In the tenth grade, I was still fond of playing soccer and basketball with the boys. Sometimes we elbowed each other hard in the ribs when competing for a good ball. I didn't know how to dress properly, usually looking more like a scarecrow than a girl. Yes, it was just like that. And I should have understood that Thom's distance from me was to be expected. But i couldn't understand, so I was sad. Human being can never get used to losses, whether it's reasonable or not. So I roamed the field, abandoned, while the children amused themselves playing other games. I conjured up the precious rains of childhood, the delicious baked fish with the fragrance of burnt hay, and the expansive autumn horizon, so crystal clear and inviting.
After graduation, asked Thom to study every day, knowing that she had just slid by. But she refused every time. First, Thom had to go have a dress made with her friend Lan Anh; the next time she went to see a Vietnamese opera with her two cousins from Hanoi;