Things We Lost to the Water

Ben runs away to Tuấn’s house, and the brothers cover for each other: Tuấn for Ben when Hương comes looking for him and Ben for Tuấn when the Southern Boyz come calling. Ben finds work as a housekeeper/assistant for married university professors. Professor Elaine Schreiber teaches art history and has Ben take photos and gather research material for her from the university library. Professor Lars Schreiber—a German-speaking immigrant—is a literature professor.

Using his work privileges and downtime, Ben devours books from the university library, unencumbered by his high school classes. Lars discovers Ben’s love of literature and later helps Ben get his GED and transfer from community college to the University of New Orleans. Ben is grateful for his help but has mixed feelings about it.

Schreiber invites Ben—now studying comparative literature—to his annual holiday dinner with his graduate and PhD students (who are all white). While the professors prepare dessert, the other students harass and insult Ben because of his Asian ethnicity. As the situation escalates, Schreiber appears and shuts them down. The event ends on a sour note, but Schreiber calls Ben his “legacy.” Although Ben thanks him, he ponders the social mores of gratitude.