Chime's getaway

An excerpt from The Greek Tragedy

I met Gary for lunch at Santa Café located at the back end of the foreigner ghetto in Saigon. It was a hot and humid, sunny day. Motorbike horns ripped through the thick, gritty air, going recklessly around the corner. A dark-skinned girl with a tray of noodle bowls walked to and fro under a conical hat in what looked like homemade pajamas as I shooed flies off the table. The street vendors we’d told every day that we aren’t going to buy their poor quality sunglasses, nail clippers, wallets or Zippos, we told again.
 
“So, I found out what Loan was after. You know that Nigerian neurosurgeon, Chime, the one I’ve been hanging out with? Loan stole $9,000 and a camera off her,” Gary said as he lit a Craven A cigarette.
 
“What?”
 
“She stole $9,000. Can you believe that?”
 
“No, I can’t. How’d she do that?”
 
“Well, Chime was getting ready to leave, so I went over to see her. She’s heading to the Ukraine to do her residency.”
 
“Was Loan there?”
 
“Yeah, and I asked Chime if she had everything sorted out and she said she did. One of the things she said she did was to get her money out of the bank, so I asked her where it was. She said it was in the room. She had over $40,000 on her in a shitty five dollar a night guesthouse in Pham Ngu Lao.”
 
“That’s asking for it.”
 
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know any better. She’s lived such a sheltered life at the monastery in Nigeria, you know. I asked her if the money was safe and she said that $9000 and her camera was missing.”
 
“And Loan was sitting right there?”
 
“Yeah, she wouldn’t leave. I asked Chime how it went missing and she said she didn’t know. I asked her who’d been in the room besides her and she said only Loan and one of Loan’s friends. So, I turned to Loan and asked her what happened to the money.”
 
“What did she say?”
 
“She said, ‘I don’t know. No problem. That happens sometimes’.”
 
“Oh, she definitely stole the money.”
 
“She kept saying its normal, that those things happen.” Gary shook his head. He took a draw off his cigarette.
 
“$9000 doesn’t just go missing. So what happened next?”
 
“Chime saw that I was getting worked up about it and tried to say it was ok. I turned to her and said, ‘Chime, it’s not ok. You’ve just had $9000 stolen out of your room’.”
 
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
 
“I wanted to, but Chime was worried about causing trouble.”
 
“What was her deal? Why was she being so passive? I would’ve been ready to kill someone if $9000 was gone.”
 
“She’s just so naïve and peaceful.”
 
“Screw that.”
 
“So I forced Loan to get out. She refused to leave and I told her if she didn’t I was going to get the police and tell them that she stole the $9000 dollars. Chime was crying and begging me not to, but I told her that if Loan didn’t leave I’d do it.”
 
“Why wouldn’t Loan leave?”
 
“Because she knew there was still over $30,000 in the room and she was waiting for the opportunity to steal it.”
 
“Damn.”
 
“I went out in the hall and yelled for the landlord. I told her that Loan was a thief and stole a lot of money off Chime, and that if they didn’t get her out of the building that I was going to call the police. So she sent her sons to the room.”
 
“What happened?”
 
“The landlord came in with her sons and yelled at Loan. Chime cried and told me it was ok, but I kept telling Chime it wasn’t and that Loan had to leave. But Loan sat there and wouldn’t leave. She told the landlord it was ok, that there was no problem. Finally, one of the landlord’s sons grabbed her by her arm, yanked her up and dragged her out.”
 
“Shit! What about the money?”
 
“Chime didn’t want to press the issue.” Gary looked down at his phone. He took another draw off his cigarette.
 
“Where’s Loan? I’ll go after her for $9000. That’s a lot of fucking money.”
 
“I know mate, I know.” Gray wafts of smoke curled out of Gary’s nostrils. “The thing is, it didn’t end there.”
 
“What happened next?”
 
“I told Chime she had to get out of there. She didn’t want to because she said the landlord had been nice to her, but I told her she couldn’t stay in a five dollar a night guesthouse in heroin alley of Pham Ngu Lao with over $30,000 on her when a thief like Loan, the landlord, and God knows who else knew about it. At that point Chime got really scared, but I told her if she spent like $60 and stayed at a nice hotel with security and a safe that she’d be fine.”
 
“She was freaking out?”
 
“Yeah, she said I was scaring her. I told her she needed to face reality, that there’s a lot of bad shit in the world and she had to be careful.”
 
“It’s true, she does. She also needs to get her $9000 dollars back.”
 
“Mate, we weren’t going to get that money back once Loan was gone. It sucks, I know, but Chime didn’t want to push it.”
 
“I just don’t get that.”
 
“Me neither, but we still had a lot of money to look after, so we packed her things and I helped her check out. We left on my motorbike and as we got to the end of the hamlet Loan was with two guys and two girls drinking coffees from little plastic stools in front of a street vendor stall. They scrambled to grab us as we went by, so I sped off. I floored it going down Bui Vien, sped around the corner at De Tham and went right through the red light onto Tran Hung Dao.”
 
“What was Chime doing?”
 
“She was hysterical, screaming and crying, clutching me for dear life with a bag that had $31,000 between us. I weaved through traffic as fast as I could.”
 
“Bloody hell!”
 
“As I got up to the roundabout in front of Ben Thanh Market two of the guys, Loan and another girl had caught up to us. They were all on separate motorbikes. I don’t know what happened to the other girl. I sped around the roundabout a few times as they lined up behind me.”
 
“What were you going to do?”
 
“I didn’t know. I was just reacting. You know how there’s that bus station across the roundabout from Ben Thanh?”
 
“Yeah.”
 
“I saw a bus cutting across heading toward it, sort of blocking the way, so I kicked down into third, went full throttle behind the motorbikes that were waiting on the bus, and cut right in front of the bus so that I went through the petrol station at top speed. As we flew past and headed into traffic on the other side I heard a huge crash and Chime screamed.”
 
“Do you know what happened?”
 
“Well, as I barreled down Ham Nghi I slowed a little and turned to look. Only one of the guys and one girl were still in pursuit, so my guess was that Loan and one of the other guys crashed into the bus or some of the stopped motorbikes.”
 
“Jesus man, this is like a Hollywood action sequence!”
 
“It’s not over, mate. I sped back up, got to the end of Ham Nghi and flew left onto Ton Duc Thang. I was going really fast, weaving in and out of traffic, but the guy was catching up to me because he was driving just as aggressively as I was, only he wasn’t carrying as much weight.”
 
“What was Chime doing?”
 
“Praying.”
 
“Shit.”
 
“We went through the area by the river at like 80k, following the road around where it goes by Lush. You know where I mean?”
 
“Yeah, I know.”
 
“He got up next to us to grab for Chime’s bag, but as he did, it pulled his motorbike to the left, so I leaned into him, which drove him into the median. He hit the curb and lost control of the bike, letting go of the bag. I knew he was going down so I stopped as he crashed and turned around.”
 
“What happened?”
 
“He was lying still next to a tree with his face down in the road. His bike flew off and hit a cyclo. The cyclo was all fucked up, but the driver was standing there looking shocked, so I think he was ok.”
 
“What about the other girl who was following?”
 
“She pulled up, jumped off her bike and went over to the guy on the ground. She looked at me and I stared her down for a second. Then I drove off.”
 
“Gary, you’re like James Bond!” Another sunglasses and Zippo seller came up with his display board and lit a Zippo. “Khong, khong, di di (No, no, go away).” I turned back to Gary. “Then what happened?”
 
“We got out of there. Because of where we were, I thought they’d assume we’d get a hotel downtown, so I actually took Chime back near Pham Ngu Lao, to the New World Hotel, on Le Lai, across from the park. We put my motorbike in the garage so it was hidden and went inside to check in. Chime was so panic-stricken. We put her money in the safe, got a receipt and a key from the desk manager, and went to the room. I stayed with her all night. We ordered in food and this morning I went with her to get the money out of the safe. I rode the bus New World Hotel provides out to the airport with her. I watched her check in and go into the terminal before I caught the bus back and picked up my motorbike. Then I went home and showered, and here I am.”

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