Catching Up to You

Chapter 11 - The Big Bang

"Remember, we're going to get to the airport two hours before departure time, not thirty minutes," Linny reminded Trang.

It's the second to last day until it was time for both of them to fly home. Trang still had not broken the news of her pregnancy to their mom yet. This had been the longest time they had been together without getting into a fight that involved one of them chasing the other around with a slipper. She didn't want to ruin the mood just yet.

"Hey... so I was thinking of staying here for a while longer..."

Linny paused, dropping the pack of eucalyptus oil bottles their mother had just given them for the trip home.

"For how much longer?"

"One... two... maybe even three months?"

"You must be kidding, right? I mean, I love Aunt's cooking, but... you didn't have to stay here longer to convince her."

"No... I mean it. I was just thinking that it's been years since Mom's seen my face and we barely caught up since I left."

"Does that mean... you've forgiven her?"

"I mean, let's see what she says when I tell her about my pregnancy."

When she heard those words fall out of her older sister's mouth, she took a quick look at Trang's face again. "What did you do to my sister? You know, the one who drove our parents' car without a driver's license behind their backs, so she could find her lost driver's license."

"You don't believe me."

"It's more like you letting me know that forgiveness for each other will be completely out of the option then." Linny returned to stuffing her bag with newly bought underwear and extra Salonpas patches.

"Would you if you were a 60-year-old conservative Vietnamese mother?"

Without a second of hesitation, she said, "No, but-"

"See?"

"There's still time to run away while you still have the chance, jie," Linny whispered to her ear.

"I made my decision and not even the tempting idea that I could pop this baby out without her knowing will stop me!" Trang hissed back.

"Let me know when you get back to Boston. At least this time, you'll have showered."

"You don't believe that I'm going to make it here."

"I really don't."

"Just to prove you wrong, I'm not even going to reschedule my Southwestern return flight to Boston!"

"You know, neither of our parents would be happy knowing that you're throwing a bunch of money out the window."

"But he'd be happy knowing that I'd be spending more time here. He'd finally have his favorite daughter close by his side in case of an emergency like he'd always say.'

"Yeah?' Not lettering Trang's teasing jab to her, Linny said, "Well, maybe that's what she needs to finally grow up."

"You obviously forgot about how much I've been through and how much you haven't."

The two sisters spoke very little to each other on their last day together before Linny's flight back to Boston.