Knowing what he knew about Binky, Steve Augsberg was never tempted to try out his moves on her, although it was clear after the stressful afternoon when Binky told him of her escape from Vietnam that there was starting to become more than just a mere friendship going on. He was content to take his time.

They did share a quick kiss when he took her home that afternoon, but that was all. For the rest of that winter, and all the next spring, they still got together two or three times a week, partly for the language lessons, but more and more to just be together. They went to movies, and the symphony down in Camden. Two or three times a month they’d go to the Vietnamese restaurant in Camden, and once, just for the sake of doing something different, they drove clear to Geneva and back in a day to visit a different Vietnamese restaurant there that he’d heard about. In the winter, Steve took her out on the lake to his fishing shanty to go ice fishing several times, and in the spring he taught her how to handle a fly rod, and they went trout fishing up on the Little Spearfish River.

Over the course of a year, Steve’s Vietnamese slowly improved, at least to the point where he could follow a conversation pretty well and participate in it on a more limited level, which is about what he’d set out to do. But, they kept up with the language practice, although by now it was clear to both of them and everyone else that there was more than language lessons going on between them.

She continued to meet with the Toivo Expedition members once a month for an hour of language drill, but that went slowly; there were some tin ears in that group, and there just wasn’t enough practice to get very far.

Binky’s first year of college went well; her grades were very good, so she went back to Moffatt the following fall. She wasn’t real sure what she wanted to do after that. There was some discussion of getting further classes through some extension courses that Weatherford College, Steve’s alma mater, offered at Moffatt, and there was some thought of her going to Geneva to finish up a bachelor’s degree. But that was never settled, because in October of 1982, on the anniversary of their long discussion and boat ride on Spearfish Lake, Steve offered her an engagement ring. She accepted it.

After that, there was little discussion of continuing on in college after that year, but there was one thing Binky wanted to get done before she married Steve. She accomplished that on July 4, 1983, when, with Steve and the other members of the Toivo expedition standing with a pair of minister brothers named Hunter, the Sarrinen family, and a lot of Baptists from Albany River and Spearfish Lake watching, Binky raised her hand and swore the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. She was an American citizen now, and proud of it.

A few days later, they were married in a traditional ceremony in Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Spearfish Lake. Old Father Kelly knew all about them, of course, and was senior enough, and ecumenical enough, and had enough of an Irish twinkle in his eye to not worry much about what the bishop might say to a pair of Baptist ministers participating in the ceremony.

Following a honeymoon at Disney World, Binky moved in with Steve in his lakeside home at Hannegan’s Cove. It soon proved that Binky wasn’t going to be one to sit around the house. It was a little boring with Steve at work, and she began to think about taking an extension class or two down at Moffatt in the fall, just to have something to do, but that never got very far either. She happened to mention the idea to Ryan Clark at a Toivo Expedition meeting one evening. A couple days later, Ryan told Steve he’d heard from Frank Matson out at the breakfast table at the Spearfish Lake Café that Tom Rufner was looking for a receptionist at Northwoods Realty, and Binky might like to look into it.

Binky did. She was a good typist, had a pleasant personality and a good phone manner, and Rufner was quick to hire her. Binky was always a fast learner when she got interested in something, and she got interested in the ins and outs of real estate.

One day, late that fall, Rufner was locked in a complicated three way negotiation on a big land sale in his office when through the glass of his office he saw a middle-aged couple come in. Things were hot enough that he couldn’t even get away to make his apologies, but when he could get his attention free for a moment, he saw that Binky had them in a spirited conversation. Quite a while later, he got a chance to look up again, and saw Binky typing something while she was talking with them, and figured she was just trying to be sociable and productive at the same time. Then, the negotiations drew his attention again, and the next time he looked up, the couple was gone. “Well, crap,” he thought.

When he was finally able to wrap up the discussion, he went out to see what Binky had been up to. “That couple who was in here,” he asked. “What did they want?”

“They wanted a look at the Branchett house,” she told him.

“They coming back?”

“Well, sort of,” she said, handing him some papers. “They made an offer on the Helfer house.”

“You talked them into that?” he whistled. “Sight unseen?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “They were at a party there a couple years ago, and said that was the sort of thing they were really looking for.”

Rufner glanced over the papers. He was impressed. He’d been trying to move that overpriced dog for months. He glanced at the papers – the offer was well under the asking price, but well over what he knew the Helfers would accept, given they’d been trying to sell the place for a long time. “You made a mistake on here,” he said finally.

“What?” she asked, a little concerned.

“Down here where you have my name as the salesperson. It should be Binh Ky Augsberg.”

“But I’m not a licensed salesperson,” she protested.

“Take a couple days off, go through the state manual, then go down to Camden Friday and take the test,” he said. “Then, we can get your name on the sales papers so you can get the commission. Then, I think Monday, you and I will start looking for a new receptionist.”

Binky had found her calling, and took to selling real estate like a duck took to water. Before long, it was clear to everyone who knew her that she never would have made it in a communist Vietnam; she was too thoroughgoing a capitalist. She had a touch for real estate that was almost uncanny. Prospects and listings somehow came out of the woodwork for her, and she was an utter magician for putting one and the other together. Success breeds success in real estate, and she had success to build on.

Getting listings hadn’t been a problem after she’d managed to sell the old Wayne and Donna Clark house out on Point Drive for $450,000. That was about $400,000 more than Wayne’s son, Brent, and Donna’s son, Frank Matson, ever thought anybody in their right mind would be willing to pay for the old lumber baron’s mansion. Within a year, Binky’s income had become more than what Steve made out at Clark Plywood – and, since he was the Production Manager now, he did well there. Since most of it went back into real estate investments, she and Steve continued to live modestly in the cottage at Hannegan’s Cove.

As a salesperson, Binky got affiliated with the Spearfish Lake Chamber of Commerce. The chamber threw an annual Halloween party out at the Country Club, costumes required, and at the end of her first year as a salesperson, Binky figured she really ought to go. She still had a few rough edges culturally and wasn’t too sure about the whole idea of costume parties. However, after a Chamber meeting, she’d taken her misgivings to Carrie Evachevski, who’d been a big help.

“There’s no need to do anything too far out,” Carrie told her, “Especially the first year. Why don’t you just wear that Vietnamese dress . . . what do they call it?”

“An ao dai?” Binky prompted. “I haven’t worn one of those in years, not since I was a little girl.”

“Perfect,” Carrie counseled. “Go with your fantasies. Go as the woman you might have been.”

“But,” she protested, “I don’t even know where I’d get one.”

“No problem,” Carrie said. “We’ll make one.”

Binky’s ao dai might not have been the most spectacular costume there, but it was one of the more memorable ones, mostly because it had seemed so appropriate on the slight Oriental girl. She’d easily walked off with the “Most Convincing” award; it had been like shooting ducks on the water.

Best of all, when Binky and Steve got home that night, she took a long, long look at herself in the mirror. Yes, she did look like the woman she might have become, had things worked out a lot differently. But, all in all, she was glad it was a costume, and she could take it off, because it didn’t have much to do with the woman she had become; on balance, she was much happier with the way things had worked out. It felt good to fold it up and pack it away.

She and Steve were to work it out later that it was that evening he got her pregnant with their first child, a boy they were to name Hunter.