The Happiest Refugee

As Chapter 4 opens, Anh is finishing his fifth year of school and meets his first love, Karen. A Vietnamese girl ten months older than him, he finds out she likes him when she gives him a gift of carved soap. Soon, he’s over at her house, and they play spin the bottle with their friend Elizabeth. Karen stops the game claiming it’s her bad luck the bottle never stopped on Anh, as she kisses him on the cheek. The charity Jump Rope for Heart comes to the school. Although Anh is useless at most sports, he’s a natural at jumping rope. He soon finds himself holding the rope for Karen and her friends, when he wants to be playing with his friends, so he and Karen break up.

Anh is close to his Uncle Six, his father’s right hand man in the business. Anh recollects a story about how Uncle Six saved a huge load of clothes from a tire blowout while on the road. The family visits Melbourne for business. Six months later, Uncle Six suddenly moves out and disappears; Anh does not find out why for another twenty years. Soon afterwards, Anh’s father buys a duck farm to reconnect with the family’s farming roots.