The Trouble Begins Page 9

  Thuy calls from her bedroom. “Get ready, Du. We're going to Fashion Valley.”

  “I don't want to go,” I say. I don't know what Fashion Valley is but if Thuy likes it, it's boring.

  “Okay,” Thuy says. Thuy and Lin and Vuong head for the door. Now I might want to go.

  “All right. I'll come,” I say like I don't really want to. I don't know if I do or not.

  “Your shirt's dirty. Get your jacket,” orders Lin. It's going to be like this all day, I think, but I follow them out the door.

  We wait at the bus stop. Thuy has a hundred dollars. She gave her prize money to my dad but he gave some of it back. He's proud of her for winning over all the other kids. He thinks you should get paid for work.

  Thuy pays for us on the bus. We bounce along. More and more people get on the bus. Vuong gives his seat to an old lady. He jerks me out of my seat by my arm so another lady gets my seat. She's not so old. I think of my grandma. I'd want people to let her sit down. The bus sways around a corner. It's fun trying to hold on. We stop. Everybody's pushing to get off.

  Huge stores with sidewalks as wide as three houses, and more big sidewalks above them. Fancy lights and glass everywhere. Music. Crowds of people. Good smells. This is Fashion Valley. We go in a big store. It's where Americans buy all the fancy stuff I see on TV.

  Thuy hurries us into a store that sells cameras. In the back is a big cardboard thing that has snowy hills and pine trees painted on it. Thuy has a coupon from the paper. She makes us all get in front of the snow things to get our picture taken. I feel dumb. The guy who takes the pictures pushes us around to the right place. I'm in front. “Cheese,” he says. I wrinkle up my nose. I hate cheese. His camera flashes.

  Thuy chooses a frame for the picture. She pays. They'll send it to my mom and dad when it's ready. “It's a Christmas picture,” I complain. “Christmas isn't for a long time.” Also Thuy knows we don't do Christmas.

  “Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas,” shouts Vuong, pretending to be dumb Santa Claus. Lin swats him. Thuy hurries us out of the store.

  Some people are dressed funny because today is Halloween. I know about Halloween from school. “NO COSTUMES AT SCHOOL” said the paper we took home. Kids were excited but I didn't listen much because our family doesn't do Halloween either. Here, people that look old enough to be moms and dads are running around with skeleton stuff on and one lady is dressed like a football player. I'm looking at her and I walk into a witch. She gives me a mean look. Pumpkin stuff's around too. I'd like to make a pumpkin face with a knife.

  One store has a window full of Halloween stuff. There's a rubber mask with blood running down the face and the eyeballs falling out. I could put that on when the old man spies in our window. He'd probably fall over. I try it on. Thuy laughs. “You look much better,” says Lin. Now Vuong laughs. Thuy shows me how much the mask costs. Way too much. She buys me a tube of fake blood and an eyeball to glue on with red rubber strings. I'll make a mask.

  “We're going to see Hidden Planet but it's too early. We'll go shopping,” announces Thuy. I don't know what Hidden Planet is but Thuy has the money so we all go where she wants. She looks at clothes in a big store that smells like very sweet flowers and has a guy playing an extra-big shiny piano. “Escalator,” says Thuy, pointing at the moving stairs and nodding at me like I'm dumb. I know escalator from TV. I've seen them a lot. But it's fun to ride. Thuy and Lin try on clothes, and Vuong and me ride the escalator. The security guard won't let you go down the one that's going up.

  Vuong and me go to a store that sells good knives and magnets and thermometers and sets of wooden balls you hit with a club. I wish I could buy one.

  “Cody. Hey, Cody,” someone yells. Vuong turns around. Two guys walk up to us and slap Vuong's hand.

  “What's goin' on?” “How ya doin?” They talk fast to Vuong about stuff. I'm not sure what they're talking about.

  “What's Cody?” I ask when they leave.

  “It's my school name. Don't tell, okay?” answers Vuong.

  “Okay,” I say. I think about it. Kids make fun of Du but it's my name. I wouldn't change it. What good is it anyway if you change your name and don't tell anyone?

  “We got a phone call for Cody from a beautiful girl but I didn't know who Cody was so I hung up,” I tell him.

  “How could you tell she was beautiful over the phone?” he says, sneering. I know he has girls' names inside his notebook. I looked.

  “I could tell,” I say.

  “Really?” he asks. “Now you know. I'm Cody. Give me the phone next time.”

  “Okay, Cody, my man,” I say like his friends. He starts chasing me through the crowds.

  Vuong and me wonder if it's time for Hidden Planet. We find Thuy and Lin. Thuy is standing in front of a mirror in the store. She has on a red leather jacket. Thuy takes off her glasses. She turns in front of the mirror. She smiles at herself like when she won the poster contest.

  “Wow! That's beautiful!” breathes Lin. It looks like a jacket that is too small to me.

  I grab the price tag. “It's almost a hundred dollars,” I say, laughing. No way Thuy's going to have that. She hangs it up carefully. We follow her to the movie. She's very bossy about how I walk through the store. “Don't touch things,” she snaps at me. She looks embarrassed when I touch a coat with a fur collar anyway. It's softer than Cat. She bumps into me on purpose. I know she doesn't want me here. I watch her walking ahead of me looking at all the fancy things. When I get some money someday I'll buy her the red jacket.

  We wait in line at the movie. Thuy pays. We go in with a whole bunch of other people, mostly kids. Right inside the door is another long line of people waiting to buy food. I'm hungry. Food smells everywhere make me hungrier. Candy piled higher than the top of my head in back against a mirror. Drinks coming out of hoses. A glass box with popcorn piled inside. Popcorn smell makes my mouth water. Thuy hurries us by the food.

  We sit in front in the movie. I have to tip my head back to see. It's very loud. The movie is about a spaceship that gets sucked into a hole and crashes near an ocean. They try to find people there because there are some empty buildings. I'm not sure what's going on but people laugh a lot. I'm very hungry. Food smells followed us into the theater. Everybody around us has food. A long talking part comes near the end of the movie. “I'm hungry,” I finally whisper to Thuy.

  She pushes some money into my hand. “Bring back the change,” she whispers. I go to the food place. I see she gave me ten dollars. I'll buy something for all of us. No one's in line now but me.

  “Four drinks,” I tell the girl, who looks about as old as Thuy.

  “What kind?” she asks like I'm dumb.

  I look at the machine. “Pepsi, of course,” I answer like she's the dumb one. “And popcorn and a box of those.” I point at one of the big boxes of candy. They don't have any small boxes. Me and Thuy and Lin and Vuong are gonna have a feast in there.

  The girl brings four drinks. Each one is big enough for four people. She tosses down the box of candy. “Popcorn'll be ready in a minute,” she says. She walks away. The drinks are too full to carry without spilling. I drink a little from each one. I open the candy. “Raisinettes,” it says on the box. I eat some. They're sweet but good. Raisins covered with chocolate.

  The girl comes back with my popcorn. It's in a huge round tub. I wonder how I can carry it all. “Twenty-four sixty,” she says.

  Uh-oh. “This is all I got,” I say, throwing the ten-dollar bill on the counter.

  She grabs back the popcorn. “You drank outa those. You opened the candy. I'm callin' the manager. You stay right there.” I want to run but Thuy and Lin and Vuong are inside and I don't know where to go.

  The manager comes out from a place under the stairs when the girl calls on the phone. He hurries over. I don't look at his face. “You go with him while he locates his parents,” he orders the girl.

  The stupid girl follows me to Thuy and Lin and Vuong. People hiss at us to be qu
iet while she talks to them. We all go out to the manager. Thuy has to pay for the drinks and the raisins. I don't even want them anymore. Thuy doesn't want to go back in the movie.

  Outside the movie Thuy and Lin and Vuong all yell at me at once.

  “You're stupid, Du. Why did you have to be such a pig?”

  “Can't you add?”

  “There's no prices!” I tell Vuong. He points inside high over the mirror. All the prices are written there. I never saw them. Vuong turns away with disgust.

  “You ruined the whole day,” Thuy chokes. “Now I don't have enough money left for the bus. How are we gonna get home?” They won't stop. They keep yelling at me. Thuy looks like she's going to cry. I ruined her special day.

  I don't want to be yelled at anymore. I push my bag with the blood and eyeball into Thuy's hands. “Take it back for bus money,” I yell back at them as I run. “I'll see you at home.” They shout and run after me but they can never catch me. I hide in a store and watch them running around outside.

  “Can I help you?” says a lady who doesn't sound like she wants to help me at all. I escape through the side door of the store. I think I know how to get home. We passed over the freeway in the bus and I know it goes under Fortieth Street not too far from our house. It's a long way. All I had was four sips of Pepsi and some raisins. Better get started. I trot along the streets filled with cars.

  I wish Vuong didn't say I was stupid. I wasn't so stupid. The sign with the prices was too high. I bet Thuy and Lin and Vuong are still looking for me. They'll ride the bus home and look out the windows. I'll take a shortcut. I won't get lost if I keep going in the right direction. I know about where our house is. I have to go up to the top of the big hill and over about ten blocks.

  There's no place to walk on this bridge. I'll cut under. Hey! There's water here. Not much water. Just a lot of tall weeds around big, deep puddles but there's some ducks even. If it rains it'll be a real river. I didn't know they had this stuff here except on TV. I bet I could catch frogs. Even fish. My grandma says the Mekong River in Vietnam is huge, too far to see across in some places. But this one is a nice little river. I'll remember. I'll come back and catch a fish for Cat. All the people driving by on the bridge don't even know it's here. It'll be my secret river.

  Now I'm on the other side, I'm not so sure where I am. I'll figure it out. It's getting dark but up ahead are streets with houses. Those must be Halloween kids. One kid's a ghost and another's a dancer or something. I'd be a mea heo. It's a pig ghost in Vietnam. My grandma says it tangles up your legs if you go walking out at night.

  A lot of kids are out here. I'm hungry. I wonder what would happen if I just went with them to the door. They're too little to catch me if I run and their moms have babies in carts.

  “Trick or treat!”

  “Happy Halloween.” The lady who answers the door is big and smiling. She puts candy in the kids' bags. “Oooh,” she says. “A ghost. A princess.” She sees me. “What are you?” she asks. I shrug. She hands me a Tootsie Roll.

  “Thank you. Happy Halloween,” the American kids call behind them. Their moms give me funny looks. They walk close behind the kids so I can't follow them. I don't need to.

  I go up to a door. I ring and ring the doorbell. No one answers. I knock. No one answers. I eat my Tootsie Roll. I go next door. A light is on and a pumpkin is in the window. I ring the bell. A man answers. “What are you?” he asks. I get mad. Then I remember he means what am I dressed like for Halloween. I shrug. “Get a costume and come back, kid,” he says. He shuts the door. I stand outside. If I don't get a treat do I get to do a trick? I ring the bell again. I zip my jacket up fast over my head so it looks like my head got cut off. I hear the door open. “Trick or treat,” I yell through my jacket. I wait. “Where's your bag?” he asks. I shrug but it's hard because my jacket is tight over my head. I hold out my hand. I wait. I hear him walk away and come back. “Here,” he says, pushing something stringy into my hand. I think he's laughing. I don't want to get tricked. “Happy Halloween,” he says. I hear the door shut. I unzip my jacket. I got a grocery bag with handles and a big chocolate bar inside. This is fun.

  I go to all the houses. If they're dark they don't answer so I quit going to those. I don't want to waste my time. I get a bunch of candy and an apple. I eat the apple. It's good. At every door I zip my jacket over my head. I can't see them and they can't see me but they give me candy.

  There's a smashed pumpkin in the middle of the street. It's not very big. It's cracked in two. I bet I can fix it if I stick a stick through it to hold it together.

  The stick makes it look better. Like it got stabbed through with a spear. No one can see there's a part missing in the back. Now I've got a real costume.

  I ring a bell. I zip my jacket fast. I put the stuck-through pumpkin on my head. “Oooh, scary,” says the lady who answers the door. She puts candy in my bag. I keep walking, always up the hill and over toward home, but I don't know where I am.

  My candy bag is heavy. I hope the handles don't rip. Sometimes my zipper gets stuck. I stop at a house with a light on. I ring the bell. “Honey, come look,” a lady calls. “It's Brom Bones.”

  A man comes. “Great costume, Brom,” he says. They put enough candy in the bag that I can feel the weight. I don't say “Thank you” but I go “Whoooo” like a ghost. They laugh. I run to the next house.

  I better go home. My jacket's getting hard to zip. My bag's so heavy it's going to break. My pumpkin's falling apart. I don't see other kids out anymore either. I wonder if I'm going the right way.

  THIRTY-THIRD STREET, the sign says. I'm so smart. I knew it was this way. I just have to get to Fortieth Street and I'll know the way home.

  One last time. I zip my jacket. I put my falling-apart pumpkin on my head. I knock. We don't give out any candy but the door flies open like somebody's waiting. Complete silence for a minute. Then they know. They start yelling.

  “Du, you're crazy.”

  “Where have you been?”

  “What are you doing? Take that thing off your head.” They pull me into the house. I dump a giant pile of candy on the couch. Thuy and Lin and Vuong can't believe it. They thought something happened to me and all that happened is that I got the biggest pile of candy in the world.

  Then I see my grandma sitting in the chair by the window. She's not asleep in her room. I know what she's doing. She's waiting for me. She's too worried to sleep.

  “I'm okay,” I say. I go to her chair. She takes my hand. “I'm okay,” I repeat. “I had fun. I got a lot of candy.”

  “Yes, Du,” she says softly. “Of course you did. And you're home now.” She gets up. I help her walk to her room. It's late for her to be up. My mom and dad aren't home yet.

  I come back. Thuy and Lin and Vuong have carried all the candy to the dining room table. They're putting it into piles of different kinds. They can't believe I got so much for free.

  “Who's Brom Bones?” I ask. They don't know.

  “I'm Brom Bones,” I shriek at them.

  “Oh Du, go to bed,” says Thuy, laughing.

  “I'll go with you next year,” says Vuong.

  A Surprise in the Shed

  I hear guys in my class talk about going to the park sometimes. Maybe I'll go over and see if anybody's there. It's somewhere over on the other side of school. I'll go through the alleys. If I had my bike I'd ride over there in a second.

  It's a long way to come but the park's so big I have to run around all these little sidewalks to see the whole thing. Lots of families are here on Sunday. My dad works harder than anybody. He doesn't even take Sunday off. I don't see anybody from school.

  Eight tennis courts and every one has people playing on it and waiting to play on it when the others get off. The park must end here behind this tennis court. It looks like nobody ever comes to this steep canyon with no path. It's more fun to climb around here than look at baseball fields and tennis courts. I wonder if there's water in the bottom, maybe a
little stream with frogs and fish. It's steep and slippery but I can get down.

  A tennis ball. Practically new. I bet someone hit it over the fence and was too lazy to come down here looking for it. Here's another one, not as new but still good…. They're all over the place. I can't believe it. People just leave them here. I'll tie the ends of my jacket sleeves and use it for a bag.

  I've got so many I'm only collecting really good ones now. I'll take them up and sell them to people waiting for a tennis court.

  “Want to buy a tennis ball? It's like new. Only fifty cents.” The guy takes it and bounces it. It bounces fine.

  “No way, kid. Where'd you get that?”

  I nod my head toward the canyon. I ask a guy waiting for another court. “If you're grabbing those when they fly over the fence you better be careful not to grab any of mine,” he says. He turns to his friend and laughs. “The kid's stealing tennis balls and selling them back to us. Quite a business.”

  Stealing again! I didn't steal them. I wish I was back in the Philippines. I'd give every kid their own tennis ball. I'll take them home and think of what to do with them.

  I know that kid in the yard up ahead. I don't know his name but he's in the smart kids' class at school. He was with his dad in the market the day I tried to get the free chickens. I don't know if he knows me but I'll go see if he wants a tennis ball.

  Too bad. He went in the backyard. He doesn't throw so good anyway. I've seen him at recess. Nobody wants him on a team, like me, only I can throw. They just don't know it. I'll go down the alley and see if he wants to have some fun.

  This is his garage because it's the same color as the house. This'll be fun. I won't say anything. I'll just throw a tennis ball over his garage and see if he throws it back. I bet he will.

  Right over. Dead center in his yard.

  He's not throwing it back. Maybe he didn't see it or can't throw that far. I'll try again. I can hear voices. I'll try three more and if they don't come back I'll stroll around and let him know it was me. Maybe we can throw and catch out front for a while.