Birthday
- Even though Hà turned ten years old on Tet, they also celebrate her real birthday by fixing her special meals and giving her candy.
- Hà presses her mother to tell her stories about her childhood, which is hard to do.
- She learns about her mother's past as a wealthy girl who had no responsibilities at all, and who was arranged to marry Hà's father when she was only five.
- After they got married at sixteen, they moved south—away from Communism—and then were no longer allowed to talk to their family in the north.
- Hà's mom is sad, but she thinks her mother is beautiful and wants eyes like hers.