"Where are we?" Hualing stared out of her window, her eyes following the array of buildings that passed by as the car cruised down the road.
"You never been to this part of Isla Lucrecia?" Quang asked, lifting his off the road to look at Hualing through the rearview mirror. Her hair was frayed but now dry.
"No," she said quietly. "Looks even worse than the neighborhood where The Family Stone is."
"And you'd be right," Selene murmured.
"This is where me and my family call home. And I guess to a certain extent, Vic too."
"Which alley is his?"
Quang chuckled. "Nice to see that you're already back to your old self."
"The sad part is, Vic probably does have a favorite alley," Selene added. "If I had to take a guess, I'm thinking the one right behind the Nghiem family restaurant, Pho 68."
"Not a bad guess," Quang replied. "What's the correct answer, Vic?"
"She's right," he answered with confidence.
Hualing used her hands to straighten the kinks in her hair. "Nghiem, huh? Vietnamese I'm guessing?"
"You got it right. My family moved here with my sister before I was born. I'm the only one of the bunch not from Vietnam."
"You know any Vietnamese?" Hualing asked.
Quang shook his head. "Nope. Just the obscenities that my parents scream at me."
"What about you, Selene?" The singer turned to her right to face the other passenger. "Didn't want to sound rude, but I noticed you've got quite the accent."
"South Africa. I'm still new to this country. I've got a lot of adjusting to do."
"Ugh, tell me about it."
"You're not American?" Selene asked.
"Born in Hong Kong. Came here to further my music career." Hualing sighed. "But as you can see, that didn't turn out too well. And now, it looks like I'm stuck here."
"You miss where you're from?"
"Of course! If I had enough money on me, I'd be gone in a heartbeat. But it looks like I’m stranded here for now.”
"Aww. Don't worry. Things will get better." Selene patted Hualing a couple of times on her leg.
"Yeah. That's what I keep telling myself."
"You know, I would have guessed that you were a Lucrecia native by the way you speak," Quang remarked.
"I'll take that as an observation rather than an insult. But I've spent my entire life speaking English. If you want to be a singer, it's just something that you've got to do. Plus, I grew up where all the Americans were. If you wanted to get by, you had to know the language."
"Makes sense," Quang said.
"Anyone want to know where I'm from?" Vic called out, turning his head to look at Quang before his gaze drifted to the two women in the back.
"Do you even know where you're from?" Hualing said with narrow eyes.
"Born and raised in Isla Lucrecia!" Vic smiled, pointing to himself with his thumb.
"I can tell," Hualing shot back. "The smell gave it away. Along with the tattered denim."
"Nothing quite like growing up in good ol’ IL. Isn't that right, Quang?"
"Yeah buddy. You hit the nail on the head."
"Can we change the subject, please? I prefer not to be reminded that I'm stuck in this town for who knows how long."
"Right, right. I'm about to pull into the parking lot for Pho 68 anyway. You looking to get something to eat?"
Hualing looked down and pressed her hand against her stomach. "Er... no. I'm good. I've got to maintain an entertainer's figure. You know how cameras add twenty pounds, right?" Hualing accompanied her statement with a phony laugh. Instead of receiving smiles in response, Selene looked back at her with worry while disappointment was visible in Quang's eyes as he looked at her through the mirror.
"You won't have to pay a dime, Hualing," Quang said. "My family will cover it."
"As long as Mister and Misses Nghiem don't find out," Vic said. "Even I'm tired of hearing that rant about 'handing out free food to friends.'"
"Good thing you'll be paying for yours this time. I'll just be discreet about giving Hualing hers."
"But Quang, you know how I almost never have any money on me! Can't you let me slide, just this one time?"
"Quang," Selene said with a drawn-out tone. "What did we just talk about?"
"Sorry Vic. If you want to eat, you'll have to pay like everyone else."
"Whatever." Vic looked towards the window and rested his arm on the edge of the door.
Quang looked through the window on the door to the family restaurant. He scouted out the area as best as he could through the slim panel of glass. "I can't see if my parents are in there or not."
"They probably are, dude. You know they never this place," Vic said. "They basically live here."
"Yeah. Because we have rooms on the second floor. We do live here."
"We're not just going to head right inside?" Selene asked.
"We could. But you know how my mom gets whenever she sees Vic. And she's going to want to talk to Hualing. I don't want her finding out that we're giving her some free pho."
"Then don't, Quang," Hualing said. "I told you I'm not that hungry. And I'm not a charity case, either! If giving out a single bowl of soup is going to make your entire place go out of business, then I don't want it."
"If only everyone thought like you did, Hualing. But at this point it's almost tradition that everyone who shows up here gets their free first bowl free. Whether it be through our generosity... or under the guise of violence."
"Violence?" A startled Hualing called out.
"Long story. Maybe for another day. But just let me go in and scope out the area really quick." Quang opened the door and stepped through. "You want to tag along, Selene? My mom likes you. Maybe you could back me up."
"Sure," Selene said as she walked through the open door.
"Think you two can behave for a couple of minutes?" Quang said with his foot in the door. Vic and Hualing turned their heads away, eyeing everything but the other person. "I'll take that silence as a yes." He then let the door close behind him.
"How long do you think we have before those two start killing each other?" Selene joked.
"I'd give them ten minutes, tops." Quang took off his jacket and hung it on the rack by the entrance. "Hey, Ma!" he shouted, cupping his hands in front of his mouth to amplify his voice. "You here?" There was a metallic rattle in the back followed by Mrs. Nghiem stepping out of the kitchen door. Her apron was dirty as she marched forward with a steaming ladle in her hand.
"Quang! Where have you been?"
"I've been out," he replied somewhat timidly.
"Of course you've been out! Don't you know that we have a restaurant to run?"
"Yeah, yeah. Things took a bit longer than expected."
Mrs. Nghiem outstretched her hand holding the ladle as she stared at Quang through her glasses. "Here. Take this."
"Fine."
"We have a big order. They'll be picking up. Hurry up and get to work."
"All right. What are you going to be doing?"
"I'm going upstairs. Taking a break. Someone has to do all the cooking when you and your father are out having fun."
"Fair enough, Ma. I'll knock out that order quick."
"Good. And make sure your friend here doesn't wait too long!" Mrs. Nghiem's frustrated face turned to one of sincerity as she looked at Selene. She gave the young woman a gentle bow of her head. "Let me know if he doesn't take care of you."
"Oh, I'm sure he'll do just fine, Mrs. Nghiem! Quang is great with customer service."
"He better be! Otherwise we might have to find someone else to work here.” Mrs. Nghiem’s attention shifted to Quang. “Then you could hang out with Vic all the time."
"I get it, Ma. I'm getting to work now." Quang marched towards the kitchen door, dripping ladle in hand.
"The ticket for the order is on the kitchen counter!" Mrs. Nghiem called out as she put her hand on the door leading upstairs. She then vanished to upper floor, stomping loud enough for both Quang and Selene to hear.
"What?" Quang blurted out from the kitchen. Selene ran up to the window, leaned on the counter and poked her head through. Quang's back was to her as he fastened his apron around his back.
"Something wrong, Quang?"
"This has to be a prank order. Thirty bowls of chicken pho? Twenty bowls of beef? Nobody has ever ordered anything of that size before."
"Do you even have enough ingredients to fill it up?
Quang made a brisk walk to the walk-in fridge. "Yeah, we definitely do," he said as he looked inside. "But it's not something that we can afford to just throw away on some jerk's joke."
"Your mother took the call. I assume she talked to them. Doubt she would have accepted it if something fishy was going on."
"My mom's kind of gullible. Can't count how many times I've had to convince my mom that all those door-to-door protein shake salesmen are just trying to get her to join a pyramid scheme."
"Ah."
"Wouldn't put it past her to think that this was a legit order."
"Are you going to fulfill it? I mean... it's possible that it could be real, right? If it is, that's a pretty bit of profit."
Quang shut the fridge door and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. That's true. I'm just going to go through with it. With how sales have been, this stuff would have gone bad before we even would have been able to sell it in the first place. If this turns out to be a joke, then I guess the homeless shelter will be serving nothing but pho for the next couple of days."
"That's a great way to look at it Quang!" Selene smiled. "Should I go and let Vic and Hualing in?"
"Yeah. Go check on them and see if both are still alive. I'll go ahead and cook whatever you three want before I finish up this big order."
