The Boat People

Ricky Chang's radio story about his family's escape from Vietnam has stirred up painful memories for John Avery Whittaker, and now Whit explains why to his friend Renee Carter. The ring Ricky wears, the one with the unicorn on it, is Whit's own high school graduation ring, engraved with the unicorn in honor of his Scottish heritage. Whit gave it to his son Jerry as a keepsake to remind him of home while Jerry served as a soldier in Vietnam. Whit realizes that Jerry's squad must have patrolled the very rice farm owned by Ricky's great-grandmother, Le.

In a flashback, Jerry stops by the farm for water and chats with the feisty old woman, who keeps trying to buy the ring he wears on a chain around his neck. Jerry always refuses; he promised his father he would keep it. Suddenly the farm comes under attack, and Jerry throws himself over Mrs. Chang to protect her. When the shelling stops, she is safe, but Jerry lies gravely wounded. His buddies rush him away, and the blast has knocked the ring loose into the mud. Le finds it and tries to return it, but no one at the army base will help her, so she keeps it, hoping to give it back one day. Jerry never recovers, and when his belongings are shipped home, the ring is not among them.

Renee then listens to the rest of Ricky's story. His family, having lost everything to the Communists, sold all they had to board a refugee boat called the Hy Vong, which means Hope, with three hundred people crammed into a vessel built for one hundred. After only a day at sea, the overworked engine dies just as Thai pirates attack. The pirates rob everyone, beating those who resist. When Ricky's grandfather Tuan tries to protect his family's food, the pirate captain threatens to throw him overboard, until tiny old Le marches up holding her baby grandson and scolds the pirates for being such big, tough men who pick on old women, babies, and a pregnant mother. The amused captain declares, "I like this old woman. She's got a lot of spunk," and spares Tuan. Just then a Malaysian Navy ship appears and the pirates flee. Le reveals where she hid her jewelry and the precious ring: inside the baby's diaper. "No pirate would be caught dead looking there," she says. That baby, Vin, grows up to be Ricky's father.

The joy does not last. Ricky's grandmother Lin, who is pregnant, was shoved down by the pirates and begins bleeding. The Navy ship tows the boat and sends a doctor, but he cannot save the unborn baby. Then comes worse news: Malaysia's refugee camp is full and the country will accept no more refugees. The sailors cut the tow line and abandon the disabled boat in the open sea while Le begs them for mercy. For ten days the refugees drift, weak and nearly out of food and water. Le, who has tried praying to Buddha, her ancestors, and every other god with no result, decides there is no one left to pray to but Jesus, whom she once heard a missionary describe. Lin, grieving and hopeless, tells Tuan their lives are over, though he begs her to remember her strange dream about a village and a man in a white robe. Then a ship appears on the horizon, and it is neither pirates nor the navy. It is the Sea Sweep, a humanitarian rescue vessel, and Tuan rejoices: "You see, Lin? There is always hope!"

Whit then confesses the most painful part of his own story. Years ago, a man from World Vision came to his office asking him to help fund that very ship, the Sea Sweep, built to rescue Vietnamese boat people. Whit, normally generous, refused. He was bitter and angry over losing Jerry and blamed the people of the country where his son died; he wanted them to feel some of his pain. He no longer blames them, but he is deeply ashamed that the Changs could have died while he did nothing. Renee tells him what her old uncle Argyle called facing something ugly inside yourself: embracing the brambles. You cannot go around it or ignore it; you must go through it, pain and all. Whit knows what he must do, because it is what Jerry, and Jesus, would have wanted.

Whit visits the Changs, tells them everything, and asks their forgiveness. They are astonished he feels the need to apologize at all, since his son saved Le's life. Since coming to America, the whole family has come to know Jesus, and they understand what the grief of losing a child can do to a person. Then Lin shares something remarkable: she now knows the man in the white robe from her dream was Jesus, and Whit himself was in that dream. He fell down dead with all the others, and Jesus pointed at him and brought him back to life. Since no one Jesus raises stays the person they were before, she says, how can they refuse to forgive him? Ricky offers to return the ring, but Whit tells him to keep it, and whenever people ask about it, to tell them his family's story, what Jerry did for his great-grandmother, and what Jesus has done for everyone.