The Blue-Eyed Woman from Hanoi

I went to Vietnam to surf and was forgiven for a war

Photo by Anh Q Tran on Unsplash

My knees were bent and nearly touching my stomach as I sat in a small, red plastic chair. I was dripping with sweat and sipping a beer on the curbside of a corner bia hoi in Hanoi, Vietnam. Feeling like a half-drunk toddler, I looked up, wiped my perspiring forehead, and motioned to the young woman who had served my first…