I Don't Hold It Against You That He Didn't

Lily's young lover cried nonstop for three days and three nights without food or drink or sleep. At the end of the third night, his older brothers were finally able to take him back to their house. The boy recovered and eventually moved to another province in Vietnam to teach mathematics at a middle school. A woman in town fell in love with him, though he did not reciprocate. He was waiting for me to come back, Lily said. Before he parted, he said he would wait for me all his life.