Heaven & Earth Page #6

There's plenty Oriental restaurant

growing here.

I'd like to go back to Vietnam.

Make a bundle.

I'll tell you the truth,

I kind of miss it, in a way.

What's this job they want you to do

for so much money?

It's just between you and me, okay?

Government has rules about what jobs

you can do after what I've done.

What job?

It's arms.

Selling arms.

- I don't understand.

- You know, guns? I sell guns.

You joking?

What do you think I did the last 17 years?

What do you think military advisors do?

I go into countries the US helps

and teach them...

...how to use the weapons

our corporation sell.

How can you sell guns to governments

that blow up women and children?

You know that

if we didn't sell these weapons...

...the Communists would.

Guns! Communists!

Is that all Americans think about?

It's the only thing I know how to do.

At least I'll make more money doing it.

Do you ever listen to anything I tell you?

Oh, sh*t.

- You mean the Buddhist stuff?

- No, not just that!

I mean, my family, my life.

We don't know anything

about each other, Steve.

You lied to me in Vietnam.

No, it wasn't a lie...

...exactly.

It was a white lie. A good lie.

Baby, don't do this.

Please. I love you, darling.

Much against Steve's wishes,

I found a job...

... working in a circuit board factory.

I know the girls well...

... so I borrowed $5,000. I need $10,000...

... to open a little deli

in an immigrant neighborhood.

We Vietnamese never trust in bank.

Loan money to each other.

Can I borrow some money?

I think I'll make $1,400 profit a month.

I didn't tell Steve.

He'd be angry.

He didn't like my starting a business...

... of my own.

Those cost me $5,000 in Vietnam.

Take it back to Vietnam.

I'm opening a restaurant. I'll be back.

Steve want to give me money, control me.

But I used to working,

having my own money.

But in America,

he want me to be housewife.

So I wear two hats.

I'm lucky? What do you mean?

You told me two years!

We had an agreement! Not one!

Two years, not $10,000. $20,000!

I don't think so!

I put in air conditioner!

I clean electric wiring!

I remodel! I put up shelves!

I should pay $10,000 for two years

and you know it!

When I tell Steve, we have a big fight,

then more fights.

Hung, now Jimmy...

... break my heart when he refused

to speak Vietnamese with me...

... as did Tommy and our new son, Alan.

In school, because of the war,

they said they were Mexican.

I won't sign it.

Fine. No sign.

I was starting to behave like an American...

... yelling back at my husband,

frowns, scowls.

And all the time you spend at the temple!

Steve was drinking more...

... and seemed unhappy with his job

at the Marine base.

Buddha don't know sh*t!

There was another side to Steve now

I had not seen before.

He speak angry words now.

All blood and thunder words.

She's a b*tch.

What do you want me to say?

She wants more! No reason.

Money goes like water around here.

I got five kids...

...including your bastard.

The Marine Corps owns my body

and my soul. I got nothing of my own!

Then why use $400 on two more guns?

Still bitching about money?

That's the gook in you.

You have no right to call me that!

These guns are valuable. I can sell them

for twice what I got in them.

One day they could be the only thing

between you and death.

Death? Death from who?

You the only person

who waves gun around here...

...who drinks and shoots.

I don't need you to tell me what to do!

They're my sons, too...

...and I'll take them up to the mountain,

teach them to hunt and shoot!

They'll learn to survive.

No way, buddy!

You will not teach my sons to shoot!

I see too many guns in my life.

Killing no way to protect anything!

I don't want guns in my house! No more.

You want them, you get out!

F*** you...

...you lying little b*tch!

Don't tell me to go. I read your letter.

What letter?

The one from your dink lover.

I saw it in your purse.

Anh?

You went through my things?

What's he writing you

in Vietnamese about?

Does he want you back?

No.

He asked about Jimmy.

I send him pictures...

...answer his questions.

- That's all.

- Bullshit!

Lying b*tch!

One time, I think I love you.

But I see now we're too different inside

to be soul mates.

No more mistake now.

Not with children so young.

Are you saying you want a divorce?

Is that it?

One thing I learn.

In a marriage there's no such thing

as one person happy.

One miserable, both miserable.

That the way life works.

Oh, no, baby.

That is the way life works!

Oh, my God!

I felt my soul would go then, any moment.

God is not cruel...

... just practical.

In this life...

... sometimes, against all knowledge...

... we're paying back

for a lot of bad past lives.

I can't.

I can't live without you!

They got me so tied up.

Who's doing this to you?

The Marine Corps.

I'm not going to get the civilian job

I promised you.

I'm up for an Admin Board,

and they're going to kick me out.

You don't know the half of it.

You don't.

Tell me.

You must tell me all.

You'll feel better.

I'm a killer.

I killed so many over there.

I got so good at it...

...they assigned me to the projects.

Black Ops.

We killed sometimes three or four a night.

All kinds.

Rice farmers.

Rich fat cats bankrolling the VC.

It was a complete mind f***.

Psy Ops, knives, rip a man's guts out...

...drop his liver on his chest

so he won't get to Buddha heaven.

Leave him lying on the road.

Cut his nuts off...

...stuff them in his mouth,

sew up his lips, leave him lying in bed.

Blame the VC. I didn't care.

Drugs, running guns, slavery.

You name it.

One time this guy killed a gook girl I was...

...shacking with.

We weren't supposed to fraternize

with any Viet nationalists...

...so they killed her.

Cut her throat from ear to ear.

I was in hell, baby.

I was in pure...

...hell.

And maybe I went dinky dau over there.

Maybe I am nuts. Who the f*** knows?

The more I killed,

the more they gave me to kill.

You know what it's like?

It's like being eaten alive...

...by sharks. You must keep hitting,

you must keep moving...

...because if you stop...

...the sharks will eat you alive.

One day, they cut me off.

Then one day I found you.

And it all changed, I thought.

But, baby, nothing ever changes.

So f*** me, right?

It's okay.

What's going to happen to me?

I'm scared to death.

I don't know.

I, too, was a soldier in past lives.

I hurt many people.

I lied, I stealed...

...I hate.

Now I pay.

Soldiers try to kill my life.

Long time, I have no man love me.

No respect.

It's my fate.

We're the same, Steve.

We have made bad karma.

And our soul debt will come due,

if not in this life...

...then in another.

But we can't give up.

We must try.

Different skin...

...same suffering.

Can you love me?

Can you really love me?

Oh, my baby!

But the fights continued and continued.

Finally I went to see a lawyer.

In my heart,

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