Status Updates From Le K ne se prononce pas (Fr...

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Picking Worms
Lao girl goes with mother to pick worms (presumably for fishing). Mom is great at it, teenage daughter struggles. Girl has boy interested in her from school. White kid. He goes with her to pick worms on a lark. He's good; farmer likes him and puts him in charge (!?) Lao mother outraged, daughter as well. Boy invites girl to prom. He comes, knocks on door all dressed up, girl leaves him there.Payback

School Bus Driver: wife works in office while he drives bus. She's attractive and becomes mistress of her boss . . . school bus driver resigns himself to this . . . Name becomes symbol. He is "Jay" while his real name means Heart in Lao. She "fits" in new land; he doesn't.

Edge of the World
Unhappy mother . . . jigsaw puzzle of world solved by little girl . . . mother insists world is flat . . . girl says no, teacher said otherwise . . . puzzle swept to floor . . . mother leaves

Randy Travis: Lao immigrants. Mom develops crush on Randy Travis. Daughter writes RT letters for mom. Dad shrugs and goes along with it, even to the point of taking Mom to a concert of RT while also dressing as a cowboy to mimic RT. Mom's crush ends . . . she turns to casinos, slot machines . . . addiction . . . dies in parking lot

Dad, later, makes son Lao food years later, then sings a Randy Travis song well

How to pronounce Knife--More of an anecdote than a story. Lao girl is told by her father that the k is not silent. She argues with teacher, defending father and standing up her family in the new land.

Paris: Chicken rendering factory. Lao women doing grunt work, wishing they could work "out front" where the white women work. Nose jobs, hair curling, trying to fit in. Ends with her watching white woman humiliated