This chapter returns to the story of Pham’s family settling in America. After nine months in Louisiana, they moved to California to be closer to other family members, renting a house in San Jose “smack in a den of poverty, alcoholism, drugs, and domestic violence” (190) because that’s all they could afford. There was a huge dump at the end of the street, and the other kids on the block were a tough crew. Pham writes that they lived on welfare, and his father studied 18 hours a day, every day, toward an Associate’s degree in computer programming, while his mother opened a small business in their house styling hair. His father impressed upon the children that they were different from their neighbors, who did not work hard to get ahead; they would only be there temporarily if they studied hard.

On weekends, they all piled in the car and drove to the beach, a free kind of entertainment. They packed their own food and spent the day there, but Pham could tell they didn’t fit in: “The good-looking people—tall blond folks of sandy, burnished skin, long legs, and jewel eyes, the locals—gave us a wide berth, and gave us the eye” (194).