Untitled 2: Saigon
The Givral Cafe and Patisserie sits at No. 2 Le Loi Boulevard, at the corner of Dong Khoi Street across from the Continental. It has been here for as long as anyone can remember, and its pastries are known throughout the city. In earlier times, the Givral was a favorite haunt of foreign journalists and political personnel; and even now, its business is geared to serving foreigners. The food is a mixture of Vietnamese and French and American, and the menu - offering sauteed venison with mushrooms, French rolls with “Laughing Cow” cheese, and “American Fried Rice” with bacon and eggs - is printed in both Vietnamese and English. On the evening of July 4th this year, amid talk of renewed diplomatic relations with the United States, the tables were decorated with little American flags, red-white-and-blue standing up on plastic swizzle sticks.
Outside the window today, past the ladies at their sidewalk candy-and-cigarette stands, walks a young boy in tattered brown shorts and a T-shirt and sandals; with a smaller boy riding along top on his shoulders. The smaller boy is unable to walk - disfigured from a birth defect due to his mother’s exposure to a chemical agent back during the war - and blind. His eyes are like egg whites, moving around in his head but seeing nothing. Together, the two boys walk along the crowded downtown Saigon streets asking for money from foreigners. Stopping at the doorway of the Givral, the older boy steps just inside, with the smaller one still sitting up top on his shoulders; he quietly holds out his hand and searches from face to face in the crowd with his eyes. After just a moment, one of the waiters comes and waves them away - "Di..., di...." - back out the door and onto the sidewalk.
For a few seconds, they stop outside; and the older boy looks back in through the windows at the crowd eating and drinking within. Then, he turns away and the two of them walk on, disappearing up the street.
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