Summary

Told in third-person, past tense, "The Other Man" is a short story about an 18-year-old refugee from Vietnam named Liem who arrived in San Fransisco in the fall of 1975 to be sponsored by a middle-aged British man, Parrish Coyne. Liem had fled Saigon when the city fell to Vietcong communist forces.

The story opens in October, when Liem arrived in the San Francisco airport after taking a short flight from San Diego, where the refugee service helped him to find a sponsor. Overwhelmed by flying and often confused by the distorted announcements in English, Liem met his sponsor, a British expatriate named Parrish Coyne. Parrish mispronounced Liem's name as Liam, but being too flustered to respond, Liem did not correct him. Parrish introduced him to Marcus Chan, a Hong Cong exchange student in his mid-twenties. Parrish told Liem that Liem was prettier...