they had given up on teaching me completely.

i was left to watch as becca attempted to play a card game described only as "GAME EVERYONE VIETNAM PLAY ALWAYS". i slowly pulled my banana shake though a bendy straw, watching the game develop in ways completely beyond my comprehension, trying to look impressed by the strategy of the guy sitting next to me who was letting me watch him play in another vain attempt to teach me.
one hour of careful but apparently idiotic observation yielded only that:

a: 2s are really really fucking good
b: you must slap your cards down really hard each round.
c: slap down 2s really really hard; this is related to their really really goodness

owner: "YOUR WIFE PLAYS GOOD"
c: "my..uh.. wife.. shes very smart"
i was nodding like an idiot. i played with the bendy straw - straining my tiny brain trying to make a perfect right angle.
owner's brother:"YOUR WIFE PLAYS VERY GOOD!!"
c:"yes, she.." i trailed off as becca continued to surprise the guys with her card skills. i on the other hand, was absorded with the straw, imagining a big plastic elephant attached to the leetle bendy trunk.

my hand had been since commandeered by the anxious little brother of the owner of the no-name little cafe we were sitting in in Nha Trang, Vietnam. it sat on a corner near the beach, and was noticibly lacking in white foreigners. it did have white plastic tables, flickering flourescent lights, and a ripped up white awning that was failing to protect us from the downpour.

"NONONO -HOW MANY TIME I TELL YOU, YOU DON'T, YOU NOT..RRRR"
apparently, the game was picking up, and becca was letting her coach down. we had been joined by an attractive young prostitute with blue nail polish and improbably green eyes. she was committed to helping becca between her casual "hi - would you like some company?" solicitations of nearby diners.
my hand had now been passed to an older guy, with a wispy goatee, glazed eyes, and incredibly long & well kept fingernails. like pale skin on women, on men these were a sign of status - indicating that one was not a laborer. this guy, apparently, made a living at cards.

oop- powers going - to be continued -c