The New Year Dragon Dilemma (2 page)

The kids and Holden pushed through the crowd.

“Look!” Holden said, pointing past a sign that said
PIER 39
.

A long pier jutted out into the water, near dozens of floating wooden docks. Dark brown sea lions had taken over the docks. Some were huge, and others were smaller and younger. They were all
covered with sleek fur. Dink could smell the animals as they barked and flapped their flippers.

“This is so amazing!” Dink said. “They don’t look like they’re afraid of all these people.”

“They’re not afraid,” Holden said. “They probably think we’re pretty funny-looking.”

“Do they stay here all year?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Some do,” Holden told her. “But a lot of them migrate to other places.”

“What do they eat?” Josh asked. He had opened his sketchbook and was quickly drawing one of the larger sea lions.

“Mostly fish,” Holden said. “In fact, a lot of the fishermen are mad at the sea lions, because they’re both after the same fish.”

“Can we feed them?” Josh asked.

Holden shook his head. “Against the law,” he said, pointing to a sign on a utility pole. The sign said
DO NOT FEED THE SEA LIONS
. Then he pointed to a small metal box at the top of the pole. “That’s a camera. They’re all over the place.”

“Just to stop people from giving food to the sea lions?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Nope. There are a lot of pickpockets around here, too,” Holden said. “So hold on to your wallets!”

Ruth Rose pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt. “It’s cold here,” she said.

“Not as cold as home,” Dink said. Back in Connecticut, where they lived, there was a foot of snow on the ground.

Ruth Rose picked up a flyer off the sidewalk. “Guys, there’s a big parade tonight,” she said. “It’s for the Chinese New Year. We should go!”

“The parade is a lot of fun,” Holden said. He looked at his watch. “It’s two o’clock now, and the parade starts around six. I could meet you somewhere if your dad says it’s okay.”

“I’ll ask him later,” Dink said.

“Chinese New Year is huge here in San Francisco,” Holden told the kids. “The parade has floats, fireworks, and an amazing dragon that’s about two hundred feet long. Plus, every year, the town picks a new Miss Chinatown.”

Holden pointed to a picture on the flyer. It showed a pretty Chinese girl wearing a glittering crown with a red ruby in the center. “You might get to meet Miss Chinatown tonight.”

“Meet her?” Ruth Rose asked.

Holden blushed. “Yup. There are two finalists, and one of them is my girlfriend, Lily Chen.”

“When does she find out if she’s the winner?” Dink asked.

“She may know by now,” Holden said. “They keep the girls hidden until the parade. People have been voting for weeks. For the parade, they dress the winner in a special silk robe that’s a hundred years old. She’ll be wearing a mask and a crown.”

Holden tapped the girl’s picture on the flyer. “Right in the middle of the crown is a ruby that used to be owned by some Chinese ruler,” he said.

Josh grinned. “Does Lily get to keep the crown?” he asked.

Holden shook his head. “Dude, the crown isn’t worth anything. But that ruby is worth about a gazillion dollars,” he said. “Lily told me they strap the
crown on to Miss Chinatown’s head so no one can steal it. She only gets to wear it for about fifteen minutes, then it goes into a safe until next year.”

Josh winked. “Where’s the safe?” he whispered.

They all laughed.

“Anyway, Miss Chinatown rides on a special float,” Holden went on. “During the parade, she’ll take off the mask. That’s the first time anyone will know which girl won. The prize is a college scholarship.”

“Oooh, I hope it’s Lily!” Ruth Rose said. “You must be excited.”

“I guess I am,” Holden said. But he didn’t look it. “Actually, I’m a little worried. I haven’t heard from Lily since yesterday. She promised to text or call last night, but she didn’t.”

“Did you try to call her?” Dink asked.

“Yup, but it goes right to voice mail,”
he said. “I tried calling her parents, but no one answers.”

“You said they keep the girls hidden until the parade,” Ruth Rose said. “So that’s probably where she is.”

“I’ll bet Ruth Rose is right,” Dink said. He wanted to make Holden feel better. “Maybe they took the girls’ cell phones away.”

Holden took a deep breath, then let it out. “Yeah,” he said, staring at the sea lions. “Maybe you’re right.”

A teacher led her class past the three kids and Holden. “I heard that a fifth grader fell into the shark tank and got eaten!” one of the boys said to a friend. “Isn’t that cool?”

“Are there sharks out there?” Josh asked, gazing toward the ocean.

“Sure, they come to try to catch the sea lions,” Holden said. “But those kids are talking about the sharks in the aquarium.”

“Did they really eat a fifth grader?” Dink asked.

Holden laughed. “Nope,” he said. “The sharks are fed every day, so they’re not hungry.”

Holden leaned past Dink and pointed toward a glass and stone building next to Pier 39. “Want to go in?” he asked.

“How much does it cost?” Dink asked.

“Don’t worry, your dad bought city passes for you kids,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “Museums and the aquarium are free with these passes. You can also use them on buses and the cable cars.”

The kids followed Holden through the crowd. Holden showed the passes at the turnstile, and they walked inside. The first thing they saw was an escalator that carried passengers past glass tunnels filled with ocean water.

“Oh my gosh!” Josh cried. “Look!” Swimming in a water tunnel, only a few
feet from their faces, was a huge shark. Then they saw other sharks, manta rays, and a bunch of other fish.

“I hope that glass is thick!” Dink said.

The kids and Holden rode the escalator until the end. Then they did it again.

“Those sharks look hungry,” Josh said. “Don’t they eat the other fish?”

“The staff feeds them a lot,” Holden said. “If their tummies are full, the sharks won’t go after anything else.”

“Speaking of full tummies,” Josh said, rubbing his, “I saw a snack bar over there.”

“You’re hungry?” Holden asked.

“Josh is always hungry,” Ruth Rose said.

“Josh, don’t forget we’re meeting my dad for dinner later,” Dink said.

“I’m a growing boy,” Josh said.

Holden took the kids to the snack
bar, and they chose a long table. In the center of the table were napkins, salt and pepper shakers, and fat bottles of ketchup and mustard.

A man wearing a T-shirt and jeans sat at the far end of the table. He was hunched over a laptop. A silvery cell phone lay next to the laptop.

Dink smiled. He pulled a small notebook and pen from his pocket. He wanted to be a writer someday, and had gotten in the habit of writing down stuff he saw.

Dink thought this man looked interesting. His head was shaved, leaving only a light fuzz of hair. His face and arms were deeply tanned. On the back of each hand was a tattoo of an
M
. The man stopped typing and cut a slice from an apple with a sharp fisherman’s knife.

“Come on,” Holden said. “Let’s get Josh some food.”

“I’ll stay here,” Dink said. “I’m not really hungry.”

The others left, and Dink started scribbling a description of the man working at his laptop.

The man’s cell phone buzzed and he picked it up. “Yo,” he said into the phone.

Dink kept writing. The man looked at Dink, then turned away and lowered his voice. Dink heard him say something about a boat or goat or float. Then he said, “The second tire works.” Dink wrote that down, too.

Dink snuck a peek at the laptop. He saw a picture on the screen. It was a simple drawing, like a kid would make. The drawing showed a wagon with four wheels.

The man looked at Dink again, then hit a button on the laptop keyboard. The drawing vanished. In its place was a photo of a green boat with white sails.

Just then Josh, Ruth Rose, and
Holden showed up. They were carrying a large bucket of French fries and four lemonades. They plopped everything down on the table.

“I bought fries for everyone,” Holden told Dink. “Josh told me you love them.”

They all began eating, reaching into the bucket and sharing the ketchup.

The tattooed man flipped his cell phone shut, tucked the laptop under his arm, and strolled away.

“What kind of meetings is your dad having?” Holden asked.

“His job is teaching teachers how to use computers in their classrooms,” Dink said. “He’s here to meet other teachers who do the same thing.”

“Sounds interesting,” Holden said.

The kids finished eating.

“Can I buy some postcards?” Ruth Rose asked Holden.

“Sure, there’s a rack of cards over by
the door,” Holden said. “We can stop on our way out.”

They cleaned up the table and headed for the exit. “I’ll wait outside,” Holden said.

While Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were looking over the card rack, Dink glanced out the window. He saw a woman with purple hair. She was licking an ice cream cone of the same color! He noticed a teenager texting on his cell phone while munching on a hamburger.

And he saw the man who had been sitting at their table with his laptop. He was walking toward the piers. To Dink, it looked as if the man was heading right for the sea lions.

Dink picked out a postcard for his mom, showing Fisherman’s Wharf. The kids went to the counter and paid for their postcards.

“I’m gonna ask Holden to let me
drive that bike thing,” Josh announced as they walked outside.