Children of the Dust - Prologue. Prologue

Vince is Vietnamese. But he’s also an Aussie. And he’s most definitely as American as apple pie. Confused? Yeah, me too, but only at first. After my mother called me, to let me know she had a small FedEx package for me, later it all made sense. The envelope was addressed to me, Andrew Gable; sent to my parents’ house in Oakland, by a Vincent Blake in San Francisco. That was just across the bay from my hometown. Why would somebody use FedEx to send something such a short distance? I had no idea who this Blake guy was, or why someone in San Francisco would be sending a package to me, at my parent’s home.

I asked Mom to open it and tell me what was inside. She refused. It was addressed to me and I should be the one to open it. Fine, if that’s how she felt then she should just forward it to my place in Los Angeles. Once again, she refused. The sender had used a shipping company instead of regular mail, and had it insured. It must be something valuable. She wasn’t about to tempt fate again by sending it all the way down to LA. What if it got lost? She would never forgive herself.

Slow me, I finally caught on to her game. She was using the damn thing, and the mystery surrounding it, to blackmail me into riding the train up for a visit. I didn’t get back home as often as she’d like; the shooting schedule kept me busy. Rarely did I have more than a day or two off in a row. But with the show’s star leaving town to fly around the country promoting her upcoming movie, we had a two week break the following month. I promised to come see her then.

When I eventually opened the package, its contents would end up taking me back in time some fifteen years, and lead to a lifetime of good times with the man who sent it.