Heaven & Earth Page #7

I thought I did not belong in this country.

I thought of going home again.

He's not supposed to take furniture.

Call your lawyer.

It's okay, Sharon. Let him.

That's what a divorce is about.

That's when you divide everything.

- Not now.

- Please.

Let him go.

Eat up.

- What are you doing here?

- It's Sunday.

- Came to take the kids to Mass.

- I don't think so.

Get the hell out of the way!

Jimmy, come!

- What are you doing?

- I'm going, too.

No, you're not!

You're staying right here and fix lunch!

Le Ly, good to see you.

It's been far too long.

This is Steve.

How's Alan? Tommy?

- Fine. You want to see them again?

- Of course! I'm worried sick!

The police want you.

F*** them. Do exactly what I tell you.

What do you want?

Write a letter to your b*tch lawyer,

dropping the charges against me.

Tell her you want the house

and our stuff put in my name...

...and you're dropping the divorce.

You listening?

Yes, I'm listening.

Get the letter notarized.

Take it to Father Bob. I'll call him.

Do it or you'll be sorry.

Of course, you'll get the letter.

Just don't hurt them.

They're ours. They have our lives in them.

Just get that letter.

My boys. I birthed them with pain.

I chewed their food for them.

I am shocked.

I am insulted at the insolence of men.

They don't respect women.

I cannot believe such men

have known a mother's love.

If I show you a tiny baby

killed by a bayonet...

...and say it is his karma...

...we may cry for the baby...

...for his karma and the bad karma

of the soldier who killed it.

But we must never use our emotion...

...to deny the wheel of incarnation

that caused the act.

It is as natural...

...as the movement of the sun...

...and moon.

Master...

...how can I tell him we must be friends

and soul mates...

...without being husband and wife?

He has created much soul debt for himself.

But if you fail to give him the opportunity...

...to redeem himself...

...you will only increase you own soul debt.

The man-hate...

...that blinds you...

...will blind any man you find

in a future life.

If you turn Steve away...

...you will be rejecting

your own redemption.

Child...

...you have forgiven the man

who raped you...

...destroyed your country...

...harmed your family.

This is how it should be.

Your karma is mixed with Steve,

to Tommy and Alan.

The future...

...the past...

...are all the same.

If you divorce...

...you will only have to come back

and work it out again.

The path to Nirvana is never being safe...

...but tricky and steep.

And if you walk only on sunny days...

...you'll never reach your destination.

Choose well...

...my peach blossom.

A child without a father...

...is like a house without a roof.

Listen carefully.

My sister Kim had come to America

and married one of Steve's military friends.

Steve and the two boys are here now.

They're drinking.

He's getting ready to take them to Canada.

The boys are upset.

They don't want to stay with Steve.

Fine, next Tuesday.

- Whatever you want.

- Put Steve on. I must speak to him.

Here.

It's for you. Here.

Let go.

Please, I know you hate me.

But I don't hate you.

Let me help you.

Let me try.

I feel your pain.

You come back home. No police.

Just you, me and the children.

We make this right.

I'll go to your church.

I'll try harder. I'll put the shrine away.

I love you, Steve.

I love the man I saw in Vietnam.

I'll find you again.

He's still there, Steve.

I still love you.

Steve, please.

- You can't go in.

- My children.

- They're all right! Steve...

- What?

He killed himself.

The spirits are here.

Oh, this is marvelous.

Your husband is here.

He is a little shy.

He doesn't want to come into the house.

He's not used to this new world.

He's in much pain.

But he forgive you.

He ask for you...

...to take his soul into the Buddhist temple.

He say:

"Place me in the temple."

As he finds peace...

...so will your family

and your children find peace.

That's it.

Are you sure that was Steve?

He was such a strong Christian.

Trust me.

He change a lot.

And, by the way...

...this house.

Have to leave.

No good.

Your front door faces your back door.

Everything that come into your life

the front way, will go out the back.

Men...

...money...

...happiness...

...everything.

Move fast!

It was 13 years after the war

that I first returned to Vietnam...

... to the spirit of my father...

... to my sisters and brother, Bon...

... who had survived the war...

... and to my mother,

who I had not spoken to in years.

An ocean had come between us.

I feared it would be the last time

for my sons to see her.

I had prospered in America. Yes.

I buy and rent houses,

became part in a restaurant...

... working all the time,

losing touch as a mother.

Affairs with different men,

none of whom touched my heart.

Stopping in old Saigon first...

... now Ho Chi Minh City...

... my heart trembled with anticipation

as I took Jimmy to see his father...

... who, as a teenage girl,

I'd fallen madly in love with...

... twenty years before.

Had he changed?

Don't start that again.

You look healthy.

You're a ghost.

I don't see you.

I don't know where you are.

How is your sister Kim?

Fine.

Fine.

Your grandsons. My boys.

Jimmy is Hung.

Tommy is Chau.

Alan.

Born in America.

What'd she say?

She says you're giant.

She can't believe your size.

You used to scratch your back...

...on the wooden post in our house.

- Look at her teeth!

- Stop that.

Brother.

Take one.

Be polite.

I'm sorry. I can't.

Don't spoil a good time.

My oldest son and my youngest daughter

are back with me.

My two halves on either side.

We share the same mother, I agree.

I love her as a sister...

...but I cannot accept her gifts.

I had this terrible fear

you would despise me...

...because I married your enemy

and left while you were still fighting.

It's been so many years.

Much is forgiven.

But you don't understand

how much suffering Americans caused.

Things are very hard.

We use our own excrement...

...to grow vegetables!

All we had to hold on to was the future...

...because we knew that the future

would not arrive unless we won...

...so we kept dying, no matter what...

...just like ants beneath the elephant's feet.

It wasn't because we were brave.

Because we had no choice.

Our freedom was all...

...all that mattered.

When the future finally came...

...there was more war.

The Cambodians, the Chinese.

When I came to look for Mama in 1980...

You have no idea

how much your mother suffered.

She was too old to work the paddies.

She had to give the land,

our land, to the State after liberation.

When I found Mama and Hai...

...they were starving.

Their clothes were rags,

their farm tools stolen...

...the animals slaughtered.

The house was in ruins.

Wild dogs attacked them.

Nobody in the village cared for them.

Just two old ladies scavenging...

...and growing vegetables to stay alive.

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