Twin Cities Noir

MAI-NU’S WINDOW by David Housewright Frogtown (St. Paul)

Benito Hernandez did not know when Mai-Nu began leaving her window shade up. Probably when the late August heat had first arrived—dog days in Minnesota. It was past 10:30 p.m. yet the temperature was eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit in Benito’s bedroom and his windows, too, were wide open and his shades up. Just as they were in most of the houses in his neighborhood. That was one way to tell the rich from the poor in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The ones who could afford central air, all their windows were closed.

The window faced Benito’s room. Through it he could see most of Mai-Nu’s living room as well as a sliver of her bedroom. Mai-Nu was in her living room now, sitting on a rust-colored sofa, her bare feet resting on an imitation wood coffee table. She was stripped down to a white, sleeveless scoop-neck T and panties. What little fresh air that seeped through the window screen was pushed around by an electric fan that swung slowly in a half circle and droned monotonously. It didn’t offer much relief. Benito could see strands of raven-black hair plastered to Mai-Nu’s forehead and a trickle of sweat running down between her breasts. Next to her on the sofa were a bowl of melting ice, a half-gallon carton of orange juice, and a liter of Phillips vodka. She was reading a book while she drank. Occasionally, she would mark passages in the book with a yellow highlighter.

Less than five yards separated their houses and sometimes Benito could hear Mai-Nu’s voice; could hear the music she played and the TV programs she watched. Sometimes he felt he could almost reach out and touch her. It was something he wanted very much to do. Touch her. But she was twenty-three, a student at William Mitchell Law School—it was a law book that she was reading. Benito was sixteen and about to begin his junior year in high school. She was Hmong. He was Puerto Rican.

Still, Benito was convinced Mai-Nu was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. A long feminine neck, softly molded moon face, alluring oval eyes, pale flesh that glistened with perspiration—she was forever wrestling with her long, thick hair and often she would tie it back in a ponytail as she had that night. Watching her made him feel tumescent, made his body tingle with sexual electricity, even though the few times he had actually seen her naked were so fleeting as to be more illusion than fact. Often he would imagine the two of them together. Just as often he would berate himself for this. It was wrong, it was stupid, it was asqueroso!Yet when night fell, he would hide himself in the corner of his bedroom and watch, the door locked, the lights off, telling his parents that he was doing homework or listening to music.

Mai-Nu mixed a drink, her second by Benito’s count, and padded in the direction of her tiny kitchen. She was out of sight for a few moments, causing Benito alarm, as it always did when she slipped from view. When Mai-Nu returned, she was carrying a plate of leftover pork stew with corn bread topping. The meal had been a gift from Juanita Hernandez. Benito’s mother was always doing that, making far too much food then parceling it out to her neighbors. She had brought over a platter of carne y pollowhen Mai-Nu first arrived as a house-warming gift. Benito had accompanied her and was soon put to work helping Mai-Nu move in.

It wasn’t much of a place, he had noted sadly. The living room was awash in forest-green except for a broad water stain on the wall behind the couch that was gray. Burnt-orange drapes framed the windows and the carpet was once blue but now resembled the water stain. The kitchen wasn’t much better. The walls were painted a sickly pink and the linoleum had the deep yellow hue of urine. Just off the living room was a tiny bathroom—sink, toilet, tub, no shower—and beyond that a tiny bedroom.

There was no yard. The front door opened onto three concrete steps that ended at the sidewalk. The boulevard between the sidewalk and curb was hard-packed dirt and exactly as wide as eight of Benito’s size ten-and-a-half sneakers. Mai-Nu had no garage either, only a strip of broken asphalt next to the house that was too small for her ancient Ford LTD.

“It is only temporary,” Mai-Nu had told Juanita. “My parents came from Laos. My father helped fight for the CIA during the war. They did well after they arrived in America—they owned two restaurants. But they believed in the traditions of their people, so when my parents were killed in a car accident, it was my father’s older brother who inherited their wealth. He was supposed to raise my brother and me. Now that we are both of age, the property should come to us.”

But six months had passed. The property had not come to them and Mai-Nu was still there.

Benito wondered about that while he watched her eat. Mai-Nu did not have a job as far as he knew, unless you would call attending law school a job. Possibly her uncle helped her pay the rent on her house. Or maybe it was her brother—Cheng Song was not much older than Benito, but he had quit school long ago and was now the titular head of the Hmongolian Boy’s Club, a street gang with a reputation for terror. They had met only once. Outside of Mai-Nu’s. She had been shouting at him, telling a smirking Cheng that he was wasting his life, when Benito had arrived home carrying his hockey equipment.

Benito was only a sophomore, yet his booming slapshot had already caught the notice of pro and college scouts alike. Several D-1 schools had indicated that they might offer him a scholarship if he improved his defense and kept his grades up, which Juanita vowed he would do—“¡Si no sacas buenasnotas te mataré!”Cheng hadn’t seemed impressed by the hockey player, but later he told Benito, “You watch out for my sister. Anything happen, you tell me.”

Mai-Nu took the remains of her dinner back to the kitchen. When she returned she mixed a third drink and retrieved her law book. She kept glancing at her watch as if she were expecting a visitor. The phone rang, startling both her and Benito. Mai-Nu went to answer it, slipping out of sight.

There was a mumbling of hellos and then something else. “Yes, Pa Chou,” Mai-Nu said, her voice rising in volume. And then, “No, Uncle.” She was shouting now. “I will not!”

Benito wished he could see her. He moved around his bedroom, hoping to get a better sight angle into Mai-Nu’s house, but failed.

“I know, I know… But I am not Hmong, Pa Chou. I am American…But I am, Uncle. I am an American woman…I will not do what you ask. I will not marry this man…In Laos you are clan leader. In America you are not.”

She slammed the receiver so hard against the cradle that Benito was sure she had destroyed her phone. A moment later Mai-Nu reappeared, her face flushed with anger. She guzzled her vodka and orange juice, made another drink, and guzzled that.

Benito wished she would not drink so much.

The next morning, Benito found Mai-Nu at the foot of her front steps, stretching her long legs. She was wearing blue jogging shorts and a tight white half-T that emphasized her chest—at least that is what he noticed first. He was startled when she spoke to him.

“Benito,” she said. “Nyob zoo sawv ntyov.”

“Huh?”

“It means ‘good morning.’”

“Oh. ¡Buenos días!”

“I’m probably going to melt in this heat, but I really need to exercise.”

“It is hot.”

“Well, I will see you…”

“Mai-Nu?”

“Yes?”

Benito was curious about the phone call the evening before, but knew he couldn’t ask about it. Instead, he said, “Your name. What does it mean?”

“My name? It means ‘gentle sun.’”

“That’s beautiful.”

Mai-Nu smiled at the compliment. Suddenly, she seemed interested in him.

“And Cheng Song?” Benito asked.

“Cheng, his first name means ‘important’ and my brother certainly wishes he were. Song is our clan name. The Hmong did not have last names until the West insisted on it in the 1950s and many of us took our clan names. I am Mai-Nu Song.”

“What about Pa Chou?”

“Where did you hear my uncle’s name?”

Benito shrugged. “You must have told me.”

“Hmm,” Mai-Nu said. “Chou means ‘rice steamer.’”

“Oh yeah?”

She nodded. “‘Pa’ is a salutation of respect, like calling someone ‘mister’ or ‘sir.’”

“Why does he have a salutation of respect?”

“Pa Chou is the leader of the Song clan in St. Paul. What that means—leaders are called upon to give advice and settle arguments within the clan.”

“Like a patrón. A godfather.”

“Yes. Also”—Mai-Nu’s eyes grew dark and her voice became still—“also they arrange marriages and decide how much a groom’s family must pay his bride’s family to have her. Usually it is between $6,000 and $10,000.”

“Arranged marriages? Do you still do that?”

“The older community, my parents’ generation, they really value the old Hmong culture. That is why they settled here in St. Paul. It has the largest urban Hmong population in the world. Close to 25,000 of us. They come because they can still be Hmong here. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

Benito attended a high school where thirty percent of the student body was considered a minority—African-Americans, Native-Americans, Asians, Somali, Indians, Latinos—all of them striving to maintain their identity in a community that was dominated by the Northern Europeans that first settled here.

“It is changing,” said Mai-Nu. “The second generation, my generation, we are becoming American. But it is hard. Hard for the old ones to give up their traditions. Hard for the young ones, too, caught between cultures. My brother—he likes to have his freedom. I asked him, my uncle asked him, where do you go? What do you do? He says he is American so he can do whatever he likes. You cannot tell him anything. Now he is a gangster. He brings disgrace to the clan. Maybe if my parents were still alive…”

Mai-Nu shook her head, her ponytail shifting from one shoulder to the other.

Benito said, “What about you?”

“Me? I am bringing disgrace to the clan, too.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“In my culture, a woman can only lead from behind. To be out front, to have a high profile, to be a lawyer—the old people, the clan leaders do not tolerate it. My uncle is very upset. He is afraid of losing power as the young people become more Americanized. Keeping me in my place, it is important to him. It proves that he is still in charge. That is why he wants me to marry.”

“He arranged your marriage?”

“He is attempting to. He says…Pa Chou and my brother hate each other, but Pa Chou says he will leave all his wealth—my parents’ wealth—to Cheng unless I agree to marry.” She grinned then, an odd thing, Benito thought. “My bride price—the last bid was $22,000. If they wait until after I get my law degree, the bidding will top $25,000.”

“You are worth much more than that,” Benito blurted.

Mai-Nu smiled at him. “You are very sweet,” she said. And then, “I have to run if I am going to have time to get cleaned up before class.”

A moment later she was moving at a steady pace down the street. Benito watched her.

“Gentle Sun,” he said.

It was nearly 10 p.m. when Mai-Nu went from her bedroom to her tiny bathroom—Benito saw her only for a moment.

She was naked, but the rose-colored nightshirt she carried in front of her hid most of her body.

“¡Chingado!” Benito cursed.

Mai-Nu did not have a shower, Benito knew. Only a big, old-fashioned bathtub with iron feet. He imagined her soaking in the tub, white soap bubbles hugging her shoulders. But the image lasted only until he wiped sweat from his own forehead. It was so warm; he could not believe anyone would immerse themselves in hot water. So he flipped a channel in his head, and suddenly there was a picture of Mai-Nu standing in two inches of lukewarm water, giving herself a sponge bath. He examined the image closely behind closed eyes. Until he heard the sound of a vehicle coming quickly to a stop on the street.

His eyes opened in time to see three Asian men invade Mai-Nu’s home. Flinging open the door and charging in, looking around like they were seeing the house for the first time. They were older than Benito but smaller, the biggest about five-foot-five, 140 pounds.

One of the men called Mai-Nu’s name.

“What do you want?” Mai-Nu shouted in reply.

She emerged from her bathroom. Her hair was dripping. The short-sleeve nightshirt she had pulled on was wet and clung to her body.

“I have come for you,” the man replied.

“Get out.”

“We will be married.”

“I said no. Now get out.”

“Mai-Nu—”

“Get out, get out!”

The man reached for her and she punched him hard enough to snap his head back.

“You,” the man said, and grabbed for her. Mai-Nu darted away, but the other two men were there. They trapped her between them and closed in on her, wrestled her writhing body into submission. Mai-Nu shouted a steady stream of what Benito guessed were Hmong curses while the first man begged her to remain still.

“It is for both our happiness,” he said as they carried Mai-Nu toward the door.

Benito was running now, out of his bedroom, out of his house and toward Mai-Nu’s front steps. He hit the first man out the door, leaping high with all his weight and momentum, catching the man with an elbow just under the chin, smashing him against the door frame, as clean a check as he had every thrown—his coach would have been proud.

The man bounced off the frame and crumbled to the sidewalk. The second man dropped Mai-Nu’s legs and swung at Benito, but he danced away easily. He was more than a half-dozen years younger than the three men, but five inches taller and thirty pounds heavier. And years of summer league had taught him how to throw a punch. But there were three of them.

“I called the cops!” Benito shouted. “The cops are on their way.”

Mai-Nu squirmed out of the third man’s grasp and struck him hard in the face.

The man seemed mystified.

“But I love you,” he said.

Mai-Nu hit him again.

The other two men turned toward Benito.

“The cops are coming,” he repeated.

One of them said something that Benito could not understand. The other said, “We must leave,” in clear English.

“Not without Mai-Nu,” the third man said.

Mai-Nu shoved him hard and he nearly fell off the steps. His companions grabbed his shoulders and spoke rapidly to him as they dragged him to the van parked directly in front of Mai-Nu’s house.

“Mai-Nu, Mai-Nu,” he chanted as they stuffed him inside. A moment later they were driving off.

Mai-Nu watched them go, her hands clenched so tightly that her fingernails dug ugly half-moons into her palms.

Benito rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Mai-Nu spun violently toward him.

“Yes, I am okay.”

Benito was startled by her anger and took a step backward. Mai-Nu saw the hurt expression in his face and reached for him.

“Benito, Benito,” she chanted. “You were so brave.”

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. He could feel her exquisite skin beneath the wet nightshirt, could feel her breasts flatten against his chest.

“You are my very good friend,” Mai-Nu said as she kissed his ear and his cheek. “My very good friend.”

She released him and smiled so brightly, Benito put his hand on his heart, afraid that it had stopped beating.

“Are you all right?” Mai-Nu asked him.

Benito nodded his head.

“You are sure?”

Benito nodded again. After a moment, he found enough breath to ask, “Who were those men?”

“They are from the Kue clan.”

“You know them?”

“Yes.”

“What were they doing here? Why did they try to kidnap you?”

“It is called ‘marriage by capture.’”

“What?”

“It is a Hmong custom. If a woman spends three days in a man’s home, even if there is no physical contact between them, she must marry him as long as he can pay the bride price set by her family.”

“By your uncle.”

“It is becoming rare in America, but my uncle is desperate.”

“That’s crazy. I mean, they gotta know that you would turn them in, right? They have to know you’d have them arrested.”

Mai-Nu did not answer.

“Right?”

“I could not do that to my people. For practicing a custom that has existed for hundreds of years, no, I could not do that.”

“But you wouldn’t marry him?”

“You are very kind, Benito. And very brave. I am in your debt.”

“Mai-Nu, you wouldn’t marry him.”

“I must ask you one more favor.”

“Anything.”

“You must not tell my brother about tonight. You must not tell him about my uncle. I know that he asked you to watch out for me, but you must not tell him anything. The way Cheng is, what he thinks of the old ways, you must not tell him. It would be very bad.”

“Mai-Nu?”

“You must promise.”

“I promise.”

She embraced him. Her lips found the side of his mouth. She said goodnight and returned to her house, locking the door behind her. Benito stood on the sidewalk for a long time, his fingers gently caressing the spot where Mai-Nu had kissed him.

It was a soft, cool night full of wishing stars, unusual for August in Minnesota—a summer evening filled with the promise of autumn—and Benito was terrified that the weather might encourage Mai-Nu to close her windows and lower her shade. As it was, she was dressed in blue Capri pants and a boxy white sweatshirt that revealed nothing of the body beneath. She was sitting on her front stoop, her back against the door, sipping vodka and orange juice.

Benito called to her from the sidewalk.

“¿Qué pasa, chica?”he said. “¿Como te va?”

“Very well, thank you,” Mai-Nu replied, and patted the space next to her. Benito sat down.

“My Spanish is improving,” she said.

“Sí.I heard from a college today,” Benito said, just to be saying something. “Minnesota State wants me to come down to Mankato and look at their campus.”

Mai-Nu hugged Benito’s arm and a jolt of electricity surged through his body.

“You will go far, I know you will,” she told him.

“I need to get my scores up. I took a practice ACT test and only got a nineteen. That’s borderline.”

“It is hard, I know.”

“Did you take the ACT?”

“Yes.”

“How’d you do?”

“Thirty-one.”

Benito’s eyes widened in respect. Thirty-one put Mai-Nu in the top five percent in the country.

“I have always done well with tests,” she told him.

Benito didn’t know what to say to that so he said nothing. They sat together in silence, Mai-Nu still holding Benito’s arm. She released it only when a Honda Accord slowed to a stop directly in front of them. Its lights flicked off, the engine was silenced. The man who stepped out of the vehicle was the largest Asian Benito had ever seen, nearly six feet tall. His jaw was square, his eyes unblinking—a military man, Benito decided. He smiled at Mai-Nu with a stern kindliness.

“You do not have a cordial word for your uncle?” he said.

“Why are you here?” Mai-Nu asked.

“We have much to talk about.”

Benito started to rise. Mai-Nu reached for him, but Benito pulled his arm away.

“It is a private matter,” he said, and moved to his own stoop. It was only a dozen steps away; he didn’t figure to miss much.

“Did you send those assholes last night?” Mai-Nu asked.

“Mai-Nu, your language—”

“Screw my language,” she said, and took a long pull of her drink.

Pa Chou’s eyes became narrow slits. His voice was suddenly cold and hard.

“The way you drink,” he said. “The way you talk. What has become of you?”

“I am angry, Pa Chou. Do you blame me?”

Pa Chou glanced around the street. Seeing Benito pretending not to listen, he said, “Let us go inside.”

“Fine,” said Mai-Nu. She stood and went into her house. Pa Chou followed. Benito gave them a head start, then dashed into his own house. His mother asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to his room to listen to music. Once there he stared intently through Mai-Nu’s window, but could see neither her nor her uncle. Yet he could hear them. They spoke their native language. Benito did not have to understand their words to know they were angry.

He sat and listened for what seemed like a long time. Then he heard a distinct sound of skin slapping skin violently, followed by Mai-Nu falling into her living room. Pa Chou was there in an instant. He heaved her up by her arms, shook her like a doll, and slapped her again with the back of his hand. Mai-Nu shouted at him and Pa Chou hit her again. Mai-Nu fell out of sight and Pa Chou followed. There were more shouts and more slapping sounds. Finally, Pa Chou strode purposely across the living room to the front door. He shouted something at Mai-Nu over his shoulder and left the house. Mai-Nu walked slowly into her living room and collapsed to her knees, leaning against the sofa. She covered her face with her arms and wept.

Benito closed his eyes and braced himself with both hands against the bureau. Something in his stomach flipped and flopped and tried to escape through his throat, but he choked it down. A blinding rage burned at the edge of his eyelids until teardrops formed. He smashed his fist against the side of the bureau, then shook the pain out of his hand.

It was a family matter, he told himself. It had nothing to do with him.

But he could tell Cheng Song about it.

He could do that.

The headline of the St. Paul Pioneer Pressfour days later read: Killing underscores problems in growing Hmong community.

The story suggested that the murder of Pa Chou Song and the subsequent arrest of Cheng Song by St. Paul police officers was an indication of how difficult it is for many in the Hmong community to assimilate to American culture. But that is not what distressed Benito. It was the photograph of Pa Chou that the paper printed—a decidedly small man in his late forties standing next to the doorway of a Hmong restaurant.

Benito was confused. He rushed to Mai-Nu’s house and knocked on her door.

“Who is it?” she called.

“Benito Hernandez,” he answered through the screen door.

“Come in. Sit down. I will be there in a minute.”

Benito entered the house and found a seat on the rust-colored sofa. There was a law book on the coffee table. Benito glanced at the spine—Minnesota Statutes 2005.He opened it to the page held by a bookmark. A passage had been highlighted in yellow.

Benito closed the book and returned it to the table when Mai-Nu entered the room. He stood to greet her. She appeared more radiant than at any time since he had known her. Her smile seemed like a gift to the world.

Mai-Nu was tying a white silk scarf around her head. She said, “It is traditional to wear a white headband when one is in mourning.”

“Mourning for your uncle,” Benito said.

“And my brother.”

Benito was standing in front of her now, clutching the newspaper.

“Thank you for thinking of me,” Mai-Nu gestured at the paper, “but I have already read it.”

Benito showed her the photograph.

“This is your uncle?” he said.

“Yes.”

“Pa Chou Song?”

“Yes, of course.”

“It is not the man who came here that day. The man who beat you.”

“You saw him beat me?”

“I saw—”

“Did you, Benito?”

Benito glanced at the open window and back at Mai-Nu.

“I saw,” he said.

“And you told my brother?”

“I know now that you wanted me to tell Cheng what I saw.”

“Did I?”

Benito nodded.

“There is no evidence of that.”

“Evidence?”

“Did I tell you to go to my brother?”

“No.”

“Did I tell you not to speak to my brother?”

“Yes.”

“That is the evidence that the court will hear, should you go to court.”

“I don’t understand.”

Mai-Nu brushed past Benito and retrieved the law book from the coffee table. She hugged it to her breasts.

“In Laos, women are expected to submit,” she said. “Submit to their husbands, submit to their fathers, submit to their uncles. Not here. Here we are equal. Here we are protected by the law. I love America.”

“Who was the man who came here that night?”

“A friend, Benito. Like you.”

She reached out and gently stroked Benito’s cheek.

“You must go now,” she said.

A few minutes later, Benito returned to his bedroom. Dark and menacing storm clouds were rolling in from the northwest, laying siege to the sun and casting the world half in shadow. Mai-Nu’s lights were on and though it was early morning, he had a good view of her living room.

He did not see her at first, then Mai-Nu appeared. She moved to the window and looked directly at him. She smiled and blew him a kiss. And slowly lowered her shade.