hayslip is told that it is not very safe to be seen talking to an American, but now her sister seems eager to know about her life.  Hayslip explains how they call Hung Jimmy in the States.  The story goes back to the time after her father's funeral, which she spent close to hr home.  She realizes the Viet Cong have become stronger in their ability to penetrate that bases of the Americans.  She also becomes aware of the common practice of sex trade in the area.  Girls are often offered jobs immediately of a bus and are tricked into being sex slaves of their new masters.  Prostitution was a effective good way to make a living as well.  Some hookers had a madam who organized the girls and protected them.  The madams were sometimes ranked highly, were able to influence the police to look the other way or even help their business.  The prostitutes risked getting diseases and being the subject of violence.  Their were also people who would commit a crime for institutions.  The death count was sometimes reduced so the government could avoid giving out pensions.  This infuriated Le Ly because the government was stealing from the mouths of the dependents.  The story now goes forward again.  Hayslip is eager to see her brother again.  Her family has warned her that he is a different man from the person he was when she last saw him.  When he arrives, he greets her like a distant relative.  The reader can immediately sense a change in tone of the author from excitement to heartbreak.  "He uses the ceremonial form of greeting- one reserved for distant relatives - rather than the familiar em bay for number-six sister.  It almost breaks my heart.  Before this greeting, I thought about throwing myself in his arms."  He asks probing questions, like a policeman rather than a brother.  He eventually relaxes a bit, but still seems cautions of this American.  Le Ly leaves the house soon afterwards for her hotel room.  She now thinks about her mother, hoping that she will be able to see her before she has to go back.  The reader is reminded of a time in their life when they experienced disappointment.  It is easy to connect and sympathize with somebody that has had that same emotion.