“The Lotus and the Storm” by Lan Cao (post 5): In USA 2006, Mai’s alternate personality, Bão (the storm), gives her condescending point of view

“It is I, Bão…Of course I can hear her [Mai] and see her…I am the omniscient one among us three. Cecile is merely the charming little girl…But I am Bão, the storm, not Báo the treasure. I am the malevolent central player. Mai is here, half bewildered, half alert, adjacent to the distinct lives we have been spinning in this country [USA] where we have dwelled for thirty tarnished years…

“There is a medical word in this country to describe Mai and Cecile and me. Our madness was once called multiple personality disorder but now it is coined dissociative identity disorder…

“Once, in Cholon [suburb of Saigon where Mai lived until 1975]…our father…could sense my presence…‘What is your name?’ he whispered. ‘Bao,’ I said…I was merely repeating the word he himself had used to describe Mai. I didn’t have a name before then, but once I uttered it, I knew it was mine…‘Does Mai know about you?’ he wondered. I nodded. ‘But she doesn’t like me,’ I admitted…

“I often caught him [father] in a state of observation and contemplation, perhaps trying to figure out how two (sometimes three, if you counted little Cecile) beings shuffled through one physical body…

“Although she [Mai] is the one with the public face, in truth she is small and subsidiary, a weakness that can be obliterated…I can smell the primitive scent of her fear. It is the fear of not quite knowing what happened or why…

“I can tell he [father] understands we have a division of labor. I bring him food, feed him, and cater to his needs. Mai works [she is a lawyer] and pays the bills” (1, pp. 235-241).

1. Lan Cao. The Lotus and the Storm. New York, Viking, 2014.