April• 2018 | 81READER’S DIGESTMa has stayed in touch. And while
money is scarce for the taxi driver,
he has put cash in Duong’s jail ac-
count. Ma has even visited the man
who kidnapped him. The last time
he went, Ma watched through a glass
partition as Duong, in an orange
jumpsuit, bowed when they met.
“Daddy Long!” Duong said, greeting
his friend.
hroughout their half-hour visit, the
two men wept softly and spoke in their
native language of the bond they had
nurtured since their week on the run.
hey both felt so grateful, so surprised
by the possibility of friendship. Per-
haps Ma especially. Whatever he had
expected to experience on that dark,
cold night when he left his house in
his pyjamas, it wasn’t this. Wherever
he’d figured that trip might lead, it
wasn’t here.
As Ma grinned through the glass
of the visitors’ room wall, he realised
that Duong had saved his life, even re-
deemed his soul.
“My son,” Ma said to Duong, “as
long as you are still here, I will rescue
you like you rescued me.”The suggestion moved Ma, who
understood the cultural obligation
that came with the moniker: to call
Duong ‘Son’.Totrusthim,tolovehim,
even. his scared Ma. Life had taught
him to be cautious around love. And
yet when he looked at the damaged
man next to him, his face bruised
from the ight with Nayeri, his psyche
scarred, he saw the good that the rest
of the world failed to see.
“Yes,” Ma said. “You can call me
‘Father,’ and I will call you ‘Son’.”
After hours on the road, they pulled
up to a car-repair shop in Santa Ana.
As instructed, Ma slunk inside while
Duong sat in the car. Soon, the old
man returned with a woman. Du-
ong started to cry. “Sister,” he said to
heresa Nguyen, his friend, “I’m tired.”T
H E DAY AFTERDuong turned
himself into the police, Tieu
and Nayeri were captured in
San Francisco after police were alerted
to their van parked on a city street. Ma
returned to his boarding house. No
one had even reported him missing.
hough Duong is back in jail now,THE DOG DID ITA Florida man has blamed his dog, Diesel, for
shooting his sleeping girlfriend in the leg. Brian
Murphy told police the dog jumped onto a table
where his gun was sitting. No charges were filed.
NBCNEWYORK.COMFROM GQ (MAY 1, 2017), © 2017 BY PAUL KIX, GQ.COM.