Summary

Baker settles in to tell “a story” (83), one focusing on two brothers, George and Johnny, whom he had befriended in the aftermath of including their stories in a series of newspaper articles. The brothers were the children of troubled Vietnamese immigrants who had struggled throughout their childhood and young adulthood. At one point after the story Baker had written about them was published, the relationship became more of a friendship, and over the years he became a support and an uncle figure to the brothers. When George got into Yale, Baker says, he became so emotional that he poured the story out onto Twitter, which in turn got a lot of attention and publicity. That, he adds, felt out of place, like he was getting too much credit for their accomplishments. He has become, he says, “their phone call” (86).

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