Samphos and Tevi were more like sisters to me than cousins, so I had eagerly anticipated our reunion. Except for four years under the Khmer Rouge and our recent separation, our families had always lived together. Id expected our friendship to resume where it left off eight moths earlier, when their family left the refugee camp for America and ours did not. However, when I got to California, Tevi and Samphos were strangers. It made me feel really bad inside that I no longer knew them. They werent my Cambodian cousins; they seemed more like little Americans. It frightened me. I felt left out.
I both resented and envied their ability to talk and act like their new, American playmates. They moved with assurance in this foreign setting. Rota and I did not. It felt awkward to rely on our cousins; we werent babies I was eight and my brother ten. Not only must I look to Samphose and Tevi for interpretation every time an American spoke, they had to show me how to live in a Western home.
A more equal friendship emerged as we adjusted to our surroundings and became less dependent. From this equality, a new closeness developed. Once more the four of us became best friends.