It's been almost a year since Don and Lanh stood on the frozen pond and pledged to spend their lives together. They finished their Junior year in high school and spent an entire summer together. Lanh grew to love farming and became a valuable hand on the Campbell farm while Don fell in love with working at the restaurant with Lanh's family, and in their time together they grew as a couple and slowly began to explore their bodies. Now that they have turned eighteen, holding back is becoming more difficult.

We're a Wonderful Wife

Chapter 3

Seniors

"Nhanh lên!" Lanh shouted as she walked alongside Don as he swam. To most people it sounded like she was shouting "n'yen yen" but in English "Nhanh lên" means "Hurry up!" As he turned his head to breathe Don could see her tiny bare feet as she walked alongside him, her high-pitched voice clearly audible to him as he knifed through the water. Halfway down his last length of the pool, she started shrieking "Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau!" which very roughly translates to "Go! Go!" This was Don's cue to give it everything he had.

He poured it on, using all his remaining energy in this last burst of speed, his legs churning the water to foam, his arms pulling him through the water with every erg of strength remaining to him. Lanh's cries of "Đi đi mau!" spurred him on to do better, to go faster, to do it for her. And there it was, the final yard! His arm shot forward and struck the pool wall and Lanh yelled TIME! The word echoed in the empty school pool room long after the sounds of Don's efforts faded.

Gasping deep draughts of air, Don barely had the strength to cling to the end of the pool. He didn't have the energy to look around and see where the coach was, instead he gasped for air, looking up at Lanh, admiring her trim form in her skintight one-piece swimming suit. In turn, Lanh looked at Coach Mach who looked at his stopwatch and then wrote something on his clipboard.

Don gazed up at Lanh's figure and admired everything that he saw. When they first met her figure was so childlike, her legs were pencil thin and her chest was flat with only her expressive nipples to show a hint of what nature had in store for her soon. Now, almost two years later, her waist has slimmed some, and her hips have flared to give a delicate hourglass shape to her overall figure, her legs, once thin and fragile-looking like matchsticks with knobby knees, are now feminine and delightful, and her breasts are small and firm, perfect teacups that he madly loves.

Don and Lanh turned 18 this summer, Lanh on June 29th, and Don on August 31st. They threw a party on July 30th, the day between their birthdays, celebrating their 18th birthdays. With the drinking age being 21, the 18th birthday isn't as much fun as it once was, but that didn't stop Kim-ly and Bao from plying Lanh with as much beer as they could. They wanted to see how many Coors Lites it would take to get their tiny sister drunk. The answer was: three.

Coach Mach was impressed with the numbers Don turned in and he respected Lanh too much to tease her with anything but the answer to her unspoken question. He simply smiled at her and nodded his head; Don had just beaten his personal best time.

Lanh squealed and jumped in the pool and slid into Don's exhausted arms. Coach Mach just shook his head as the young couple hugged. This is something he has not seen in years, high school couples come and go, but these two! It is so rare to see a couple that takes such joy in each other's accomplishments, Don was there for every debate and debate prep that Lanh had as captain of the debate team, and today Lanh was here for Don's swim team try-outs. Even if his top swimmer returned in the autumn with an Olympic medal, they still must try out to make the team. If you don't like it and you don't want to try out, the chess team is always looking for new players. And Lanh didn't act like other swimmer's girlfriends, sitting bored in the bleachers reading a book while their boyfriend swam, Lanh actively coaches him, just as she did all last season in their junior year as he recovered from that assault.

"All right you two! Cool it off." Being seniors and a full year older than his other senior students didn't get them a pass on their behavior, but being straight-A students, the captain of the debate team, and one of his best swimmers did. Well... a little bit. He shook his head knowing what the next question was going to be, and as usual, it was Lanh who asked it.

"How much did he beat it by?"

Deep sigh. "Two point five seconds." Lanh's joyful squeal of surprise nearly pierced the coach's eardrums, and the echo in the pool room gave him a headache. Then it was silent, dead silent as Lanh gave her chosen man a sweet, passionate kiss. He looked down at the kissing couple. "HEY! I don't care if you are eighteen, not in my pool! Go hit the showers."

"Yes, coach!" called Don as he and Lanh climbed out of the pool and headed for the locker room.

"SEPARATE showers!" called Coach Mach without turning around to see what the couple was up to.

"Yes coach," called Lanh and she turned around at the boy's locker room door and headed for the girl's locker room.

"Lanh! Come see me before you two head out."

"Yes coach," called Lanh from the depths of the girl's locker room.

Coach Mach chuckled as he headed to his office, he was crazy about those kids. At one point they were both one small step from dropping out, running away, becoming addicts, or something even more self-destructive, and at the last moment, they found each other. It was a miracle, a miracle that he wished happened more often. He thought of Don and Lanh as he considered all the troubled and lonely kids in his care and shook his head sadly at the plight of many of his students.

He tossed his clipboard on his desk, sat down, and got back to the mundane life of a high school teacher. Fifteen minutes later he was filling out his trial line-up when a barely audible tap on the door announced Lanh's arrival. "Come in," he said as he removed the document from the old Remington typewriter and reached for the stapler. Without looking up he said "Don, can you give us a moment?"

"Yes, coach."

He looked up to see Lanh and Don standing side by side in front of his desk, holding hands. "Alone?"

"Yes, coach." Slowly Don turned and headed for the door, their hands didn't part until Don was nearly at the door, their eyes fixed on each other until the door was closed. Lanh turned to face the coach and she looked utterly heartbroken that he asked Don to leave.

"Please sit Miss Nguyen." He waited until Lanh primly sat in a chair in front of his desk. He looked at some papers on his desk and said "I'm going to put on my guidance counselor hat for a moment..." as with many small schools, the staff performed double duties, Coach Mach, head of athletics now became Mr. Mach, guidance counselor. "You do know that you will be eligible to graduate in January, right?"

"Yes," nodded Lanh, and she very quickly added, "but I won't."

"I uh... you won't?" he was stunned, normally when a student finds out they're eligible to graduate early, they start making plans to hit the road. "Because of Don?"

"If I go away to college, Don will follow, and he will not graduate. If he does not graduate, he cannot enlist. If he cannot enlist our plans will be ruined. So, I stay more months, he graduates with honors, I graduate with honors, everyone happy." Her slight accent was becoming more pronounced, showing that she was becoming upset, but Mr. Mach was unaware of that point.

"You don't mean to tell me that..." he twirled his wedding ring to show that he was afraid they would elope.

"Mister Mach, I have tell my father our plans, it not easy to say no to Vietnamese father. To say no to you is much easy." Lanh started to panic, the idea of graduating early didn't sound like a reward or an opportunity, it felt like the world was trying to pry Don out of her arms and separate them, a punishment. It's a good thing Don isn't here thought Lanh realizing how upset she was, if he heard her talking like this, he would quit the team and storm out of the office with Lanh in tow.

"Ok, good... relax Miss Nguyen! I just wanted to find out what your intentions are."

"We intend to..." she paused then blushed. "It private."

"Good, keep it that way. I called you in here because I need..."

Ten minutes later Lanh came out of the coach's office wearing an official Woodcutters Swim Team polo shirt featuring an embroidered "Grant Valley High School" and the image of Paul Bunyan leaning on his axe on the left breast. She was carrying a clipboard with a stopwatch mounted on the board to make timing the swimmers easier. "Impressive!" smiled Don as he reached for the office doorknob.

"Oh, there will be no need for that," Lanh said as she swatted his hand away from the doorknob. "Coach Mach is on a call. If you have urgent business with the coach, please let me know the details of the matter, and if I cannot resolve your issue, then I will be happy to schedule a meeting between you and the coach."

Don took Lanh into his arms, they locked eyes and he smiled down at his lovely little girlfriend. "And what does the team mascot have on my schedule?"

"Team Mascot?" Lanh deftly twisted away and flipped through the papers on her clipboard, "Funny, I can't find you on the team roster anywhere... oh wait... here you are... you're listed here under questionable potential..." she grinned and held her clipboard tight to her chest, "It says you're scheduled to take the official team timekeeper to the Nguyen restaurant to show off her new wardrobe, then you have some hay to put up back at the farm."

"May I escort the team timekeeper?" he bowed and proffered his left arm to Lanh who delicately rested her right hand on his arm.

"Please keep my hordes of fans at bay, would you kind sir?" The halls of the school were predictably empty being a week before school reopened and soon Don and Lanh were outside and seated in the "Three on the Tree GMC" the old rattling pickup truck that Don received for his 18^th birthday, rattling their way to Lanh's family's Pho restaurant. At the restaurant her oldest sister Tam was managing while her older brothers Huy and Trung were getting ready for the lunch rush. "Where are má and ba?" asked Lanh. (má and ba are Vietnamese terms of endearment for mom and dad)

"They are taking some time off," answered Tam, "Why do you... hey! Looking good tôm!" (shrimp) Tam made Lanh spin around so she could see the shirt from all angles. "I'm guessing Coach Mach had his sights on you for a few weeks."

"Why do you say that Chị?" asked Don who knew that Coach Mach wanted to ask Lanh to be the team timekeeper for weeks. (Chị is another pronoun being a term for older sister)

"Because they would normally get a small men's or women's shirt, which on her still fits like a tent, this shirt actually fits her." Tam rolled the collar so she could see the tag causing Lanh to twist around and pretend to be choking. "Boy's medium. He's been planning this for a while."

"It looks good on her," said Huy who knocked his older sister's hand out of the way freeing Lanh. He wrapped his arms around her. "How's my munchkin guppy?"

Lanh struggled to free herself from his grip, complaining the entire time that he was taking unfair advantage of her size until finally she twisted free and walked up to Don and hit him as hard as she could in his aching, exhausted arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for not coming to my aid while I was being manhandled by those brutes!" she pointed angrily at Tam and Huy.

"Hey!" said Don holding up his hands in innocence, "that was a family thing, I'm an outsider here."

"You're going to be family soon enough," she said poking a finger in his chest like he was a truculent child, "my husband is expected to come to my aid." And with that she went to her room to change, leaving Don to explain what she had just said to his future in-laws.

"You're going to be family soon enough?" asked Tam loudly. "Did we miss something here?"

Don found himself surrounded by Tam, Huy, and Trung. Trung was grinning, Huy looked like he was ready to hear the punchline or else start punching, and Tam had a sharp knife in her hand and was aiming it at parts of Don's body that both he and Lanh want to be left attached. "We're just talking about what we plan to do when we get married."

"WHEN you get married? Did you propose to her?" demanded Huy.

"Not yet..."

"More important, did you ask fathers permission to marry his baby?" growled Tam.

"No, of course not," Don said to Tam.

"Why not?" demanded Huy.

"Because he'll say no and then we won't be able to get married." Tam brought the knife closer. "BUT,

I will ask for his blessing."

"And what if he says no?" growled Tam.

Don shrugged and grinned at his Roman Catholic friends. "So what? He ain't the pope."

Tam smiled, put her arms around Don's shoulders, and gave him a hug. "You are just what my dorky little sister needs," she sniffed.

"I like this one," said Huy. "Much better than that nerd that you picked out." Tam continued to hug Don, but Huy found himself staring at a very sharp knife.

Dressed in a long denim skirt and one of Don's flannel work shirts, Lanh came back into the restaurant part of their home where she found Don being grilled by her sister and brothers about their future plans.

"Where are you going to live?"

"On my farm."

"What are you going to do?"

"Farm."

"What is Lanh going to do?"

"Farm."

"What about children?"

"They can farm too."

"Ok, that's about enough," said Lanh, wrapping herself around Don's arm. "We got some farmin' to do, come on dear."

As she led Don out of the restaurant, he looked down at her and said, "Why did you do that to me?"

"Do what dear?" she looked up at him, her eyes wide in faux surprise.

"Call me your husband before we get engaged. Are you trying to get me in trouble with your family?"

"Oopsie!" she giggled and covered her mouth with her free hand. "Did I do that? As a lowly team mascot, I'm not capable of being devious, or even smart. I'm simply kawaii." She emphasized kawaii, the Japanese term for cute, by taking off her glasses and batting her eyelashes.

He opened the truck's passenger door and boosted her up into the seat. "Every day I find more reasons to love you. Admitting being in a state of kawaii is another." He leaned in for a kiss and she responded eagerly.

When their lips parted, she gasped, "Let's get married now. We're eighteen, we can do it. Let's elope before school opens up."

"Our parents will freak."

"I want a maternity graduation gown," she said as he got in the driver's side and started the truck.

"Wait until I have a life insurance policy that will support you and the baby after your mom stabs me to death."

"Oh, you're exaggerating," she said as they rounded a tight curve scattering gravel. "Dad will shoot you long before mom gets close enough with her knife."

As they bounced along the country roads to the Campbell farm, Lanh snuggled up to Don, and Don put his arm around her shoulder, his right hand seemed to naturally be drawn to her breast. As he gently massaged her tit through her shirt Don thought back to a conversation he had with Dr. Tam Nguyen, Ph.D., psychologist, sister, and blackbelt.

Tam had come out to the farm to talk to Lanh. Lanh led her out to the yard where some hay was stacked up in the shade of a large maple tree. The sisters talked while sitting on a stack of hay bales for a good long time while Don worked in the tractor shed. Lanh had promised Don's dad Ralph that she'd help the veterinarian with an ailing calf, so she and her sister Tam had to cut their conversation short when Ralph announced, "The veterinarian is here."

Tam was far ahead of Lanh in her schooling. While Lanh just turned 18 and is getting ready to start her senior year in high school, and her future plans are to become a farm wife, raise children, and get her college on the side, Tam graduated high school at 15 and went straight to the University of Minnesota and now has her doctorate in psychology. While Lanh is short, slim, and cute, Tam is over half a foot taller and curvier than Lanh. Tam is often described as breathtakingly beautiful, a beauty that came from her mother and is shared with her sisters.

Don always thought that Tam and Lanh had a mother/daughter relationship more than a sisterly relationship and little did he know how right he was with that assessment, yet Lanh has never explained her relationship with Tam to Don. Lanh is still learning to turn to her mother for guidance when a problem comes up, but when Tam is in town Lanh always turns to Tam for help, a situation that pains and confuses their mother, Mai.

Walking back to her car Tam heard the Klank! Klank! Klank! of someone pounding on something in the tractor shed, so she poked her nose inside to see what the ruckus was all about. She walked into the tractor shed and marveled again at all the stored machinery. Don saw Tam approaching out of the corner of his eye and called out, "Hey doc." Don had a heavy ball-peen hammer and was really pounding on a tractor.

"Why do you hate this tractor?" asked Tam as she eased into the metal tractor seat. All she knew about the tractor was that it was a John Deere, and she only knew that because it said so on the side. It was old, green, and the bouncy metal seat was surprisingly comfortable.

"I don't hate it; I just enjoy hitting it."

"You appear frustrated, are you frustrated?" asked Tam as she slipped into Doctor mode.

"I don't know, you just talked to Lanh for about 3 hours, am I frustrated?"

Tam smiled. Don may look like a simple Minnesota farm boy, but when he wants to cut the crap, he knows right where to stick the knife. "I would be if I were you."

Don paused and looked at the beautiful woman perched on his tractor seat. "You need to know this right now; I have never loved anyone or anything as much as I love Lanh. I would do anything for her if she asked."

"She says you have yellow fever."

Don laughed; yellow fever is an imaginary condition that a non-Asian male gets that causes him to become attracted to Asian women. "If I had yellow fever, you'd be in serious trouble right now, ol' girl."

"Old girl?" Tam whooped in laughter. "I'd give you a run for your money, you young whipper-snapper."

"If I merely had yellow fever, I'd take you up on that offer. But I don't. I have Lanh fever." Don suddenly looked sad. "I want her to enjoy being with me, instead I terrify her."

"She's not scared of you, but she is a bit... concerned. Look, you're both virgins..."

"And we're going to stay that way... for now."

"Well, you're going to try. And I believe you two want to succeed, but from what she says, your... equipment is... a little intimidating."

"I'm just average doc. I've been in enough locker rooms to know what I've got," Don looked depressed.

"But she hasn't. What you need to keep in mind is that yours is the first adult penis she's ever seen. Look, when we first start out, we girls don't know what to expect. Yeah, we babysit and change diapers, but little boys are really, really, little. Things change between eight months and eighteen years, and when the biggest thing you've ever introduced into yourself is a small tampon and the occasional finger, a throbbing, full-grown man is kind of terrifying. Especially when you're tiny like Lanh."

"I just..." the rest of what he said was drowned out by the sound of his hammer. Finally, he stopped hitting the tractor. "I don't want to hurt her; I want her to enjoy it... um... us."

"Then just relax, let her proceed at her pace, she just needs to learn to enjoy..."

"She DOES enjoy sex!" Don raised the hammer and swung with all his strength. The hammer struck with a resounding clang! and a large, rust-covered device fell off the tractor and thudded to the dirt floor. "... just not when I'm in the vicinity."

"Was that supposed to happen?" Tam asked looking at the chunk of tractor now on the ground.

"Yeah, that's the water pump, the gasket was leaking." He picked it up, carried it to a bench, clamped it in a vice then returned to the tractor and picked up their conversation. "We read an article on how some women have problems cumming, so she tried their suggestion, you know, do it yourself. She says she can cum nicely when she's alone, but when I try it for her, it doesn't work." He grabbed a scraper and started scraping the remains of the old gasket from where the water pump was mounted on the tractor's engine. "You're a shrink, you're not supposed to be talking to me about your patient."

Tam leaned back on the seat and bounced it up and down while holding the steering wheel. "I'm not that kind of psychologist, and if I were, she couldn't be my patient. I'm simply acting as a concerned big sister who is prepared to kill you if you so much as make her cry."

"No pressure, eh?"

Tam reached into her pocket and pulled something out then tossed it toward Don. Two small packets fluttered to the ground and landed at Don's knee. "Condoms? I thought..."

"This is NOT authorization to go have wild protected sex with my sister," Tam snarled. Then softening she said "When you guys are... fooling around, have her put one on you and see if it helps. Maybe she's just worried that self-control isn't enough protection."

"If she's so worried about protection, why is she constantly talking about having a baby with me?"

"You men are such morons," muttered Tam, her eyes rolling upwards. "Because she loves you, dummy! She wants a part of you that no one can take away!"

"Clutch!"

Lanh's shout brought Don back to the here and now. "Sorry," he said and eased in the clutch so she could shift the column shifter from second to third gear. The best part of an old pickup truck is the bench seat, Lanh can snuggle up next to Don nice and close and he can put his arm around her as he drives, and he can cup her breast. The worst part of an old pickup truck is the manual transmission which requires two hands to drive the truck. Don and Lanh got around this handicap by having Lanh shift the gears, allowing Don to keep his arm around her. It just takes a little coordination when it comes to the clutch pedal.

"What were you thinking?" she said as she stroked her fingertips up and down the inside of his thigh.

Her fingers caused thrills to rocket through his leg straight to his cock, which caused Don to accidentally utter the most horrible thing any young man could say to his girlfriend at a time like this; he revealed the truth. "Your sister."

"WHAT?"

"Yesterday I had a conversation with Tam..."

"Stop the truck!"

"No, I'm not stopping the truck, I..."

"You're holding on to my boob and you're thinking about my sister? Stop the truck!"

"No, I was thinking about what your sister told me, and I'm not stopping the truck."

Lanh scooted to the other side of the cab and leaning against the door she glared at Don. For his part, he looked like he was getting ready to cry. Serves him right! "What did she say?"

"It doesn't matter, she was right anyhow."

"What did she say?"

"Tam told me that you were just playing me along and come January you were going to dump me and take off to the cities and go to university there."

"She did not! That's not true!"

"You're right, it's a lie."

Lanh was aghast. "Why would you lie to me?"

Don shrugged. "I told you the truth and I'm in trouble. I tell you a lie and I'm in trouble. It doesn't matter. And maybe you should graduate and go off to the cities, I'm just holding you back." He pulled up to an intersection and started to turn the truck around. "You can do so much better without me."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm thinking I should take you home, I don't want to hurt you, and I don't ever want to scare you, and I don't want to hold you back..."

"Well, you're scaring me now! Keep going to the farm."

"But I..."

Lanh scooted close and lay down on the bench seat with her head in his lap "Take me to OUR home."

A few minutes later they rattled into the Campbell farmyard, known to Lanh as OUR home. "You start putting that hay up and I'll be there in a few minutes, I have to make sure Poppa is ready for his date," and Lanh ran to the house. Don's father was taking Sandy Petersen, the church secretary and pianist, out to dinner, Don and Lanh volunteered to insure all the farm chores would be taken care of so he and Sandy could have a nice dinner in town and maybe catch a movie.

Inside the house, Lanh went straight to the kitchen and picked up the receiver on the kitchen wall phone and called the restaurant. "Trung? Put on Tam... no... no... I don't care, put her on or you get to tell ba that I'm not coming home... I'll wait..." she paced back and forth in the kitchen until her sister picked up the phone. "Tam? What did you say to my Donovan?"

There was a full hay wagon in the big barn's hay loft and Don got to work unloading the hay, bale by bale, and stacking them neatly in the barn. Fueled by anger and self-loathing, Don hoisted each square bale in to spot one after another. He berated himself for even thinking that he'd ever be good enough for someone as wise and as beautiful as Lanh, she'd be so much better off without him. She could find a man who had a future, a professional that could buy her a big, beautiful house, not some farmer who could only offer her hard work and cow shit. Fueled by anger and self-loathing he peeled off his shirt and soon was covered in sweat and dust. Before he realized it the wagon was empty. He grabbed the towbar and pulled the wagon by hand out of the hayloft onto the earth ramp that the tractor uses to get up to the hayloft.

By that time, he had his mind made up, it would be better if he broke up with her now, she could head on to university and get the degree she's been talking about. And him? A few years in the military to get over her, then home. It would be better for her that way; she wouldn't be chained to a loser that she fears. Then again, this is a farm, there's always industrial accidents on a farm, both Lanh and the USAF would be better off with one less Minnesota farm boy to worry about...

"Hey," Lanh's soft voice broke through his haze of self-loathing. He turned and there she was walking toward him through the hayloft.

"Lanh, I've been thinking, it's not fair to you that I..." suddenly her tiny hand covered his mouth.

"Yên tĩnh, be quiet," she moved her hand and kissed his lips softly, then put her hand back on his mouth. "I talk to Tam, as shrink doctor she sucks." Lanh was clearly upset; her English was the worse he's ever heard. "I not afraid of you, not afraid of... Stanley," she gently caressed his cock and balls through his jeans, Stanley is the nickname she gave his cock. "That is where our babies will come from." Then very slowly she said, "I am afraid of me."

Don gently took her hand away from his mouth and kissed it, then said "Lanh, no. You're beautiful, smart, sweet, and loving, you should be at Northwestern getting your degree, not following around attached to a loser and milking cows."

"I like milk!" she insisted, which was true, since her first taste of fresh, whole milk she's become a fanatic about the stuff, she's even put on weight, something she was never able to do before. "I like cows, and I love you, you're NOT a loser. But you should be with a big girl, with wide hips and a fat ass who can have babies so easy, like Tam or Kim-ly..."

Don almost laughed, Tam and Kim-ly were both larger than Lanh, but fat? Not even close. "I don't want your sister, I love you..."

"Shhh!" She put a slender finger to his lips, "You say you don't want to scare me, but you're scaring me now. Living without you scares me. I just don't want to disappoint you."

"You could never disappoint me..."

"What if I can't have babies? What if my hips too skinny? What if my eggs don't work? What if I can't make you happy in bed?" Lanh was terrified of being baren, she knew from far too many doctors' visits that she can't trust her body, being born prematurely it's a sure-fire bet that she was going to have trouble with some systems in her body. Her doctors were worried about her heart, her worries go lower.

"You can adopt, there are millions of babies that want a home, or foster, or you can babysit for your fat ass sisters. But if you marry me, kids or no, you're just going to end up on a stinky ol' farm, working hard all day, every day. We will never have anything nice..."

"I don't care! It OUR farm, stink or no! If you don't want me, I have nothing." She looked so crestfallen, so sad.

He suddenly found himself in a paradox, how could he love this girl so much? She's so brilliant, but she's in love with such a loser. It reminded him of the old Groucho Marx line "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." Don looked at her tear-filled eyes through his own tear-filled eyes, the thing that he always wanted to say to her since that Christmas two years ago, when they cuddled on the couch, pretending to be asleep while the family assembled for Christmas pot-luck dinner... it was now or never. "Oh, em yêu, you are so smart, so brilliant, so beautiful... you deserve so much more than I can ever give you. You should be in an ivy league college, you should have a man with a list of degrees longer than his arm who looks like Erroll Flynn and drives a sports car, a lawyer, or a doctor, or a pilot. You deserve diamonds and designer clothes; you should have a million dollars in the bank and not be shoveling cow shit and living on the verge of bankruptcy with some loser..."

"Em yêu," she traced her tiny fingers over the bruises on his stomach and ribs. There was a small contingent of jerks at Grant Valley High that didn't want to see a white boy dating an Asian girl and they let their displeasure be known. Having worked out for the better part of a year, Don was able to fend them off, but when it was four to one, they still got a few licks in. "They hurt you again because of me... they hurt me because of you..." She crouched and kissed the bruised areas then rose and hugged him gently, her head resting against his chest, his heartbeat drumming in her ear. "Em yêu, all of that you mentioned is just stuff, just things. I want you; I want your heart."

Now it was Lanh's turn to say something she has been holding back since the day they played hooky and she fed him pho because he was beaten so bad that he couldn't eat solid food for days. He let those bullies beat him to protect her. Then last year when he stopped Joshua Grimes from raping Lanh, he was beaten so badly he ended up in a hospital and had his jaw wired shut. He had to drink her mother's broth through a straw and lost his starting place on the swim team.

"Kim-ly was raped when she was sixteen," she whispered, "I think Tam was too, she won't say, but one day she became cold and quiet, and stayed that way." She looked up at Don's blue eyes, "but I have not because of you. You don't know how scary it is to be different and small and a girl... but I'm not scared anymore. I haven't been scared for two years. When Joshua grabbed me, I knew you would save me, and you did without being asked. Just knowing I have a man who loves me and will protect me makes me so happy... it's all I want."

Don sighed, "Ok, this is it, last chance. If you want to go, here's your chance to go, no harm, no foul."

Lanh didn't move, she continued to hug him. "I'm going nowhere, but I want to know, what do I do to make you happy?"

"What would make me happy is for you to be comfortable with me, completely sexually satisfied. I want to give you those eye-rolling, body-shaking orgasms that we read about in your women's magazines..."

She looked up at him and in all seriousness said, "What if we have to tie you up, dress you in a dress, and spank you like a little girl to make me happy?"

Don was shocked to hear something like that come out of innocent little Lanh. Without hesitation, he held his arms out to her in an unspoken offer to let her tie him up and said, "If that's what it takes to satisfy you, then that's what I want."

She took hold of his arms by the wrists and pulled him toward the stack of hay bales. "What if I want you to spank me?" she gave him a longing look.

This was a trap, he thought. Causing her pain is the last thing he'd want to do, but what if she likes it? "If it turns you on..." his voice trailed off. What was she hinting at?

She pushed him back so that he would sit on a hay bale and gestured with her hand for him to stay. She then pulled a couple of hay bales down from the stack and pushed them together to form a platform which she covered with an old blanket. She then came back to him and kissed him, then said, "Stay here, let me do this for you... and me," and ducked her head to his chest and began licking and suckling on his nipple.

The reaction was immediate, an electric jolt ran from his nipple to his cock, never in his young life had he ever believed such a feeling is possible! Did she feel the same thing when he suckled at her exquisite nipples? He gasped and reached for the sides of her head unsure if he was going to push her away and end the exquisite pleasure overload, or to hold her there so that it would never end.

"I'm all sweaty and dirty," he said weakly.

"I like your taste," she switched to his other nipple and suckled gently, spurred on by his gasps and whimpers. Finally, he tried to push her away, but she pushed his hands away. "No, let me..." and she deftly stepped behind him and pulled his arms back, then quickly wrapped his wrists in bailing twine.

She stepped in front of him and smiled, a coy yet sweet smile. She turned to a small "boom box" that she brought with her and pressed play on the cassette player and soon her hips began to gently sway with the music. A gentle country love song played on the little tape player and soon Lanh was lost in the music, her hips shifting in time with the romantic beat. She turned with her back to him, her hips swaying side to side like a hula dancer. From the position of her elbows and the way they moved, Don could tell that she was unbuttoning the shirt she wore, and soon it slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor. Don was startled to see that she wasn't wearing a bra. Even though her small breasts need no support, Lanh rarely goes braless because her nipples are so pronounced when she gets chilly or horny. She once told Don that her erect nipples are for him and their babies, not for the world to see, so bras are worn to hide her nipples from an admiring world.

She freed her long luxurious hair from her hair tie and shook it loose so that it fell in a perfect ebony cascade down her back. She turned around to face him and her beautiful teacup breasts were covered by her shiny black hair, but as her hips swayed her nipples would peek out through the strands of hair, enticing him, practically begging him to come suck on them. Now she turned again, her back to him again, her hips swaying with the gentle music, her hands busy in front of her, then slowly her skirt began to slide down her legs revealing her beautiful little ass. The swaying of her hips caused her flawless ass cheeks to writhe gently against each other, the end of her hair drew a perfect line across the top of her flawless butt.

She slowly turned again and brushed her hair back and for the first time in his life, Don clearly saw the woman he loved completely nude. In all their playing around, their heavy petting sessions, their romantic moments alone, she was always wearing something, an unbuttoned blouse, a bra pulled up to reveal her breasts, a pulled-up skirt, and a pair of panties. He saw her completely nude once when she was skinny dipping with her sisters, but he was so far away... but now she is standing in front of him naked as the day she was born. Since her infancy, no man or woman whose last name was not Nguyen ever saw such a sight.

Don's chest tightened, he had imagined this minute over and over in his head and never had he imagined how beautiful she really is. In the years since he first asked her to dance, she went from a tiny, scrawny child struggling with puberty, to a sexy diminutive goddess. Her beautiful white skin, with just a slight golden shade, was flawless. Not a freckle, birthmark, or scar was evident as he devoured her body with his eyes.

In the past two years her beautiful breasts went from nonexistent to cute, desirable mounds, no larger than a dainty teacup, topped by dark pink eraser-size nipples and areola no larger than a quarter. Her nipples were always telling Don how happy she was to see him, a source of embarrassment to her, and a source of delight and inspiration to him. Lanh once told Kim-ly that her breasts grew not because of puberty but from Don's constant encouragement.

Further south the changes that her late blossoming in puberty was clear, her waist narrowed slender and sexy, and her hips widened, giving her the delicate hourglass shape that her mother and sisters have. The thought that her hips widened in preparation for her future babies excited Lanh, she so much wanted to raise at least four little Nguyen/Campbell babies. She never thought about children before, but in the past year, when their love blossomed, the thought was always there.

Between her legs was a small patch of soft black hair, something Don only explored with the tips of his fingers but never saw, it was soft and gentle to the touch. Other guys always talked about how their girl's pubic hair was curly and stiff, but Don never spoke about Lanh's. Unlike the Brillo pads, other guys claimed that their girls had, Lanh's pubic hair was so soft! And never curly, from what he could feel, it was as straight as the hair on her head. And now he could see how beautiful her pussy really was. Her labia is like the rest of her body, tiny, and tightly closed, but something was peeking out, was that her clitoris?

Her hands started to move, they reached out to him as if beckoning him to come and take her away with him. He struggled against the bailing twine, she hadn't tied him securely, and he could get out if he wanted, but he didn't know that. Her tiny feet continued moving softly in time with the beat of the song on the dusty wooden floor, her hands crept up to her firm, round, young breasts. They were both "late bloomers," so they were both able to see those breasts develop from tiny nubs with sensitive nipples that pop to attention at the slightest touch, to the beautiful "Killer Bs" that he's looking at and drooling over as she danced.

She cupped her sweet little breasts, squeezing them while her hips swayed with the music. Her fingers and thumbs took her nipples captive, rolling them, causing shocks of erotic energy to flash from her nipples through her body, causing her swollen clit to tingle. The thought that she was now completely naked in front of Don was exciting enough, but in a few minutes, she planned to show him what sets off her orgasm and thinking of that moment was almost enough to set her off as she danced. But what if she can't cum? What if their curse strikes again?

So many times, she came close to orgasm with Don's loving touches but at the last moment she froze, the feeling suddenly disappeared, and she was brought nearly to tears with frustration. Yet at home, alone in her room, she was able to cum at will, and always when imagining that it was Don's hands being the hands touching her body and not hers.

The music flowed through her, the man she loved was watching her every move, and his eyes were drinking her in. The desire for her that she saw in his eyes is a potent aphrodisiac, his helpless state with his hands tied behind him freed her to move with the music without fear of being grabbed, she is in total control of the situation. In the past, when she and Don were alone, sometimes right here in the barn, she would unintentionally gasp "stop" or "no" in the heat of passion without meaning it. She would say "stop" or "no" because she's always been told to say "stop" or "no" by Tam and Mai, and to make matters worse, Don DID stop. And when he stopped the moment was completely lost.

So desperate for advice to help resolve this situation, Lanh went to Kim-ly for help. At first, Kim-ly couldn't believe that Lanh was coming to her, it had never happened before, but when the idea sunk in that this was real Kim-ly said: "What's the matter tôm (shrimp), trouble in paradise?"

"No... yes... I don't know. When I tell Don to stop... he does." It sounded so stupid when she said it, but Lanh was praying that Kim-ly would understand. She looked at her big sister who grinned at her.

"That's why I don't date nice guys," grinned the sexy, vivacious older sister. Although Kim-ly was barely two years older than Lanh, the gulf between their ages seemed vast to both sisters. They sat on Lanh's bed watching Marissa swim on patrol in her tiny tank and Kim-ly gave Lanh the benefit of her years of "wisdom." "You and I both know that we say stop because we've been trained to say stop, even though we don't want to say stop. And it's also a cop-out, we say stop, and if the boy doesn't stop... well it's not our fault what happens next, we did say stop, right?" Lanh giggled and nodded and Kim-ly continued. "I have a solution that lets you say stop because you want to and stop because you need to. Then Kim-ly gave Lanh a great hint, something to try because it worked with every one of the few nice guys that she dated. She also gave her a can of pepper spray just in case the hint didn't work.

Lan moved closer to Don and smiled. She placed her hands on the sides of his face and crouched down and looked into those hypnotic blue eyes. "For the next hour, no means nothing, stop doesn't exist, stop means nothing, no means nothing. If I need you to stop, or if you need me to stop, the word is Teddy Bear, understand? Teddy Bear is our secret code word to stop."

His eyes went wide, a code word, where did she get that idea? "Y-yes!" he gasped. This was going to get interesting! He was more excited than he's ever been in his life, and he was terrified just the same.

Lanh smiled, she knew and trusted Don, if he had a problem with this game, it was in remembering to ignore her if she did say stop or no. She rose and moved an erect nipple close to his mouth. He opened to suck in the delectable morsel but with a twitch of her shoulder she moved her breast away from his mouth and he gasped in disappointment. She tried again with the other breast and received a more emphatic mewl of sorrow when she deprived him of the chance to suckle at her breast. The rush of the feeling of power was overwhelming! She could feel drops of her moisture start to creep down her inner thighs as she returned to gently gyrating in front of her helpless lover.

She laughed as Don's eyes drank in her figure, for the first time in her life she felt sexy, desirable, even beautiful. Is this what Kim-ly feels like when she's out on a date with a frat boy? Does she dance like this for them? She turned around and saw a fire in Don's eyes, a need that could only be satisfied by her, and the fire was now lit in her. She could feel a tingling in her pussy, her nipples were so hard they hurt, and her clit - she's only gotten to know it recently but now it's screaming for her attention.

Again, she drew close to Don, she could smell his excitement as she brought her breast close to his mouth, but this time, when he moved forward to suckle her nipple, she didn't move. He latched on and began sucking, his teeth nipping at her nipple just the way she likes, and he began sucking hard, drawing her entire breast into his mouth. Then, "Stop," she gasped, and he paused for a short moment, then went back to gnawing at her tit. "Stop!" again, but this time she sounded annoyed, she used the tone of voice she would use if he was doing something that really annoyed her, but he continued to suck on her nipple, driving her out of her mind with pleasure.

Reluctantly she pulled her breast free from his mouth, he released it with a loud pop. She crouched down and stared into his eyes and said, "Perfect! Now watch me..."

She lay down on the bed she made from the hay bales, she couldn't wait anymore, she was on fire. She couldn't remember being this hot, this horny in her entire life. Making sure Don could see her pussy, she began to touch herself for his enjoyment. She wanted to do this slowly and build up the tension, but she was already on fire, and she couldn't hold back. One slim, delicate finger slid into her pussy, and she was suddenly out of control. "Oooooohhhhh God how I wish this was your diiiiiiiiick!" she gasped as the tremors started to rise. She couldn't believe she just said that! "Watch me," she whispered hoarsely, "I'm going to come for yoooouuuuu...!"

She was over the hump; she had reached the point where she had stopped so often before and there was nothing that could have stopped her. One hand was gently describing circles around her clit with her fingertips, while the other hand began to squeeze her breast roughly, the way she wished Don would do it in the heat of passion. The hand at her pussy worked faster and faster, little gasps and yelps filled the air as she was no longer in command of herself, and suddenly she was there! Her feet planted on the surface of the bed, her hips rose, and Don watched in fascination as his lover drove herself to ecstasy.

"I'm CUMMMMMINGGGGGG!" she cried as her body went into convulsions. It was the strongest orgasm of her young life. The crashing crescendo of sexual relief became too much, and she grabbed the blanket with one hand bunching it in a tight little fist, the other continued to strum at her clit, and the waves of shattering bliss continued to crash over her. Her hips thrust into the air, reaching for a cock that's not there yet, her breath exploded out of her with "OOOOOHHHH GAAAAWWDD!"

"Holy shit," gasped Don as he watched Lanh convulse in ecstasy, her hips slammed down to the haybale bed, then rose again, then slammed down again. Now the convulsions caused her to curl up tight, she was laying on her side curled up in the fetal position, one hand between her legs still caressing her twitching pussy, her body shuddering as aftershocks of sweet release coursed through her.

Slowly she stopped shaking. With a weakened hand she brushed the hair from her eyes and looked at Don with an exhausted smile, "Hi," she said weakly.

"That was amazing," gasped Don. "I wish I could do that for you."

"You did," she said as she eased up to a sitting position. "I never forgot you were here watching everything I did." On wobbly legs she made her way over to where Don was sitting. "That was step one," she said as she crouched down and began to kiss Don's thighs which were still covered by his blue jeans. "Are you ready for step two?"

"What's step two?"

She rose, there was mischief in her beautiful almond-shaped eyes. She leaned forward for a kiss, and she shoved her tongue as deep into Don's mouth as she could. Once he overcame the shock of his demure little girlfriend tongue fucking his mouth, he returned her kiss with fervor. Reluctantly their lips parted, and Lanh leaned back, the mischief still there in her dancing eyes. "Now you do the same for me."

She untied his hands and eased him up to a standing position. He kicked off his shoes then she unbuckled his jeans and let them drop. Then easing his jockey shorts down his cock sprung free. It stood proudly, straining away from his body, looking eagerly for a vagina to penetrate. Lanh caressed it gently, then suddenly leaned in and gave it a kiss, something she's never done before. Don gasped at the sudden sensation of her lips pressing against the head of his cock and the quick flick of her tongue.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked.

"Oh no," he smiled, "you just gave me a reason to live."

"Come on, it's show time," she said as she led him by the cock to the bed she made. She pushed him to a laying position and said "Come on, show me. Girls always wonder about this."

"They do?" he asked, a bit shocked.

She smiled and nodded as she took his right hand and wrapped it around his aching cock. "Tam tells me that we're jealous of guys, we want to shoot cum too."

"Is that true?" he asked as his hand started stroking his throbbing pole.

Lanh shrugged. "It must be, she's a psychologist. I just want to see you cum. I want to see how much comes out." She knows that over a billion spermatozoa are released, the thought of a billion little swimmers seeking out her egg cell is both daunting, and a tremendous turn-on. She wondered if she would feel them wiggling around since she discovered that she is awfully sensitive down there.

As Don started stroking his cock, Lanh retreated to the hay bale he was sitting on, but it was incredibly rough on her bottom. Then she remembered he was wearing his jeans when he sat on this bale, so she decided to put them on the hay bale and sit on them, but they were knotted up in their rush to undress Don and her skit was far away, she didn't want to miss a moment of the show. She returned to the bed and sat down at the "foot" of the bed. It was so hot watching Don stroke himself, and every stroke turned her on more and more. His hand slid up and down his pole, and as he stroked himself, he arched his back so he could see Lanh better.

She decided to give him a bit of a show and rose to her knees, spreading her legs so she could get access to her pussy. She started to gently rub her clit with one hand, with the other she began to strum a nipple sending delicious waves of eroticism through her body. Don began to copy her actions by strumming one of his nipples, shocking himself with the delicious thrills the dual stimulation provided. Their eyes devoured each other as they watched their lover stimulate himself/herself. "Oh God baby," Don gasped, "you've never looked so..."

Lanh paused expecting words like slim, thin, skinny, short, slight... everything she hated about her body. Don gasped as he looked into those deep dark eyes. "...beautiful, you look so beautiful." He gestured to her with his left hand and with a delighted whimper she melted and lay down next to him. Before long the teens were gasping as they stimulated themselves, their tongues entwining as they kissed, their passion soaring like the swallows that flitted above them in the rafters of the hayloft.

Lanh couldn't believe it, but she came again, squeaking and squealing, her fingers delicately strumming her clit as her feet planted on the bed of hay and her tiny ass lifted high off the blanket. "Oh GAAAWWWD Don, I'm CUUUUUMMMMIIIINNGGGG!" Her body convulsed as shockwaves of pent-up sexual frustration were released and blasted through her nervous system. Shaking, she started to panic because of the power of her orgasm. Unable to control her body's reaction she rolled onto her side and cried "Hold me em yêu, please hold me."

Almost there himself Don pulled her close, her head resting on his shoulder, he couldn't believe how hot this was, masturbating with his love shuddering in euphoria next to him. His hand slipped up and down his pulsing rod, getting closer and closer to that moment of release... then suddenly it was on him! The most powerful orgasm in his young life. He growled in release as his orgasm took him utterly by surprise as what felt like gallons of semen squirted out of his cock. Spurt after spurt of his hot semen flew into the air and he shuddered with each spurt. He groaned as it happened, grunting with each surge while welcome relief from so much tension washed over his body.

Lanh sat up to watch, and Kim-ly was right! It was fascinating to watch your lover's cock flexing and squirting that life-creating elixir. The spurts were reaching as far up his chest to his neck, and it seemed to go on forever. She pushed his hand away and took his cock in her tiny left hand just to feel his cock throb and pulsate as it shot his sperm. She held it until he shot his last few feeble squirts. "Oh God, I love you," she sighed, and they kissed. They held each other tight as their throes of passion faded. Don's cock softened in Lanh's hand and the last few drops of his cum dripped onto her hand. She brought it to her mouth and tasted his cum, it was musky and salty and something she wasn't wild about, but it was Don's essence and she realized that she was going to get used to it soon.

Don gasped, "That was so good! I couldn't believe jerking off could be so hot!"

Lanh rolled over on top of Don and began rubbing herself on Don's sperm-covered chest and stomach, she wanted his scent on her letting the world know she was his. Lanh grinned, "It was Tam's idea, the code word was Kim-ly's idea. They come up with all kinds of kinky ideas."

"Like what?"

"Like this," Lanh took her right index finger and rubbed it along her soaked, sodden pussy then drew it along Don's upper lip, "Tam said that's my perfume and it will drive you mad with passion."

She was right, he caught that smell as she was masturbating in front of him moments ago, and he had an overwhelming desire to taste her perfume from the source. "She's right, it's driving me crazy! What's next?" he gave her a grin.

"We're a mess! Let's go swimming in the pond."

"I've been waiting for ages to hear you say that to me naked." They rose and gathered their clothes then headed back to the pond wearing only their shoes. Walking naked hand in hand in the late afternoon sunlight they headed across the fields amazed at how the breeze felt on their naked skin. They walked all the way down to the pond to swim, splash, and love, both realizing that with a little help from Tam and Kim-ly, they conquered a serious problem that could have derailed their relationship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

School was a whirlwind; both were taking college entrance classes, Lanh because she hoped to enroll after they are finished with his Air Force commitment, and Don was taking the advanced classes because he was beginning to enjoy the challenge. When it came to social acceptance, their final year was almost as horrible as their freshman year. Even though they took part in sports and Lanh was captain of their championship debate team, they were just a nerd mixed-race couple to be taunted and harassed. Don was merely a "farm boy" and looked down on by the "townies" who didn't have to shop at the Goodwill store for their school clothes, and Lanh was a "gook," a "chink," and a "four-eyed chi-com titless wonder" but unlike their first year and a half, they now had each other to lean on for support.

They drifted through the first half of their senior year, the only interracial couple in the school, and they drew a lot of stares as they walked hand in hand through the halls oblivious to what the other students said or did. Their world started with each other, their families, the friends they made on the debate and swim teams, and their educators too. Also, they were the oldest students in the building, but you wouldn't know it from their size.

Occasionally Don would get "checked" into the lockers by some jerk, and sometimes Lanh's books would be slapped out of her hands, by the girlfriends of those jerks that torment Don, but they chose to ignore them. But the teachers were not their enemy, they all saw Don and Lanh and silently wished them well, praying that the love story would survive graduation where most high school couples parted ways.

There was only one teacher that they had a problem with, it was Miss Bernice Weberman, also known as Beached Whale to most of the student body. Miss Weberman was a ghostly pale, pasty-faced, morbidly obese woman-thing with a series of chins that wobbled in time with the rest of her body as she spoke far too much and far too often. Her lectures tended to veer off into things that had nothing to do with the subject matter of the class, and often into her personal political views. And speaking too often meant that when telling the class to read a particular passage or paragraph, her jaw would continue to flap about some innocuous thing that was not conducive to being able to read what she just told you to read.

Miss Weberman taught Applied American Literature. It was a college preparatory class so naturally, Lanh took it, and it was one of the prep classes that Don signed up for with the sole purpose of being able to sit next to Lanh. Miss Weberman's father was wounded during the Vietnam war, and she decided to make it her goal in life to destroy Lanh's perfect GPA to atone for her father's injury. It was a blatant contradiction in ideologies, the "beached whale" was an avowed socialist but was angry for the actions of a communist country.

After class on the first day, Miss Weberman asked Lanh to remain behind for "a word," so with a promise to catch up later and running late due to Miss Weberman's insistent bloviating, Don hurried off to his chemistry lab leaving Lanh behind with, as the less charitable students called her, "Jabba the Butt." When they did catch up later, Don found Lanh to be sullen and withdrawn. No matter what Don said or did, Lanh refused to talk.

At swim practice, while Lanh was timing the medley relay Don went to talk with Mr. Mach. "I think we have a problem with Miss Weberman, sir."

"How so?" It was time to be a guidance counselor.

"Lanh is leery about her; Lanh isn't like that. I don't know what Miss Weberman said to her after class yesterday, but Lanh is really upset over it."

Paul Mach couldn't operate on feelings, too many bad students came to him and thought that their teacher was out to get them, but it was rare to hear it from a good student. "I need something solid; will she tell you what Bernice said to her?"

"I tried to get her to tell me, but she won't, she won't tell her family either. Beached... I mean Miss Weberman keeps making remarks about Asians though."

Mr. Mach sighed and shook his head. "All I can say is to take good notes, there's nothing we can do without proof."

Don understood and nodded sadly, "no problem coach,"

Two days later the instrument of Miss Weberman's downfall was handed to Don by Miss Weberman herself. "It's only September but here you are, your final assignment for this class will be to write a piece of American literature," said Bernice as she rolled up the projector screen to reveal what was written on the board. "I want one original story, that's all. Use the skills you learn here. Don't forget the five elements of a story: characters, setting, conflict, theme, and the plot." Her pointer whacked the board as she pointed out each item.

"And in that story, I want to see the proper use of the story progression; exposition," Whack! "rising action," Whack! "climax," Whack! "falling action," Whack! "and conclusion." Whack! "You can start now if you'd like or you start December first, it's up to you, but you will be presenting them on stage, in the auditorium, starting December fifteenth."

She waddled back and forth in front of the class; her pointer now held at port arms like a rifle. "It can be a nonfiction or fiction, the fiction can be fantasy, romance, science fiction, western, inspirational, historical, or horror. Nonfiction can be memoir, biographical, autobiographical, expository, or narrative nonfiction." Again, her pointer swished through the air striking the board with the sound of a rifle crack. "It must clearly fit in the parameters of the genre you select, and we will be covering genres this semester. Failure to do so will result in automatic failure." Then she stopped her considerable bulk in front of Lanh's desk and looked down at Lanh and smirked, "And it goes without saying, please hand in your completed assignments in English."

Lanh focused solely on her desktop, her hands on her lap under her desk clenched into white-knuckled fists, clenched so tight her fingernails drew specks of blood, but she didn't speak. Don quickly wrote what the Beached Whale said on a piece of scrap paper as the bell rang, then collected his books. Lanh wasn't moving so he gathered her books together in her book bag, slung it over his shoulder, and led his emotionally shattered girlfriend into the hallway.

In the hallway, she burst into tears. Don held her as she wept, soaking his shirt with her tears. She was gasping "Tại sao cô ấy ghét tôi nhiều như vậy?" over and over. Don couldn't speak but a few words of Vietnamese, but he understood Lanh's cry, "Why does she hate me so much?"

Don found a Sunshine Bunny! handkerchief in Lanh's tiny, but well-stocked purse and daubed her tears then handed it to her, then began to lead her down the hallway. This was a Friday, one of the two days of the week that they had lunch together, and the lunch period was immediately after their Lit class, but Don didn't lead Lanh to the cafeteria. They passed by their locker, and he grabbed her coat along with his. Even though they each have a locker, Don's was more conveniently located, so they used it together, a small spring clip on a magnet on the door was a convenient place to leave each other love notes, especially on Mondays and Wednesdays when they barely saw each other at all. Passing by the gym Don poked his head into Mr. Mach's office and said, "I'll be taking Lanh home for the rest of the day."

"Is anything wrong?" Paul was a bit shocked, it was unusual for Lanh to miss any part of the school day, even on a Friday.

"Weberman," was all Don would say, fighting back his anger. He handed the scrap of paper with Weberman's instruction to Mr. Mach and then led Lanh to the parking lot where the pickup truck awaited them. His plan to shove it down that Beached Whale's throat was coming to fruition in his mind.

Other than an occasional sniffle Lanh was silent as they drove to Nguyen's Pho. Don led Lanh into the restaurant and wasn't noticed by any of the staff because he seated Lanh in the rarely used dark corner booth where they like to hide from Lanh's family. She sat sniffling and whimpering "Tôi đã làm gì sai?" (What did I do wrong?) He gave her a kiss and promised to come back, then hurried back to the kitchen.

There he placed some noodles in boiling water, while they were cooking, he sliced some raw beef brisket very thinly along with some cooked chuck roast that he took out of the 'fridge. He then sliced some jalapenos and grabbed some basil and some cilantro. He took a large bowl, filled it with the noodles, and placed the meat, peppers, herbs, and some beans sprouts in the bowl, then he carried the bowl to the stove. There on the stove was a huge pot of simmering beef broth. He ladled the broth into his bowl and carried it out of the kitchen. The whole time he did this, Duong watched. Don works quite diligently at the restaurant, but he rarely touches food preparation. Don had such a look of grim determination on his face that Duong, his girlfriend's father decided not to ask questions yet, so he watched in silence.

As Don walked out of the kitchen, Mai was about to demand to know what he was up to, then she noticed the pho, there were no onions and Don had cayenne pepper sauce along with the siracha... it was for Lanh. She was the only one that Mai knew that didn't like onion and liked cayenne in her pho. She followed Don back to the dark recesses of the restaurant and there he set up the bowl, spoon, and condiments in front of a crestfallen Lanh. He glanced up and saw Mai and held up a hand, beseeching her silently to wait, then started to feed his sad little lover. Don still doesn't use chopsticks very well, but skill didn't matter today as he tenderly fed Lanh. Mai was reminded of Lanh doing the same for Don when he was beaten so horribly, not once, but several times for protecting Lanh.

Don had to pause a few times while Lanh teared up and came close to weeping, she leaned on Don and shuddered, but eventually, Lanh started to feed herself when she realized how ravenous she had become. At that point, Don got up and walked up to the cashier's location where Mai and Duong were waiting. "Well?" Mai asked. Don had expected her to be angry but seeing Don feeding Lanh spoonfuls of broth, and occasionally feeding her noodles with the chopsticks, tempered her anger.

"We have a teacher who, I don't know, maybe she doesn't like Asians, maybe she doesn't like short people, maybe she just doesn't like Lanh, I don't know... but she picks on Lanh." Don related some of the little jabs that Lanh has been getting in class, then he told Mai about the "please hand in your assignments in English" crack and Mai's eyes shot open wide.

"I can't believe someone like that teaches our children," she gasped.

Trying to ignore Miss Weberman was exactly like trying to ignore a beached whale. Like the beached whale, Miss Weberman occupies a lot of Lanh's emotional real estate, and like a beached whale, the stench of that rotting carcass taints everything in its vicinity. That woman hurt Lanh. Lanh always found refuge in the classroom, and this woman destroyed that trust thought Don. "I don't know what the hell is going on in that woman's brain, but I think she needs an education," Don said. "I need your help with the story I'm going to write," and began to relate his idea to his future father and mother-in-law.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Thanksgiving neared, so did their anniversary, and the extravaganza of lights and Christmas decor that Lanh loves to turn "their" house into. Thoughts of Miss Weberman were pushed to the back as Lanh began her plans to transform the Campbell's farmhouse and her parents' restaurant into winter wonderlands, starting with the Campbell's house. The outside lights had to be done before Thanksgiving Day because Lanh loved to turn on the outside lights just after sunset on Thanksgiving Day as a signal that the Holiday Season had started. The big white farmhouse was adorned with a huge wreath between the upstairs windows, and Don placed electric candles in every window. The huge wrap-around porch was decorated with those great, old large incandescent lights, there's something about them and their glow that the new, smaller Christmas lights don't have. The small lights were decorating the bushes lining the front, and the holly garlands on the handrails were filled with tiny white lights.

As luck would have it, there was a great snowfall just before Thanksgiving and a cold front to follow was predicted. Don and Lanh worked hard on the perfect snowman, a project that involved hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps on the sly and a lot of snowballs. When not laughing they made a top hat out of sheet metal and painted it flat black, then they drove to the Builders Supply in Bagley and obtained several lumps of actual coal for his eyes, mouth, and buttons. The snow was perfect for the project, that warmish, dampish snow that packs good and solid, a marvelous art medium that they rolled, packed, and carved for hours. Finally, the perfect sticks for arms and the biggest carrot Lanh could find were added and topped off with a red and green scarf and they had the perfect snowman. The night before Thanksgiving was when the promised cold front rolled in their snowman was frozen solid. The freeze insured that this was a Christmas decoration that was going to last until April.

Now it was time to get the outside lights ready so tomorrow at sundown on Thanksgiving Day, Lanh could hit the switch and get Christmas Season underway. Don had finished up hanging the old string of lights and was on a stepladder on the porch replacing burnt-out light bulbs on the string of Christmas lights and Lanh was holding the ladder for him when he asked, "We are getting married, right?"

"Well duh! What have we been talking about for the past three months?" Lanh loved Don with all her heart, but sometimes guys can be so dumb.

"We've been talking about being married, but we haven't talked about getting married."

"What do you mean?"

Don screwed in a new lightbulb which came to light then started climbing down the ladder, "We need to know the when, where, who, how of our nuptials."

"You forgot why," grinned Lanh as she put her arms around him.

"Why is easy, I want to become one with you, to walk with you forever, I want to make wild passionate love to you for the rest of my life, collect the full set of babies, and raise them all with you. I want to spend my golden years bouncing grandchildren on my knee and bouncing you on my bed."

"Mmmm, I love it when you say babies," purred Lanh.

"Babies."

Lanh's beautiful smile bathed Don in its radiance and her nose crinkled as she grinned. They kissed long and dearly on the porch as the wind began to blow the light snow on them. When their lips parted, Lanh looked him deep in his eyes and said, "You are going to propose to me sometime, right?"

"Only if you agree to say yes," he smiled, "I don't like asking questions I don't know the answer to."

"Let's discuss this in your office."

The office was an old, attached bunk house, a large, rambling room with a fireplace on one side, and a toilet and shower in the far corner. It once housed up to eight field workers and is now being used as easy to get to storage even though the house has a large attic and basement. An ancient table and miss matched chairs were centered under a forlorn hanging bare bulb that served as the farm's office. An even older couch sat in the corner, covered by a sheet where Don and Lanh found privacy. There in the cool recesses of the "Office" they began to draw their plans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Thanksgiving morning Don and Lanh curled up together on the wingback chair that Don loves so much, morning milking was complete, and breakfast dishes were put away. Don and Lanh were in their skintight thermal underwear with a handmade quilt over their laps. Tam sat next to them in the matching wingback chair and the three were watching the parades. Lanh slept in the "niece/nephew" room last night with Tam and they stayed up till late in the evening talking about boys. As they watched the parades Lanh had a huge mug of hot coffee with fresh cream, while Tam and Don were sipping that concoction of contradictions, Vietnamese coffee; hot and cloyingly sweet, yet outrageously bitter at the same time.

While the network cut away for a commercial break, Lanh and Tam were chatting a little bit in Vietnamese. Don didn't mind it much, Vietnamese is practically musical to his western ear, and to Don, it brought forth the inner person of the speaker. Hearing Lanh speak in her parents' native tongue made her cuter than she normally is, and Don loves it when Lanh is purposely making herself cute. Under the tree will be a package for Lanh holding a Sunshine Bunny! T-shirt in neon colors, and a matching Sunshine Bunny! Purse just because she looks so cute with that stuff that Americans consider to be children's clothing.

When she speaks Tam sounds like a woman of mystery, like "The Dragon Lady" from old 1930s movies, full of mystery and intrigue. Her looks reinforce Don's "Dragon Lady" perception of her, but the odd part is that "Dragon Lady" is becoming Lanh's nickname on the swim team. Like Lanh, Tam has beautiful eyes, but Tam's eyes are narrower than Lanh's, giving her a look of being sneaky. She also rarely smiles. When she does smile, her face lights up and it's a joyful experience to see her smile, but normally her face has a deadpan, disinterested look, and quite often an expression that looks like anger. This doesn't detract from Tam's breathtaking beauty, but a smile sure would help, thought Don.

Before the parade came back on, Don asked Lanh, "Why did you call Tam your mom?"

"I didn't call her that."

"You did," insisted Don. "You called her má, that's the same thing that you call your mom."

"I didn't do that... did I?" Lanh looked over at Tam who sipped her Vietnamese coffee and nodded.

"All the time, since you were one." Tam raised her coffee cup in salute to Don, "You're learning!"

"I guess so," said Lanh a look of embarrassment on her face. "Tam raised me. Bao and Kim-ly were such brats that má couldn't keep up with them, so Tam raised me which freed up má to smack Bao and Kim-ly around."

"She was too kindhearted to them," said Tam as she sipped her coffee.

"So, who is going to be the mother of the bride?" asked Don as quietly as possible.

"I'm going to ask Tam to be my maid of honor," Lanh whispered in Don's ear.

Tam watched a parade float travel along a street she would never walk on, in a city she had no desire to visit, but the giant balloons were always interesting. She always hoped for a windy Thanksgiving morning, so the balloon tenders must work for their few minutes of notoriety on national TV. She also has incredibly good hearing, and she decided that she needed to talk to má, ba, and Ralph as soon as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanksgiving dinner was held at the Pho restaurant on a day when a cold front known as an Alberta Clipper blasted into Minnesota from the prairies of Canada and North Dakota. The curtains were drawn, and the sign said Closed for Family Gathering. It was so cold that the windows were frosting over on the inside. There were fourteen people in attendance, the entire Nguyen family, the Campbells including Sandy Robertson, and special guests, a beautiful young Korean girl named Ahnjong Park from Huy's law office who accompanied Huy, and Trung who was teaching at the University of North Dakota brought his blond, blue-eyed teaching assistant Angela Sabbe.

As the women bustled around the kitchen, alternately preparing dinner, and pumping Angela and Ahnjong for information, the guys sat out at the Sushi bar and drank beer (hey! it's a bar) and watched their Vikings play against Green Bay. Don and Lanh, being the youngest, arranged the square four-setting tables into a single long table, then added chairs, and set the table. After that, they relaxed in a secluded booth and began to whisper more wedding plans, but they were interrupted by a knock at the door. "We're closed!" called Lanh.

"Please," called a voice, "our car won't start, and we need some food."

Don and Lanh looked at each other and opened the door. Peering at them was a young couple with an infant and a toddler bundled tightly against the cold. "Oh, thank God," said the man. "We stopped and spent the night because of the storm, and now everything is closed, and the car won't start."

Don and Lanh looked at each other then opened the door and Lanh said, "We're closed, so we can't sell you any food, but since you said the magic words, you can join us for dinner."

"Magic words?" said the man, a bit confused.

"You said thank God on Thanksgiving Day," his wife whispered in his ear. Overjoyed with the offer, they shook Lanh and Don's hands vigorously as they began to shuck their coats. Lanh held the baby while they disrobed and somehow ended up keeping it.

Hearing the bells ring when the door opened, Duong came to see who arrived, and Lanh informed him in Vietnamese that they were stranded travelers. "Come on in, this is Minnesota, we don't let travelers freeze or starve, come in!" smiled Duong.

"He said the magic words," explained Lanh.

"Well, thank God for that!" grinned Duong. "I am Duong Nguyen, and this is my family, and you are welcome to join us."

The traveler said, "I'm Greg Davis, and this is my wife Marjorie, we're traveling to Minot and when we woke up at the motel this morning, the car wouldn't start, and everything nearby is closed."

"That's actually a good thing, highway 2 is closed from Bagley to Devils Lake," said Duong as he took their coats. "It won't open again until tomorrow at the soonest."

Soon the Davis family was the center of attention as everyone gathered around to welcome the stranded travelers. Greg apologized over and over for intruding until Mai said, "If you can wash dishes, you're not intruding at all," to general laughter.

"This is how it is up north, we watch out for each other," said Ralph, "and all we ask is that you pass on the favor."

Somehow Lanh got the baby boy away from Marjorie and she and Don ended up back in the booth while Lanh cuddled and bottle-fed the little lad. His two-year-old sister climbed up on Don's lap and explained to Don and Lanh how to take care of a baby, from a two-year-old's perspective.

Dinner was loud and happy, and following Nguyen tradition, they went around the table sharing what they were most thankful for. When it was Lanh's turn she said, "I am thankful for Greg, Marjorie, Ahnjong, and Angela, because now Don and I are not the centers of attention." That was clearly the wrong thing to say because after everyone recited what they were thankful for, Greg, Marjorie, Ahnjong, and Angela were extensively "briefed" on the adventures of Don and Lanh, much to Lanh's chagrin.

All kinds of wonderful foods, traditional and exotic, were available, and the food was set out buffet-style in the kitchen, so reaching and passing were eliminated, and cleanup was simplified. Of course, turkey was the star of the show, and there were two them, a roast beef, and a ham.

"This is incredible!" exclaimed Marjorie, "This turkey, it's like... it has a concentrated turkey flavor, how did you do it?"

"Twelve gauge," said Don as he fed the two-year-old girl on his lap some sweet potato dripping with honey, butter, and marshmallow.

"I don't understand," said Craig, a bit confused.

"That's the caliber of the gun he used," said Ralph. "These are wild turkeys that Huy and Don got this past week on my farm."

Mai added, "Most of this feast came from Ralph's farm, they raised the beef and most of the vegetables served were grown on the farm also."

"Lanh made a garden that is quite a success," said Tam. The vegetables were raised in "Lanh's garden" three acres of scrub that Don and Lanh cleared, plowed, tilled, planted, irrigated, and harvested.

"Except for some traditional Vietnamese ingredients, everything we serve is locally sourced, when it is available," said Duong proudly. Making that change cost him a little more, but advertising it increased their customer base substantially, Minnesotans love to support Minnesota.

Table conversation was joyful, and laughter was plentiful. Their new friends, the Davis family were traveling from Ann Arbor Michigan to visit friends that moved to Minot, North Dakota when the storm hit, and the stranded family felt at home with this huge extended family. The Davis family was surprised that the sign on the door said that the restaurant would be closed on Christmas also.

"We're Catholic," said Mai.

"A very disliked minority in Vietnam," nodded Duong, "that's why our parents moved here, and we became the only Asian restaurant north of Minneapolis that closes on Christmas."

While the table was being cleared and dishes washed, Lanh and Kim-ly set to dividing up the leftovers and making sandwiches and snacks for the Davis family to take back to their hotel room and carry them through to their destination. Don crafted "Norwegian Burritos" made of turkey, mashed potatoes, a touch of gravy, and cranberries wrapped in a lefse 'tortilla.' "My grandpa Ode and my grandma Hilde would call this an abomination to everything that's right," said Don as he wrapped the burritos, "they don't believe in wrapping anything in lefse, but this is soooo good." To his grandpa Ode, lefse was a sacred thing to be served only with butter and maybe a little sugar.

While the feast clean-up was in progress, Duong called Mai, Ralph, Sandy, and Tam into the dining room in their attached house to discuss something that was weighing heavily on his mind. When they all settled Duong turned to Tam and said, "Tell them what you told me."

"I simply said that, believe it or not, Don and Lanh are actually getting closer." Tam put on her glasses, something she rarely did outside of the classroom, she doesn't really need them, but it makes her look more authoritative. "A couple that has been together for almost two years should be comfortable with a kiss goodnight, but for them, it's still a painful separation. Don has saved Lanh multiple times from some serious jerks, he's taken his beatings and since then, he's been more than a boyfriend, he's her protector, and she's been his teacher, his grades are nearly as high as hers."

"Which means what?" asked Ralph.

Tam fiddled with her wine glass. "This isn't puppy love anymore; this is the real deal. Emotionally they're bonded. They're eighteen now, we should be thankful that they haven't run off and eloped. There's not a thing that anyone here could do to stop it if they got that idea in their heads."

"They're going to do something stupid," muttered Duong.

"They're crazy," nodded Ralph.

Sandy sighed, "I know I don't have a horse in this race, but did you see them with the Davis' children? Not just Lanh, but Don! That young man is a magician with children, he calmed down that colicky little one in about fifteen minutes and didn't give up, and Lanh was with him, helping. And now that little girl adores him! She sat on his lap all through dinner and never raised a fuss. As the only grandma in the room, it appears to me that they're not just ready to have kids, they're set to raise them."

Mai saw it too and nodded in agreement. "What do you think Doctor Nguyen?"

Tam tried to be as businesslike as possible. She shifted in her chair uncomfortably and said, "I'm not breaking a confidence if I tell you that if they got married today, Lanh could still wear white, but it's getting harder for them to keep that status. I would simply say, Dad, get ready to have a difficult conversation with Donovan in the near future. I think we should all pray that they don't elope, but if they do, they will still need our love and support."

"But their education!" exclaimed Mai.

"They're young," shrugged Duong, "the young do stupid things, no matter how smart they are."

"Duong, I think you have a month," said Ralph. "They count Christmas as their anniversary, I think he's going to want to propose on Christmas, and I'm sure he'll speak to you first."

Sandy nodded in agreement, "He's that kind of boy... man. He'll ask you first."

"I've given him so much soup," Mai said, "I think he's gallant enough to face even you, Grouchy Man." She gave her grouchy husband a hug.

Duong smiled and pulled out his pocket calendar and looked at the spring, "They graduate on June fourteenth... Don ships off to basic in mid-July... I think if we work together..." he began marking his calendar and scratching notes on a napkin as he thought. All participants in the conversation leaned forward and looked at his notes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the "grownups" were talking about "grownup things," in the restaurant the kitchen was cleaned to restaurant standards: spotless, leftovers packaged and divided between participants, and the ingredients for tomorrow's Black Friday lunch rush that need slow cooking were started, and everyone returned to the dining area where the table was still together.

"What do you want to do?" asked Kim-ly.

"We have four couples here," pointed out Bao, "why not the Kissing Game?"

"Three couples," whispered Lanh as she held a snoozing two-year-old. "We just got the kids to sleep." Holding the sleeping infant, Don nodded in agreement.

"What is the kissing game?" asked Marjorie Davis.

"It's a simple game," said Trung, "you and Greg kiss for one minute, that's it. If you can hold your kiss for a minute, you win. We will be trying to interrupt you, but we can't touch you, throw things at you, etcetera."

"They play for money," said Angela, "and they're really good at breaking your concentration." She's played before and she wants a rematch.

"It's just a buck," said Huy. "If the couple wins, they get a dollar from everyone, if they lose, no money is lost."

"Is this a Vietnamese thing, this kissing game?" asked Greg.

"Sort of, it's a rebellious Asian thing," said Kim-ly.

"Kissing is frowned upon in Asian societies," said Bao, "So rebellious youth make up games like this to show their parents that we won't be pushed around."

"What rebellious youth fail to realize is that their parents did the same thing," added Huy.

"Don't get me started on Korea," said Ahnjong as Trung arrived with the timer they use for the game.

"Keep an eye on this," whispered Lanh to Don as Trung and Angela kicked off the game, "we're going to play on Christmas, and I'm going to talk them into betting five bucks each."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before Don realized it, his Lit assignment was due. He really bit off more than he could chew with it, his five-thousand-word story was well beyond a twenty-thousand-word novella and pressing into a full-blown novel, but he kept on researching. He spent hours and hours on the phone, talking to people who barely understood English, needing a translator when they spoke, and needing a shoulder to lean on because the stories they told were so heartbreaking. He kept writing, keeping in mind that he had to boil it down to a ten-minute synopsis and present it before the Christmas break. He had to do good, it was all for Lanh, every word of it.

And now it's time...

Don stepped out onto the lonely stage, a single spotlight shown on him, blinding him. There was no lectern to rest his notes on, lecterns were built to hold your notes, but their primary purpose is to hide behind. "We're waiting!" came the nasal voice of Miss Weberman.

He cleared his throat and squinted through the glare at his notes. "My name is Donovan Campbell, and the title of my story is Journey to Freedom. It is a biographical story of a family's escape from persecution." Don hated standing on stage and being stared at, but it was time to present his story for Applied American Literature. Don was second to last in line to make their presentation, Lanh will give her recitation on her story about Marissa when he is finished. He typed up his entire story, then took it to the graphic arts class and had it printed and bound. Twenty-five thousand words, fifty pages (over one hundred pages for the teacher's double spaced version), hours of interviews and typing on that ancient laptop of his dad's, practicing his presentation over and over. It all came down to this.

Miss Bernice Weberman was Don's freshman English teacher and she flunked him back then, now he wanted to nail one to the wall, to present an English paper that would re-define the grade of A+, one that was so good she would have to grade him top in the class, a paper that would ring in the annals of academic excellence. But it is also engineered to make the Beached Whale rethink her hatred of Lanh. If he did it right Bernice would see past her hatred and grade Lanh appropriately. He hated being alone on the stage with a single spotlight shining on him, it blinded him so he couldn't see the audience, did Weberman plan it that way? Also, how did she fit that tremendous bulk into the theater seats in the auditorium? He shuddered in pity for the chair that had to support that monstrous flabby ass, and the thought of her squeezing so much blubber into that poor seat was both humorous and terrifying. He thought she must be terribly uncomfortable, so he took his time.

"Please, Mister Campbell, if you don't mind, we are all waiting to be illuminated by your brilliance."

She sounds uncomfortable, he had to stifle a grin. "In the summer of nineteen seventy-four, it was clear to the population of South Vietnam that the US Government was going to renege on its promise to support the government of South Vietnam and leave the people helpless against the tide of communist aggression. As the North Vietnamese captured territory they would summarily torture and execute anyone that they saw as threats, along with their families. Soldiers, intellectuals, local politicians, and Christians were their main targets. They were human lawnmowers, slicing through any obstacle.

"The people of the parish of Saint Augustine in a small forgotten village near Saigon saw the writing on the wall and rather than abandon their faith, they chose to relocate to any other country that would take them and allow them to worship God in freedom."

Don then spun the tale of the 110 members of the St. Augustine church who took the dangerous, deadly journey out of Vietnam. Many of their men were impressed into the remainders of the South Vietnamese army, on land they were assailed by robbers and bandits, and on the sea, they were attacked by pirates. They had no idea that they were the first of a wave of more than nearly two million refugees to leave Vietnam. His story centered around Pham An Tri, a twenty-two-year-old woman who made the journey with four children, her husband was pressed into the South Vietnamese army as the country fell and was never heard from again. He also spoke of Nguyen Tai Minh a 23-year-old man with three children whose wife was raped and killed by pirates in front of him and his children. Both families survived harrowing misfortune and eventually found refuge in Canada, and the story ended with them being allowed entry into the United States in 1980. Of the 110 who started the journey, 73 survived and made it to their new home in Minneapolis.

In the audience, Lanh looked in amazement at the spiral-bound book on her lap. Like Miss Weberman's copy, hers was special too. It was much thicker than Miss Weberman's copy because so much of what Don discovered was left out of the final version. He put all that extra information in Lanh's copy, and the cover was soft pink, the color of rose quartz, her favorite mineral. There was another page in there that no other copy had, the page was hand calligraphed and simply said:

To my Dear Wife

This wedding gift is a gift of love and passion for you

and your family. I share it with the world in the hope

that they grow to love you as I do. In so many ways

I fell in love with everyone in this book and the amazing

journey that brought us together.

This is the story of our family

All my love

Donovan

He waited on stage expectantly for his grade. After a long pause, Miss Weberman spoke. "You covered it all Mister Campbell, characters, setting, conflict, theme, plot, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. It was well constructed; it is truly a shame that I must give you a grade of F."

Don was not shocked, to be honest, he had expected this. "May I ask why?" He held his copy of his story up to shield his eyes from the spotlight so he could see the beached whale as she explained her grade.

Her fat face and multitude of chins were covered with smug glee as she said, "First of all, you went three minutes over time, which cost you some points, but mostly you classified this story as biographical when clearly it is historical fiction. For that, I must give you an F."

"Ma'am, are you saying that this is a work of fiction? That I made this up? What do you base that decision on?"

"It is far too fantastical, Mister Campbell. These people clearly could not have survived such a traumatic journey! Obviously, you made it all up. Move along Mister Campbell, we have one more student to hear from."

But Don didn't move from his spot on the stage. "Let me introduce some people that can help you understand the background of my story." Don gestured off stage and four people slowly made their way from the wings to center stage. Looking up, Lanh shrieked in surprise, the entire class heard her squeal and laughed at her response as she slid down into her seat.

Hearing her squeak Don smiled but he continued, "Allow me to introduce Nguyen Tai Minh who made the journey at the age of 23, and his son Nguyen Hieu Duong who made the journey at the age of four. With them is Pham An Tri, and her daughter Pham My-Duyen Mai who also made the journey at the age of two. I call these two Grandma Tri and Grandpa Minh, and these two who will translate, I call them mom and dad. This is MY family and they're going to help me answer any questions you may have regarding the presumed fictional nature of this story." He peered at her with the script shading his eyes. "Any questions? Any at all? We're waiting."

In her seat, Bernice Weberman stewed in her own anger. The little bastard! How dare he presume to... her thoughts were interrupted by a movement to her right. It was Mr. Landry, the vice principal. He was sitting in the row behind her. He leaned forward resting his arms on the seatback next to her clutching a copy of Don's story.

"It was a nice story, I like it," he said softly.

Before she could remark on Mr. Landry's audacious comment, a movement to her left caused her to look to the left, it was Mrs. Gunderson, the principal leaning forward also with a copy of the story.

"I had lunch with Mrs. Pham and Mr. Nguyen, delightful people! Their insights really bring this story to life. We are thinking of helping Donovan get this published. Oh, and did you know that their granddaughter is in your class? She's a darling girl."

As Mrs. Gunderson eased back into her seat, Mr. Landry asked, "Bernice, do you have any questions for Mister Campbell? He's waiting."

As Don waited, Lanh sprinted on stage and began hugging her grandparents whom she hadn't seen in months and the class erupted in laughter as Don waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inside the Campbell home, it was a Christmas wonderland. Lanh's decorations went into overdrive, she even found a series of Christmas houses for the train under the tree at a garage sale and now the Santa Fe Southwest Chief provided service to a beautiful Christmas village straight out of the North Pole.

Nothing escaped Lanh's touch, all flat surfaces that couldn't be covered with gaily-colored tablecloths were covered with fake snow and mounded with Christmas decorations ranging from glitter-covered pinecones to evergreen boughs and tinsel garland. Even the lampshades in the living room were decorated with silver garland and dangling red ornaments. Lanh even found time to decorate the bunkhouse with an artificial tree, a holly garland on the old fireplace, and a handmade Christmas quilt to snuggle under on the couch.

Now the family gathered for the Christmas Eve feast, the same people were there as at the Thanksgiving feast minus the Davis family, the dining room was festively decorated in holly garlands, pine boughs, pinecones, and wreaths. Adding to the festive occasion was the candlelight that added a beautiful golden glow to the meal. Mai's mother, Tri Pham (Grandma Tri), came up from Minneapolis to take part in Don's American Lit presentation and decided to stay to celebrate Christmas with her daughter and grandchildren.

Grandma Tri is a tiny woman, barely taller than Lanh. Wrinkled and gray, but with an internal fire that Don could see from across the room. He could only wonder what kind of young woman she was, after losing her husband to lead her tiny children out of a collapsing homeland to an unknown future in America. Mai, Sandy, and Lanh led her around the house, showing off the decorations, and she was amazed and in Vietnamese complimented Lanh on her efforts. Finally, she spotted a warm place to rest in front of the fireplace, so she claimed Don's wingback chair, pulled a warm quilt over her lap, and there she held court, greeting her progeny as they came to say hello.

This was the first time Don met her face to face, he spoke to her on the phone through translators, now she was here in his house, and he was terrified of meeting her, Tam and Kim-ly rightly informed him that what Grandma Tri says goes, she rarely wields her power anymore but if she decides to go back to Vietnam she will go, and her family will follow. "Really?" gasped Don, now terrified that Lanh could possibly end up in Vietnam.

"That's mostly hyperbole," said Tam, "but to be safe we don't give her any ideas."

On the other hand, Trung and Bao filled Don with stories of how much Grandma Tri hates white people. Now Don was even more terrified to meet her. What if she doesn't like him and decides to move her family back to Vietnam to prevent him from marrying Lanh? But he couldn't avoid it as Lanh dragged him to meet Grandma Tri. "Chào mừng bà ngoại Tri," he said, terrified that he mangled the phrase "Welcome Grandma Tri."

Her face lit up in a huge smile, and she grabbed his hand and began chattering so fast that Lanh could barely translate; "I'm happy to meet you... I love your cows... thank you for giving me your chair... you should... seriously? Grandma!" What Lanh said to her grandmother next was covered up by the raucous laughter of her brothers and sisters.

"What? What did she say?"

Lanh looked at Don nervously, "She said we should elope and that you're um... hot and we should... um... make babies a lot."

Don laughed in relief and laughed at Lanh's embarrassment, as Grandma Tri joined him in the laughter. Lanh angrily said "Ok, you two can have a nice sex talk, I have dinner to prepare," and she stormed off amid gales of laughter and Kim-ly gladly assumed the translating duty, especially if Grandma Tri was giving sex advice.

A prime rib of beef from a steer that Lanh raised and fed for this very occasion, baked potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with cranberries, and plenty of lefse which Grandma Tri adored. Once the meal was finished and desert was still being considered, Kim-ly loudly reminded Lanh that she and Don had wimped out of The Kissing Game at Thanksgiving.

"I didn't see you playing either," said Lanh.

"I didn't have a date, YOU did!"

"Ok, we'll play, but I want to see a five-dollar bill in front of everybody," insisted Lanh. Her elf ears and elf hat didn't detract from her fierce glare.

"You're on!" said Kim-ly as she slapped a five on the table. Laughing, her brothers and sister reached for their wallets. Duong and Mia shook their heads and closed their eyes smiling at memories of The Kissing Game from years past. In their day the game was called Hôn Hôn (kiss kiss) and was played with dice, but the effect was the same, you got to kiss. Ralph leaned back smiling, his arm around Sandy, it felt good to have the house filled with laughter once more.

Don and Lanh rose and stood at the end of the table, they were standing in the doorway between the living room and the dining room, behind them, the Christmas tree twinkled merrily in its darkened space, above them hung that lacy white bell with the mistletoe clapper that Lanh loved so much inviting them to kiss.

"Have you been a good little elf this year?" asked Santa Don. He was wearing a borrowed Santa Claus jacket that looked comical on his slim frame and a Santa Claus hat that drooped down over his eyes on occasion.

Lanh was dressed in her elf ears, red elf hat with bell and green feather, a red turtleneck sweater with a green button-up vest. "Yes, I have Santa," answered Lanh avoiding eye contact by looking down to her left with a smile.

"Ho, ho, ho!" called out Lanh's father Duong sarcastically, which caused a chuckle from everyone seated around the large dining room table.

"That was my line," said Santa Don causing even more laughter.

Standing under the Mistletoe bell Santa Don turned to Elf Lanh and said, "Still not exactly a Pudgy Elf yet, are we?" he emphasized that by tickling her ribs causing both Lanh and Tam to laugh, all three remembering Don and Lanh's very first kiss when Lanh dressed like an elf to teach Don the order of mathematical operations and he stole a kiss as they hid from Tam under the table. That kiss was another step that propelled them on this long, loving journey.

Looking at her family, Lanh was sure that she saw two tall blond women standing behind her parents, one had the tips of her hair dyed purple. It was just for a moment, and she saw them out of the corner of her eye, and when she tried to focus, they were gone, but for a part of a moment they were there, she was sure of it. "My angels are here!" she whispered to Don, "they're watching us."

Before Don could react, a raucous "Get on with it!" was shouted by all five of Lanh's siblings.

Playing the part Santa Don leaned over a little bit and said, "Whisper into my ear what you want for Christmas little elf."

The bashful little elf Lanh said, "What I want for Christmas is..." and with that, she drew in close and instead of pretending to whisper into Santa Don's ear, she began nibbling on his ear lobe and exploring his ear with the tip of her tongue, something she knew that "Santa" REALLY enjoyed. He enjoyed it so much that he was sure his erection would be a topic of conversation for Christmas gatherings to come.

Recovering his wits from her exquisite tongue action, Don stood and said "Ho, ho, HO! You want a kiss from Santa, little elf?"

Lanh played coy, biting the tip of her finger, and twisting from side to side until her brothers and sisters yelled again "Get on with it!"

"Đi đi mau!" shouted Grandma Tri causing even more laughter, Mai laughing the hardest at her mother's outburst.

Lanh yelled "Yes!" at the top of her lungs and launched herself at Don. The moment their lips met Tam slapped her hand down on a cheap plastic timer the Nguyen children used to play games in their youth. They started cheering and jeering their youngest sister as she passionately kissed the man she chose.

The siblings knew how the game was played, they went for the throat, the sure-fire, never fail game stopper. They laughed and cajoled the couple, but Don and Lanh ignored them. But at a pre-arranged time, with over fifteen seconds left, Tam struck her spoon against her water glass making a loud ping! and all the Nguyen youngsters groaned like they lost a bet, rose, and started a disheartened slow clapping saying, "You win Lanh." Don almost pulled away, but Lanh, suspecting her siblings were up to something, wrapped an arm around Don's shoulders and held his head in place with her small hand. There were groans and the siblings sat back down defeated, they couldn't get the new guy to break the lip-lock with their best move before the allotted time, so they waited out the final seconds with the usual jeers until the timer went DING!

Don and Lanh kissed a little longer then stepped apart and bowed to the applause of the entire audience. Then, smiling in innocence, Lan went and collected a crisp five-dollar bill from each of her brothers and sisters, but also Angela and Ahnjong.

She walked back to Don, fanning herself with the money, her face aglow in pride and the joy of pulling one over on her brothers and sisters. "What do you think honey?" and then so quietly only Don could hear, "a start on our house?"

Then, just as quietly Don replied, "I'm going to ask him."

"When? Tonight? After midnight mass?"

"Now."

Lanh squealed and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and planting rapid-fire kisses on his face, and whispered in his ear "That's why my angels are watching!" She hopped down and he led her by the hand into the room. Suddenly the room went silent, everybody knew something important was going to happen. Don and Lanh started making their way around the table, Huy and Ahnjong had to move out of the way to let them pass. Soon they stood hand in hand in front of Duong who pushed his chair back and turned to face them, his face covered with a serious scowl.

"Sir," started Don, his voice started out a little nervous, but it suddenly became assured, "Lan and I want to marry. We love each other dearly, and I will spend the rest of my life sheltering her, protecting her, and loving her. I want to be the father to our children that you are to Lanh, and my dad is to me. All we ask is your blessing."

Duong Nguyen's features went stone cold, he has always liked Don, and he thought he was ready for this moment, they all saw it coming but now the moment has arrived... Duong saw his baby's tiny hand in the hand of this callow youth, this usurper! ALL his children have foresworn marriage until their chosen degrees and accreditations were complete, and tiny Lanh hasn't even finished high school. How dare he! "You know her older sisters haven't married yet," growled Duong.

Lanh squeezed Don's hand tightly, this was a trap that she had warned him about. "I wasn't aware that there was a Vietnamese tradition of only allowing your daughters to wed by age." Don's voice was steady but inside his guts were in turmoil. If Lanh wasn't holding his hand so tight, he would have run off by now.

Duong glared at Don. Don was right of course, but he couldn't let this cur win. "I know you are both eighteen, but that's too young, there's no way I can give you my permission to..."

"I didn't ask for your permission, I asked for your blessing... sir," Don interrupted. Interrupting the father of his intended was probably the worst thing he could possibly do, but marrying Lanh was the most important thing Don has ever done.

The Nguyen siblings never saw their father go so silent for so long. He was clearly getting ready to explode, poor Don and Lanh! Kim-ly whimpered in fear for them. Ahnjong gasped, she and Huy were beginning to talk about marriage, if this is what they must go through...

Duong's gaze fell on his daughter. "What do you want little one?" His voice was softer with his baby.

Lanh's eyes filled with tears, "I want to stop saying goodbye every night daddy. I want my best friend next to me for the rest of my life. I love him daddy... we want babies, daddy..." Huge fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she implored her father.

How Duong's face didn't crack is a miracle, Lanh's sisters were sniffing back tears watching their baby sister professing her love for this young man. If only they could have such courage when their time comes! And Mai was utterly shocked, she knew the depths of love her husband had for their tiny daughter, how he didn't start crying when he heard her heartfelt plea was a mystery to her.

All Duong could think about was the first time he saw Lanh -- so tiny... so weak... Barely two pounds, she almost didn't make it to come home... and now here she is, begging to leave. Finally, Duong spoke. "Your mother," he said pointing at Lanh, "your father," he said pointing at Don, "And I have spoken long about this, we saw this day coming and we think you are crazy. You're too young to start with! and being young you are prone to do stupid things," he ended sadly. He paused for a long time glaring at the young couple. Slowly he took a deep breath then suddenly with a bark he exclaimed, "You want to get married when he is done with basic training? That's stupid! And why? Because you want your wedding pictures with Don in his dress blues?" Lanh nodded; her eyes filled with tears of terror. Then at Don, he yelled, "And what if I tell you that you don't have my permission to marry my daughter?"

Terrified but still firm Don replied, "Then we will honor your decision and we won't get married, but we will live together and raise our family without you until we do get your permission."

Turning to his wife and Ralph he said "See? Stupid! There's no way they can afford to live together on an Airman First Class salary!" Then he turned to Don. "If you're not married you will not get housing allowance, you will be assigned to the barracks, you will not be given a food allowance and you will have to eat in the chow hall, she will have to fend for herself! It will be tough, there's no way you could raise our grandchildren without those benefits, and you cannot get them until you marry. Did you think of that?"

Don stood firm, his knuckles and Lanh's knuckles were white, their hands were clasped so tight. "Yes sir, we did. That's why I asked for your blessing, not permission."

Smart boy! the only way Duong could keep from smiling was to scowl even deeper. His face was starting to hurt from the scowling, but it was almost time... He pulled out a pocket calendar and rifling through it he looked up at Don and said, "And I suppose if I refuse to give you my blessing you would run off and get married in spite of my wishes."

"No sir, not to spite you, but yes, we would get married."

"Without my blessing?!?"

"Well sir, we both love you dearly, but... you're not the pope." The only sound in the room was Kim-ly trying to stifle a laugh. Mai even stopped translating for Grandma Tri because she would laugh.

Trying his hardest not to laugh Duong rumbled, "youth is wasted on the young..." he grumbled some more then he stared straight into Don's eye. "This is the way it's going to be young man, if you insist on marrying my youngest daughter, if you want my blessing then the wedding will be on June seventeenth." It was both a knife to his heart and one of the most joyful things Duong ever said in his life.

Lanh and Don stared at her father in shock, a collective gasp rose from Lanh's sisters Tam and Kim-ly, while Lan's brothers Huy, Trung, and Bao stared wide-eyed in shock, Ahnjong couldn't believe what she heard. Ralph was having trouble keeping a straight face as was Lanh's mother Mai. Sandy was a pianist, not an actress, she burst into tears of joy. June seventeenth was only three days after their June fourteenth graduation, it was months sooner than they had dreamed of getting married and weeks before his enlistment date in July.

Duong continued, his voice still a growl. "What, it's not good enough for you?"

Don was in shock; it was almost like a dream come true; it was better. "No sir, I mean yes sir, it's just..."

Duong's voice softened slightly. "Son, and I am going to be proud to call you my son, you made your father and me proud, you have protected my daughter at risk of your own life, you stood up for my daughter's hand like a man. BUT I am NOT going to send off my baby daughter without a proper honeymoon. You two will have weeks together before you ship off to basic training. I don't want to have a hormonal teenage daughter pacing the halls waiting all summer for her wedding. It's going to be bad enough with a hormonal teenage daughter pacing the halls waiting all summer for her husband to finish basic training. PLUS, I can ship her off to you as soon as you finish basic, and you can take her with you to your technical school... but there's one thing you must do FIRST!"

His shout "first" hung in the air like a spinning sword. Don and Lanh were clueless. Duong crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the young couple. "You must do this one little thing first," he said, and the young couple was still confused. Mai tried to send a hint by fidgeting with her wedding ring, but neither child could understand her signal. Lanh's oldest brother Huy mouthed some words but they didn't get that either.

Duong made them sweat for a good long time until he finally opened his arms and with exaggerated graciousness said, "Ask Her!" he said softly.

"Here? In front of everybody?" Don's voice cracked and his question came out as a squeak. He had planned to ask her later after her folks went home. He was going to ask her in the warmth of the fireplace, by the light of the Christmas tree and the candles, and compound the joy of their anniversary, and she looks so beautiful in candlelight.

"Don, you had the guts to dress down Mr. Nguyen in front of his entire family," said Ralph, "You could at least honor his one request." Which brought out chuckles from the family.

"Ask her!" Grandma Tri practically shouted, "before I ask you!" causing all to convulse in laughter. Grandma Tri understands and speaks English, she just doesn't do it very often.

"But he doesn't have a ring," said Lanh in a tiny voice.

"Actually..." Don pulled a small jewelry box out of his pocket and slowly eased to his knee. Suddenly everyone was on their feet to get a better view. Cameras began to flash, but the only thing Don could see was his beloved Lanh, looking down at him in shock, and all she could see was the love in Don's eyes and that mysterious box. The box that he scrimped and saved for. His share of the farm's profits was in that box. Opening the box, he held it up to her and said "Lanh Nguyen, I love you more than I ever thought possible, you are my entire world, my reason for living. Would you complete me by becoming my wife?"

Inside the box was a simple gold band with a diamond mounted on it, the ring they looked at months ago, the ring that Lanh fell in love with, the ring they agreed that they couldn't afford. The box held the entire set, an engagement ring, and two wedding bands, simple gold rings telling the world of their love. Right now, Lanh's eye was fixed on the engagement ring. It was simple and exactly an engagement ring, like Don and like Lanh there was nothing frilly or pretentious about it. To Lanh it said exactly what Don said aloud to her; would you complete me by becoming my wife. She stared at it wordlessly, how many nights had she dreamt of this exact moment, all the endless possibilities (her favorite fantasy was being proposed to naked in the pond on a hot summer afternoon), but here! In front of her entire family! She suddenly realized that this was an Americanized version of a traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony, and something told her that her dad knew that fact.

Her hands started shaking so bad she almost dropped the box, she could only whimper, her ears were ringing, and her heart was pounding, she couldn't hear her brothers and sisters softly prompting her, "Say yes!" Don realized what was happening and took the box from her shaking hands and took out the ring. He poised it over the tip of her ring finger and looking up into her beautiful eyes asked softly, "Please?"

"Yes!" she gasped breathlessly, and the ring slid onto her finger; a perfect fit. "Yes, yes, yes!" she cried, her voice returning as she sank to her knees, "Oh God yes!" and their lips met. Lanh kissed and kissed and kissed her man, HER man, over and over. She had been dreaming of this moment for so long, it's like she knew he was the one when she was a terrified little nerd and suddenly this nerd farm boy prince asks her to dance...

"Come on baby, our audience awaits us," he insisted between kisses. As he stood, she wrapped herself around him, her ankles locked behind his back, his hands cupping her tiny ass cheeks as they rose, and they continued to kiss. Finally standing he released her, and she reluctantly lowered her feet to the ground as she surrendered his lips and life came flooding into her personal reality. She noticed her family around her, clapping and congratulating them, and there was daddy, still sitting on his chair with a huge smile, the biggest, brightest smile she ever saw.

Her heart nearly burst, and she sat on his lap, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed his face over and over. "Oh, thank you daddy!" she whispered in his ear as she hugged him around the neck. "I'm going to love him until the day I die."

Sandy edged over to Tam and whispered, "You knew all about this didn't you?"

Tam glanced at the tall slim blond without turning her head. "I can neither confirm nor deny the allegations," she said with an enigmatic smile.

"You knew about their plans before Thanksgiving, didn't you?" Sandy continued.

"I knew about Lanh's dreams and desires since day one, we talked. It's easy to put two and two together."

Finally, Sandy played her trump card, "You have a boyfriend, don't you?"

"Not only do I deny the allegations, I deny the alligator," she said with that same mysterious smile, then she suddenly kissed Sandy on the cheek and said "You're going to be a great mother-in-law to my baby sister," and pushed forward to congratulate the couple.

A surprised Sandy shook her head with a smile and muttered "Damn, she's good."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the evening was a whirlwind of congratulations and well wishes. "How long have you two been planning this?" asked Huy as he shook his future brother's hand.

Don and Lanh looked at each other and held each other tighter. "Two years," said Don.

Lanh looked up at Don a little surprised then nodded, "yeah, two years," with a large smile. Before they knew it, they were alone in the big old farmhouse. The original plan was for Lanh to return home with her family and spend Christmas morning with them, but they left without her.

And now they were alone in that big old farmhouse, Ralph and Sandy even left, off to visit with one of Sandy's daughters and her family. Lanh and Don lay on the living room floor before a crackling fire, soft Christmas music on the stereo, the Santa Fe Southwest Chief providing nonstop service under the Christmas tree. Excitement coursed through their bodies; they were officially engaged! They cuddled together in front of the fire, Lanh's head on Don's shoulder, dreaming of their future together, the places they'd go, the children they'll have...

"Oh God, I'm so happy!" sighed Lanh. "I've been so sad most of my life." She lifted her head to kiss Don, then she looked at her ring and almost squealed with joy.

"What's the saddest you've ever been?" asked Don as they snuggled close.

"When Joshua Grimes hurt you," she said without hesitation. The memory of Joshua and his two followers beating Don senseless and putting him in the hospital still terrifies her even though it was over a year ago. She still has nightmares and occasionally wakes up screaming. Only when she's sleeping at the farm or when Don is sleeping at her house in one of the boy's unused rooms does she sleep soundly.

"What's the happiest you've ever been?" he now asked.

Lanh held her hand up and showed off the ring, "Three hours ago," she smiled.

"Before today," insisted Don with a kiss.

Lanh smiled the same 'inscrutable' smile that Tam smiles when she has a response that the listener may not understand. "Two years ago, a nerdy farm boy who got it in his head that he was a loser asked me to dance."

"That made you the happiest?" Don was a bit surprised.

"No," she snuggled closer, "it was after the dance when that farm boy sat down on the bleachers with me, and we talked and talked and talked. He was the first boy I ever talked to, and I was sooooo in love with him." After their kiss, she asked "What about you? When were you the happiest? I mean, besides tonight."

Don didn't hesitate. "A couple of years ago I met this beautiful woman, and she was so cute and so smart! She even dressed up as an elf to teach me math. And we were under the table, hiding and I stole a kiss, and she didn't get mad!"

"She didn't?"

"No!" Don continued, "she just gave me the most beautiful smile in the world, and I was so happy that my heart almost burst out of my chest and flew around the room. I knew I was never going to be lonely again."

That got to Lanh, she sniffed back a tear or two and said, "That's sweet."

"When Joshua and his buddies, Pete and RePete, were beating on me, I remembered that smile, I knew I had to take that beating so you could get away to safety, so I could see that smile again."

"Awwww! I had just stopped crying from earlier," Lanh said as she burst into tears.

Don held her as she cried from the memories, and when her tears reduced to sniffles, he said "This is how I pictured proposing to you."

"What? Making me cry?"

"No," he shook his head. "Sitting before a pretty fire, Christmas lights, candles, music..."

"Me too," sniffed Lanh as Don dabbed her tears with a corner of the blanket.

"Let's do it," said Don as he drew himself up and she raised up and reluctantly handed him the ring. After a sweet kiss, Don knelt and looking up into her glistening eyes said "Lanh Nguyen, I love you more than I ever thought possible, you are my best friend, and my entire world. You are my reason for living. Would you complete me by becoming my wife?"

Biting her lower lip and nodding her head Lanh was surprised that the emotions she felt a couple of hours ago overwhelmed her again. She had waited so long to hear him say these words, she didn't care how or where he said them, and now that it was said again, all she could utter was "YES! God yes!"

He stood and took her tiny trembling body in his arms, and they kissed, long and deep. Their tongues, now accustomed to each other, sought each other out, slithering together in a dance as old as time. Without realizing it they were undressing each other; their discarded clothing being dropped on the floor.

Lanh always felt a little uncomfortable standing naked in front of Don, she always thought of herself falling far, far short of perfection, too skinny, too short, too flat... regardless of the changes that have come over her body in the past couple of years and Don's insistence that he found her beautiful and sexy. Her sister Tam was her idea of perfection, Lanh always remembered Tam as curvaceous with breathtaking beauty. Kim-ly was just as striking, but while Tam was always modest and very self-assured, Kim-ly was comfortable with nudity and if the boys weren't home, had no problem spending the day undressed if she could get away with it.

Now Lanh stood naked in front of her fiancé and was helping him undress. Once she was able to see and caress every inch of his skin, her tiny hand circled that hard, hot, throbbing cock, soon to be HER cock, the wellspring of their babies. She was afraid of it and in love with it at the same time, and now with the ring on her finger, she couldn't wait to claim it and hold it inside her body.

But as they melted to the ground, Don brushed her hands away as they eased her to their nest of blankets in front of the fire. The soft light from the fire gave Lanh's light gold skin a deeper golden hue, transforming her into a raven-haired goddess of erotic innocence. When their kiss broke, Don pushed himself up on his hands and knees and held himself over his tiny lover. She felt a drop hit her below the navel and looked down, Don was kneeling between her legs, his cock rampant, throbbing, ready to take her virginity and inject her with over one billion sperm cells, all seeking to fertilize her egg. She saw it bobbing, a drop of precum forming at the tip and she realized that now that cock is reserved exclusively for her.

Normally the sight of his big dick that close to her pussy would worry her, she is hell-bent to wear white at their wedding. But today her feelings are different, this beautiful, sweet man who suffered so much for her and with her... unconsciously her knees began to rise, opening her pussy, letting him know that she is ready for him.

Don smiled and said, "I've always wanted to do this, since the day we met," and he started by lowering his head to her swollen breasts, so much bigger since their first meeting, and the eraser size nipples are just as hard, if not harder. She gasped as he began suckling on first one breast, then the other, jolts of erotic electricity shot from her sensitive nipples straight to her clit which was now tingling and swelling.

"Yes," she gasped. She clasped his head to her small breast. Will breastfeeding her babies feel like this? If so, she's going to have the fattest babies ever. Her back arched as she neared orgasm just from his expert manipulation of her breasts. He was gently licking and suckling one while at the same time, pinching and twisting the other nipple causing a delightful juxtaposition of soft sensuality, and firm hard erotic manipulation. She waited eagerly for his cock to start its penetration, the stretching invasion that Kim-ly described to her so graphicly and so often. The thought of a maternity graduation gown almost put her over the edge as she felt him shift and his cock brushed against her soft pubic hair.

But his cock retreated, Don began kissing his way down her belly, slowly his kisses grew closer and closer to... she tried to stop him, both Kim-ly and Tam told her that it was too much, the sensations were beyond description. When she first heard the term cunnilingus, she asked them what it was and what it was like, and they both warned her away from the act. "That's pretty advanced and very intense," Tam told her, "You probably won't handle it. I freaked out the first few times." She never heard any stories or gossip about it in school, except for her debate teammate Sydney the other girls don't talk to her. And now Don wants to put his mouth down there?

"I don't think..." gasped Lanh, as she tried to urge him away from her vagina. He was now kissing her pubic hair and clearly loving the act.

"I'm not sure how to do this right," he whispered, "Teach me how?"

"I don't know how! It's not a skill we're born with!" squealed Lanh.

"But you know what feels good. You can say do that more or don't do that until we find out what you like."

Lanh searched his blue eyes, he was sincere, he just wants her to feel good, he's not grossed out by being down there at all. She rose on her elbows and watched as he lowered, his eyes locked with hers, his tongue reached out and licked up the length of her slit. She tried to keep her eyes locked on his but the closer he got to her clit, the more intense the feeling became, and she couldn't help but let her head roll back and a groan escaped from her throat. The moment his tongue contacted her clit she gasped and fell flat on the blankets.

"Are you ok?" he gasped.

In answer, Lanh smiled and put her hand on his head, and urged him back to his task. Don grinned and went back to kissing her pussy, now exploring with his lips and tongue. He has plenty of experience manually stimulating her with one or two fingers, ever since last Christmas, they haven't been able to keep their hands off each other, but this is the first time he has ever orally stimulated his darling and he wasn't going to pass up this learning opportunity. He kissed and nibbled her everywhere, listening to her gasps and moans and occasional giggles. "You're driving me crazy!" she groaned, and he knew her reluctance to oral sex was at an end.

He opened her labia with his thumbs exposing her clit, so tiny, but he swore he could see it throbbing under his gaze. He gently kissed her clit "You and I are going to become great friends," he whispered to her clit.

"I think she already loves you," sighed Lanh as Don began to gently make love with his mouth to her tiny center of pleasure. He began to alternate between suckling her clit and lightly strumming it with his tongue while she gasped and mewled in pleasure, holding his head to her pussy.

Without breaking contact with her pussy, Don took her hands from his head and moved them up to her breasts. She took her breasts in her tiny hands and Don whispered, "Show me how you like it, show me how your tits like it," and he went back to driving her berserk with his lips and tongue. Immediately she began pinching and twisting her nipples, he watched in surprise as she pulled them so hard, harder than he would dare.

Through her grinding and wiggles, Don could tell she was going crazy, and he was quickly learning her responses as he tongued and sucked at her pussy. "Oh Donnnnnnn" she gasped as the feelings washed over her. Love, lust, passion, they all rushed through her young mind and body as her lover played her like a maestro with a fine violin. Her gasping and delicate coos of love were the music that Don lived for, her body's trembling and shuddering were his reward.

Using his left thumb and index finger he spread her labia, fully exposing her trembling clit and her twitching vagina. As he flicked his tongue rapidly yet gently over her tiny swollen clit, his right index finger began to explore her pussy. Slowly he eased his finger inside of her, into those secret depths that he desperately desired to plunge his cock inside of. She was so warm, moist, and soft! His cock throbbed and ached with the desire to bathe in her warmth. In and out he gently fucked her pussy with his digit as his darling fiancé went out of her mind. He added a second finger as delicately as possible, and Lanh's mind exploded.

Out of her mind with pent-up sexual pressure, Lanh went crazy when his second finger began to stretch her beyond anything she ever experienced until now! How was she going to manage that meaty cock if just his fingers were so divine? She couldn't breathe, she couldn't stop hyperventilating, she couldn't find her voice, she couldn't stop babbling, she wanted to grab his head, but she couldn't stop pinching and twisting her nipples... waves of concentrated pleasure radiated from her pussy and her tits. She cried out and babbled in a combination of English and Vietnamese professing her love and gasping for more... more... "Dear God, fuck meeeeeeeee!"

Her legs raised up and she placed her tiny feet on his bare back and pushed, raising her tiny ass off the floor, forcing her center of sexual desire into his mouth, driving herself onto his invading fingers. Her entire body clenched, even her lungs locked up, and only her head and shoulders were touching the bed of blankets. She clenched her teeth, and her body began trembling violently then suddenly she came explosively. Her orgasm crashed over her, waves of blessed release shattered her mind and caused her body to go into convulsions as she screamed "Mẹ kiếp tôiiiiiiiiiii!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

Her legs trapped Don in a headlock, and she rolled to her side gasping and crying in an explosive release. She wanted to push Don away from her sensitive pussy, but her hands instead held him to her clit. Don was trapped and needed to breathe, so he pushed away which stopped the sweet torture of her clit allowing Lanh to come down from the plateau of pleasure she was on for what seemed like an eternity. She lay on her side shuddering while slowly her convulsions eased, and she sighed "I love you em yêu," and her body went slack. Don slipped out of her slack embrace and curled up next to her, licking her juices off of his fingers.

He was beginning to worry about his little sweetheart, and he shook her shoulder a couple of times "Em yêu? Are you ok?"

"Mmmmmm, I am soooooo ok," she smiled but her eyes remained closed. She basked in the afterglow of the best orgasm of her life. She knew she had to reciprocate, but not now, she was so blown away. The best part was that Don seemed to understand, he wasn't saying "My turn!" as Kim-ly warned her that men do. She rolled over in his arms to face him and said "I'm sorry, but I'm so..." but he silenced her with a kiss.

"It's ok, I understand," he said and kissed her again, then pulled a nice heavy quilt over them.

"Are you sure?" she asked as she caressed his cock. It was hard as wrought iron and throbbed in need.

"It's ok, it really is. If you're up to doing our thing later, we can do that."

Lanh smiled, "our thing" was gently sucking his balls while he masturbated, it gives him great orgasms and they both fell in love with it over the autumn. It seems unfair that he brought her to such explosive orgasms just to have his balls licked. "Are you really sure?" she asked again.

"I know it will be my turn later, besides, I was told if you're too blown away to reciprocate, then I did it right," said Don smiling.

"Who told you that?" asked Lanh.

"Well, not all at the same time but in order, it was Tam, Bao, Huy, Trung, and Kim-ly. I get a lot of advice from your family; they really love you."

Lanh just snuggled closer and allowed herself to drift off to sleep, upset that her future husband was getting sex advice from her brothers and sisters, but she'll deal with that later. As she nodded off a singer on the stereo asked, "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" Lanh smiled; she knew. "Drinking my man's cum," she muttered as she drifted off to sleep, safe in her lover's arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I wrote A Krissymas Karole I wanted to write the back story to that tale, and that is how We're a Wonderful Wife came to be. I loved writing this chapter and the next two more than anything else I've ever written, I passionately love every character, including Mrs. Weberman, I love the setting and oddly, it's set in a place that I never lived. I visited Minnesota often enough, but have I never lived there. I hope you enjoy reading these three chapters as much as I loved writing them.