The Refugees

Professor Khanh calls his wife by the wrong name for the first time at a wedding reception. He was recently diagnosed with a memory disorder; it was the first time in 40 years of marriage that Mrs. Khanh saw him cry. They met in Vung Tau, the Vietnamese city the French called Cap Saint Jacques when he was 33 and she was 19. Her father arranged their marriage.

The band starts playing “I’d Love You to Want Me,” a song the professor misremembers dancing to with Mrs. Khanh before their children were born. He mistakenly calls her Yen. Mrs. Khanh is taken aback when he wants to dance, something she cannot remember ever doing. She makes him sit back down.

Professor Khanh insists on driving home. He takes a wrong turn, passing by the community college he taught at for 20 years. Unable to find a job in his field in America, Professor Khanh took a job teaching Vietnamese. With a pang she almost does not recognize as jealousy, Mrs. Khanh wonders if Yen was a former student of his. Professor Khanh brakes suddenly, asking Mrs. Khanh why she did not tell him they were going the wrong way.