Free Aperture on the East by Meris Lee

surprised
look on her face.
    Ivan felt an anger rising from his
chest, and he almost wanted to shout at Ana for being so
absentminded. He tightened his fists, but managed to say calmly,
“Just hanging out with friends. I’m going now. See you later, Ma.”
Ivan grabbed his skateboard and left the apartment.
    He went almost everywhere in Nha Trang
on his skateboard. From his apartment, it took him almost an hour
to get to the Institute of Oceanography. He made several stops
along the way to examine all the sights, even though he encountered
pretty much the same stores and the same vendors with the same
trinkets every day.
    After he arrived at the Institute of
Oceanography, he spent two hours cleaning the saltwater pools with
corals and tropical sea creatures including a variety of fish, reef
sharks and sea turtles. He thought about Sofia as he worked. Ivan
wanted to hold her hand when they walked on the beach, but he was
always too nervous to do it. He thought about asking Misha or
Viktor for advice, but he was afraid that they would just laugh at
him, telling him that she was way out of his league. He sighed, and
after a few minutes of agony he decided that it was good enough to
be able to see Sofia every day for half an hour before sunset, walk
on the beach together and share a durian smoothie
afterward.
    “ We’ll see you later,
Vo.”
    Ivan heard a voice behind him. He
turned around and saw the camp counselor wave goodbye to a tall
black man and a petite, presumably Vietnamese, woman.
    Vo Nguyen walked up to the saltwater
pools when Ivan was putting away the cleaning equipment.
    “ I see a big smile on your
face. Are you seeing your girlfriend later?” said Vo.
    “ She is not my girlfriend,
Mr. Nguyen,” said Ivan. “We just hang out.” He felt warm all of a
sudden.
    Vo chuckled and said, “A boy and a
girl go walking on the beach every evening just to hang
out.”
    “ Well,” said Ivan after
some hesitation, “I do sometimes wish that she were my
girlfriend.”
    Vo looked at Ivan with a serious
expression and said, “Aren’t you a little too young to have a
girlfriend? I don’t think your parents will be okay with
it.”
    “ My mother wouldn’t care.
She doesn’t care about anything I do, as long as I get good
grades.”
    “ I’m sure your mother does
care.”
    “ You don’t know my mother,
Mr. Nguyen. She didn’t even notice when school was out for summer
and that I had started coming to camp here.”
    “ Wait,” said Vo, “she had
to know when she signed the registration form and paid the
fees.”
    Ivan looked away for a
moment, and then said, “My mother is very forgetful. She registered
me two weeks before school was out, and then she forgot all about
it. This morning, she asked me whether she could meet my
teachers , but school’s been out a
week.”
    “ Perhaps she just has a
lot on her plate. You guys just moved to a foreign country and
all.”
    They were quiet for a moment, and then
Ivan said, “So, you don’t think that I should have a
girlfriend?”
    “ You care about what I
think?” said Vo, looking at Ivan.
    “ Of course, I want to be a
good student.”
    Vo took a step back and said, “You
want to grab a Coke?”
    Ivan nodded. He and Vo walked toward
the souvenir shop where snacks and drinks were also sold. Vo paid
for their soft drinks, and they sat down on the low plastic
stools.
    “ Ivan,” said Vo, “you know
you can’t possibly fail this camp, right? I am not giving out
grades here. And you have been an excellent student. Whether or not
you have a girlfriend, as young as you are, is not up to me, and
you don’t need my permission to do anything outside of this
place.”
    Ivan drank his Coca Cola, not knowing
what to say. For some reason, he wanted to always please his
counselor, and he respected his counselor’s opinions very
much.
    “ So, tell me more about
this girl you are seeing?” Vo took a sip of his cold
drink.
    Ivan hesitated for a few seconds, and
then