I went around to the other side, and another door was covered with the same poster. A few people were in the street, but I didn’t want to bring attention to myself by asking anyone anything.
There must be a third door, I thought. The family apartment would have a separate door from the clinic. In the back of the building, I found an unmarked door. It had no sign indicating Dr. Mori lived there, and it had no poster, either, saying it was closed. I hesitated for a moment, then knocked. I waited and knocked again, this time louder. I knocked once more, and the door opened slowly. I saw two eyes peering out.
“Nini! Is that you?”
“Chiyoko!”
“Quick, come inside!”
I slipped through the door, and Chiyoko shut it behind me. She pulled me into a small entry room where I could barely see her. She held a shawl around her shoulders, and her hair hung loosely, not braided, but combed.
“Nini, you shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to see you.”
“But it’s dangerous for you!”
“Are you all right, Chiyoko?”
“I’m all right, but my mother—she’s so worried all the time about my father. He has to work at the hospital for days at a time. She has been sick, so I must stay with her and take care of her. Oh, Nini, I miss you so much. I even miss going to school.”
“I miss you, too. But you’d hate the school I have to go to—they only teach lies. It makes me so mad. Don’t you have to go to school?” I asked.
“I just don’t go. No one has noticed. I study with my mother.”
“Do you have enough to eat?”
“Oh, yes. Father brings us food from the hospital. Sometimes he even gets rice and fish, but I don’t know how long this will last. As long as father is working . . . they have so few doctors, you know.”
Chiyoko stopped and looked down.
“It’s all right,” I said, wanting to comfort her. I knew her father had no choice. And if he refused to work at the hospital, what would happen to Chiyoko?
“How is your family?” she asked.
“We’re all right, but my little brother is sick. Amah had to leave him with me this morning while she made some medicine.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Chiyoko asked.
“I don’t know. He wheezes and coughs a lot.”
“My father can get medicine. Your mother ought to bring him here and let Father see him.”
“Ma can’t come here! She has to wear an armband now, and they won’t let her through the roadblocks, and even if Ma could pass the roadblocks, I don’t think we could get Ma through the hole in the wall, do you?”
We laughed at the thought of Ma in her tweed suit and high heels trying to squeeze through the narrow gap. It felt like old times to laugh, but we quickly grew serious again.
“Do you have enough to eat?” Chiyoko asked.
“Yes, Sun sees to that, and we have Auntie Boxin’s rations.”
“Who’s Auntie Boxin?”
I realized I needed to tell her everything since we parted in the garden, starting with Mr. Yasemoto firing Da, moving to Auntie Boxin’s in the middle of the night, and ending with Ma having to register as an enemy alien. While I was explaining the armband, we heard her mother calling from upstairs.
“I have to go, Nini.” Chiyoko got up and moved toward the door.
“Can you meet me at the secret hiding place next Saturday?”
“I can’t . . .” She paused and turned toward me. She looked like she wanted to say so many things. “I must stay with my mother as long as Father is away. But if I can get away one day, I will leave you a note. Can you do the same, just so I will know you are all right?” Chiyoko pleaded.
“But I want to see you again.”
“No, you can’t come back here! It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll come back. I’ll find a way, you’ll see.” I tried to assure her, but I think I was actually trying to assure myself.
“We’ll be all right. Just go now and be careful, Nini. Please be careful.”
I fought back tears as I stepped out the door and heard Chiyoko turn the latch to lock it.
Sadness filled my heart and tears filled my eyes. I wasn’t paying attention when I turned the corner. I walked awhile before I realized I’d gone the wrong direction.
An old man stood beside a wire fence, muttering and looking confused. At first, I thought he was talking to me, pleading for me to do something. Then I saw two Japanese soldiers. One yelled at him in Japanese. I doubt the old man could understand him. The other soldier barked some command, then pointed a rifle at him. The old man looked terrified. He was holding something that looked like a radio in one hand and waving his other hand in protest, begging in Chinese. He dropped the radio, and the soldier lowered his rifle. But the other soldier yelled at the old man and shoved him against the wire fence. The man shook and cried out, then he crumpled to the ground. He lay in a lifeless heap at the bottom of the fence. What happened? Is the fence electric? How can they treat an old man like this!
It made me sick to my stomach, and I wanted to scratch their eyes out. I rushed up to the soldier who had pushed the old man and began kicking him, blindly, tears filling my eyes so that I couldn’t even see what I was kicking. He yelled to the other soldier.
“Who is this urchin? How dare she attack me!”
“I’ll teach her!”
“I hate you! I hate you!” I cried in English, kicking wildly. I was so mad, I wasn’t thinking.
“What? What is she saying?” asked the one coming toward me. “Is she foreign?”
“She’s a foreign devil!” The one I was kicking grabbed my shoulders.
I realized my mistake. I knew what he was saying because foreign devil was what the Japanese teacher called me. Quickly I spoke in Chinese. “I’m Chinese. I’m Chinese! You’re the foreign devil!” I kicked the soldier hard in the shin.
“Arugh!” he cried out and let go of his grip on me.
I ran as fast as I could around the corner and past the clinic, not looking behind me. I ran into the alley and through the gate, crossed the garden, and slipped behind the bushes and through the hole in the wall.
CHAPTER 10
Spring 1942
Winter passed into spring, and spring brought dreaded dust storms. The wind blew from the Gobi Desert covering everything in a thick film of yellow dust. The dusty sand stung my eyes, stuck in my throat, and thickened my hair. I coughed in the day and wheezed at night. I could not sleep or go out. Mei-mei and I had the flu, and Weilin got worse, then better, then worse, changing each day with the wind.
Ma started coughing and was down most of the time. Amah had more people to take care of than she could manage. Sun kept the meager supplies of rice and meal and a few vegetables in broth for our ailing family.
Auntie Boxin hardly got out of bed during the dust storms. Isabella was kept busy taking care of her mother but sometimes left things to the servant when she went out. When she came back, she didn’t have food or medicine, and she was secretive and rude. “It’s none of your business” or “leave me alone” was all she would say when I asked where she was going.
Da found work in the sanitation department, but he was fired for no reason. Mr. Yasemoto must have seen to that. Sometimes he made a little money by helping people fix their water problems or by repairing pipes.
The soldiers confiscated all the radios and wouldn’t allow people to meet in groups. The only way to get news was one-on-one.
Da would take long walks. Sometimes I went with him. He would talk to one person, then visit another, and pass on what he heard. Da called it “the grapevine” and told me that was how he learned things and knew what was going on. People trusted him, so he learned useful news and passed it on to others.
In the house, Da was restless and paced around
. When he couldn’t get cigarettes, he became irritable and yelled at me for getting in his way or at Mei-mei for making a mess or at Weilin for crying too much.
The day I came back from Chiyoko’s, I went straight to bed. When they found me, I pretended I was sick and had been there all day. But that night I couldn’t sleep. I had a terrible nightmare, and when my parents tried to comfort me, they began asking questions. Bit by bit the story came out that I had gone to see Chiyoko alone, that I had gone to the Chinese section alone, that I had kicked a Japanese soldier.
Ma reacted angrily. “If something had happened to you, Nini, we would never have found you!”
My father stayed calm, but he spoke in that firm voice of his that was worse than yelling. “I know you want to be independent, but you don’t realize how dangerous it is.”
I was not allowed to go outside alone after that. I felt like my wings had been clipped.
One evening after several weeks inside, Da startled me with an unexpected invitation.
We were in the drawing room. I was reading and Ma was petting Sillibub, who had made his home in her lap. Amah came to take Weilin and Mei-mei to bed and when she reached for Weilin next to Ma, Sillibub hissed at her.
Amah complained in Chinese so Ma couldn’t understand her. “Sillibub would be of more use if he would catch the rats in the attic.”
“Ha,” Da agreed. “Sillibub is useless—just like the Chinese Army, sitting in the lap of luxury while the rats run free!”
Isabella defended Sillibub. “At least he keeps the rats in the attic.”
Amah left the room with Mei-mei and Weilin. Auntie Boxin decided it was time to go to bed too, and Isabella took her upstairs. When only Ma and I were left, Da turned to me and said, “Nini, how would you like to go to a ceremony with me?”
I closed my book and said, “I’ll get ready.”
“You don t need to hurry,” he laughed. ‘It’s not till tomorrow and, besides, it has taken a hundred years to get around to it.”
“One hundred years! What’s the ceremony?” I asked.
“The Japanese are returning the British territory to China.”
“Is that how long ago Britain took over China?” I asked.
“Britain didn’t take over China, Nini,” Ma corrected me. “China was never a British colony like Singapore and Hong Kong.”
“You’re right, but it’s the same idea,” Da asserted. “Think of it like this, Nini—what if someone moved into your room. Let’s say, he didn’t take over the whole house, but he took over your room and brought his stuff in the room and wouldn’t allow you to come in. He even put up a sign, NO GIRLS ALLOWED.”
At this point, Sillibub slid off Ma’s lap and stretched. Da continued, “Let’s say Sillibub wandered in the room one day, and the intruder didn’t like him and killed Sillibub, and you couldn’t do anything about it. How would you feel?”
I didn’t really like Sillibub that much, but I knew what Da was saying. I started to say, I’d kick the intruder in the knees! but I didn’t want to remind Da of what I’d done to the Japanese soldier, so instead I answered, “I wouldn’t let him in my room in the first place!”
Da nodded and said, “Well, I agree. China should never have let them in, but, you see, the British tricked China.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you see, the British sold opium even though it was against Chinese law.”
“What s opium?” I asked.
“It’s an illegal drug. The British made the drug in India from poppies and then brought it in ships to China. But the British were not allowed to sell opium in China, so they sold the opium to Chinese traders who took it illegally into all parts of China. When the Emperor tried to stop the illegal drug trade, the British started a war.”
Da was fidgeting in his pockets, looking for something. He couldn’t buy cigarettes anymore, instead Sun made some from leaves he dried and rolled in thin paper. When Da couldn’t find any in his pockets, he started looking around on the table. He found one that Sun had left for him and when he lit it, it popped and crackled. From the way Da pursed his lips and squinted his eyes, I could tell it didn’t taste like the cigarettes he used to smoke.
He let out a little cough and blew the smoke in Sillibub’s direction. Sillibub made a sniffling noise, shook his head, and moved toward the door.
Da continued. “When the Brits won the Opium wars, they forced China to give them territories as payment. In their own territories, the English could do whatever they wanted.”
Then Ma added, “The English weren’t the only ones. Japan did the same thing! And the Russians, French, and—”
Sillibub started scratching on the door. Ma got up to let him out, but she continued, “I’ve always been proud that America didn’t do what the European countries did.”
“Well, don’t be so proud. America got involved too, but that was later, after the Boxer rebellion,” Da reminded her.
“But you can’t say America acted like the other countries. Why, look at the scholarship you had! America gave back China’s Boxer indemnity funds as scholarships. Without that scholarship to study engineering, you wouldn’t be the chief engineer at the water company.”
“Well, you are right. Without that scholarship, I’d probably be a poor schoolteacher in Shanxi, like my uncles. But don’t forget, the money for the scholarship was China’s in the first place.”
I was getting lost in Da’s history lesson and tired of Ma interrupting. Besides, I wanted to know where we were going.
“What about the ceremony tomorrow?”
“The Japanese are going to make a big show. They want the Chinese to think they’re on our side, so they’re returning the British territory to China. But if you ask me, they’re just making themselves look good for returning a room the British took while they’re now controlling the whole house!”
“Then I don t want to go.” I saw no reason to celebrate that.
“Well, too bad. I thought you might like getting out.”
“Oh,” I said, “Well, maybe I will.”
“I’d like to get out myself,” Ma said. “May I go too?”
Da answered, “Sorry, but when you go out, you have to wear an armband, remember. I don’t think people with armbands will be very welcome at this ceremony.”
The next morning, just as I was putting on my coat, Isabella rushed down the stairs. “Wait. I want to go with you.”
Da paused and looked straight at her. “Can you stay with me?”
“Of course, I can!” Isabella responded.
“Well, you must. It will be crowded, and we must stay together. Now, get your coat. It may be cold and windy.”
We walked down Meadows Road, the same way Sun had taken me and Ma when she registered. When we got to Victoria Park, the sign that had read, NO DOGS OR CHINESE ALLOWED, was gone. In its place was a poster welcoming the Chinese to the park on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.
I stared at the WELCOME poster. It did not make me feel any more welcome than the old sign. How would Sun feel? I wondered. Would he walk through the park now that the Japanese Emperor welcomed him?
In the park, bamboo staging had been set up where the gazebo used to be. But where were the benches? The rose bushes? It was just flat, dusty ground with shrubs around the border.
Old beat-up buses pulled up along the street and parked in a row. Someone got out of the first bus carrying a flag and then yelled for the passengers to follow. The bus was filled with Chinese people, looking confused and wearing ordinary street clothes. The person carrying the flag yelled at them, and they followed walking in a straight line behind the flag.
Da led Isabella and me away from the buses and over to the edge of the park where we could see the stage. It was built up high so the crowd could see the people on the stage. Bamboo poles lined the stage and were decorated
with banners in bold Chinese characters. Japanese and Chinese flags flew together.
Soon the buses were emptied, and a crowd filled the park. No foreigners were in the crowd. I could see why Da told Ma that people with armbands would not be welcome today.
A drum roll and the blast of a brass horn announced the opening of the ceremony. Men dressed in dark suits with top hats, looking very serious, walked onto the stage.
I was very disappointed. When Da had said ceremony, I had expected a festive occasion, but there were no bands or music, no marches or parades, just men with top hats and grim faces.
A Japanese official spoke for a long time. The loudspeaker was garbled, and I doubted anyone could understand anything he said, but I’m sure he said the same things that the principal at school had told us—that the Japanese had come to save China from the devilish foreigners who wanted to cut off their heads. Big applause.
Then a brass horn blew. The Japanese officials unrolled a piece of paper tied in a black ribbon. The leaders of the groups from the buses raised their flags, and the crowd clapped. They raised the flags higher and shook them furiously. The crowd applauded louder.
“What s that, Da?” I asked, referring to the scroll the official was unrolling.
“It’s the original deed. The agreement that China signed giving Britain the right to own British territories in China.”
The wind had suddenly whipped up, and I couldn’t hear him. The flags and banners were flapping wildly. One top hat flew off, and everyone tried to reach for it in the wind. The wind blew harder, and the bamboo poles began to come loose. Chinese workers rushed to hold the poles in place. The loudspeakers went dead. One official fell down and there was a commotion around him.
After a few minutes, things settled down, and the official stood up and held his top hat in the air and bowed. He seemed wobbly and several men helped him off the stage. Everyone cheered. I thought they were cheering because he left the stage, but Da said they were cheering because he wasn’t hurt—something blowing in the wind had hit him in the head and he lifted his hat to show that he had been saved from harm.
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