The Trouble Begins (11 page)

I have my personal narrative in my notebook. If I turned it in now it would be late but Mrs. Dorfman just collected
Tiffany's and Jorge's. “Better late than never,” she said. “I'll take ten points off your final score for each late day.”

She asks for volunteers to read theirs. Alan volunteers to read about his trip to Carlsbad Beach in an RV. Then Emily reads about some place but she talks so soft and it's so boring that I don't listen. After Anthony reads his, Mrs. Dorfman says, “I'd like to speak to you after class, Anthony.”

“How come?” he blurts. “I did it.”

“Are you sure you didn't get quite a bit of help?” she asks with her eyebrows up. Anthony mutters about how she blames him for everything, and slumps down in his seat. Veronica's trip to Mexico takes less than a minute to read. Kids are squirming around like me and nobody's listening. Mrs. Dorfman's grading our spelling tests. She handed back my Disneyland paper with the others but I don't volunteer. I almost raise my hand to read my real personal narrative but then I start to think about it. Maybe they won't believe it about the pirates and the boat and the jewelry. Mrs. Dorfman might not like the part about cutting in line and Anthony will laugh and say we were “trash pickers.” It's not really what Mrs. Dorfman said we should write anyway because it took years and years, not a week or a few days. And also it's late so it won't get a good grade anyway. I don't want a D on this paper. She'll say I didn't write it because Thuy and Lin helped me. And then I think that I just don't want her or any of them to read it or hear it now. It's mine. I just found out myself about the boat. Vuong said hundreds of thousands of people died in those boats. I'll just keep it for myself and maybe someday if I have American kids I'll let them read it.

I can get through that little window so fast now the old man couldn't see me if he could see around corners. He's got boxes of Christmas junk in this trunk. Strings of lights and colored balls. Some of them are broken but I didn't break them. Maybe that boy in the picture album did. I bet that's his box of metal parts way down in the bottom of the trunk. I wonder what he made with it. I could make almost anything out of this stuff. These little gears and rods fit right onto the wheels. I wish I had one of these sets but I never even saw one in a store. It's very old. It would cost a lot new.
That boy in the picture must be the old man's son. He must have played stupid baseball all the time. He's got on baseball clothes in almost every picture. The lady must be his mother. She smiles nice. I wonder what happened to them. I never saw anyone come to see that mean old man. I guess that's why he spies on us all the time. I still owe him back for when he stank up my shoes and called the police about the blackberries. I gotta think of something good. The lawn mower doesn't count because he put it back together right in front of our window.

Maybe I shouldn't have left the little machine I made in the shed. It's too good to take apart. I don't think that old man will find it. Now I've got nothing to do. “Do your homework.” That's what they'll say if I go inside. It's trash collection day. The alley's got a lot of junk in it. I'll find something for my catapult.

A bike! A real kid's bike sticking out from under this smelly old mattress. Somebody crashed it but I can fix it. I'll straighten the wheels and handlebars. The seat's missing so I'll make one. It was a good bike before it got crashed. The back tire's still good. I got a lot of work in front of me and I don't want anyone to see. They might not let me keep it.

The bike's almost finished. I'll melt this old rubber piece to fix the tire. My cat likes to watch me. Burning this rubber stuff makes my nose hurt and my eyes water.

Who's yelling? “Du, Du!…”

“What in tarnation's goin' on…?”

People are yelling all at once like someone's being murdered. Thuy's yelling from our house and the old man's on his back porch yelling. Vietnamese and English all yelled together. I can't understand either one of them.

I better go see what it is. Ow! Something bites my leg. The grass is on fire! I'm gonna be in trouble. Jump up and down on the grass. Ow! Bare feet aren't good for this. But I have tough feet. It's almost out.

It was only a little fire. What are they so excited about? Thuy and the old man are both yelling again. They go back inside. They slam the doors. I look at my cat. She's still sitting, watching. She knows I wouldn't let everything burn up. I'll get her something to eat.

“You love it best when I bring fish, don't you, Cat?” Thuy didn't know I was working on a bike. She thought I was just burning up the grass. Why would I do that? “Here, Cat. Here's an extra piece of fish I saved. You don't have to lick the paper. That's right. Come and get it. I won't hurt you…. Oh yeah, run away now that you've got the fish. See, Cat. You're my pet. You took it right out of my hand and nothing bad happened. See you later.”

Wow! This bike doesn't go straight but it goes pretty fast. I've got a bike! I'll ride it to school. I'll do wheelies. Air goes out of the tires pretty fast but I can put more air in. Who would leave a bike like this just lying in the alley? Wait till Thuy and Lin and Vuong find out I've got a bike. They never had one. They probably don't even know how to ride one. I only fell over a few times at first. They wouldn't know how to fix the tires and straighten out the handlebars. I wonder if my dad will let me keep it. I'll hide it for a while until I find a seat. He'll say a seat will cost money. I don't need to sit down to ride anyway. To go fast you stand up on the pedals.

Here comes that old man home from the store. He's staring at me, spying as usual. I'll show him how fast I can go. I'll jump this curb. That old man walks so slow he'd never catch me on this bike. I could go skidding all around him and he'd never lay a finger on me. I ride up behind him on the sidewalk very quiet and go by him so fast he jumps. I'm going to ride all day until dark. I'll just go tell my grandma where I am so she doesn't worry.

“Du, where'd you get a bike? You give it to me right now!” My dad shouts at me from the porch. I rode too long and he saw me.

I'm so surprised I don't have time to think. I don't lie to my dad. I'd never lie. “I just borrowed it to ride for a little while. From someone down the alley.” As soon as I say it I
know it is wrong. I found it in the alley and I hid it in the alley again but I didn't really borrow it in the alley. Maybe if I just leave it hidden there and don't ride it, it won't matter if I lied. How does my dad know I have a bike? I stayed away from the front of the house but they must have seen me anyway.

“And don't you go bothering that man next door again. He said you almost ran him over. We don't want any trouble with the neighbors. If I hear of any more…”

So the old man came over and told my dad about the bike and complained just because I rode by him fast. I wish he'd leave me alone. I hope no one finds the bike in that junky place between the garages. I won't ride it anymore, I guess, but I'll just keep it there for a while.

I wish I could ride my bike. I went to visit it for just a minute and it was still there. It's a great bike after I fixed it but now I can't ride it. I'm lucky about one thing, though. Just when I need a bicycle seat I find one in the trash. Just sticking up there like it wants me to find it. It's the old banana-shaped kind that guys don't use anymore but it fit right on the seat post. I rode one circle around the alley with the seat on and then I had to hide it again. I won't ride it.

That's the front gate slamming. I wonder who it is.

It's only Lin but she's talking to somebody. She's talking to that old man across the fence.

“What are you talking to him about?” I meet her at the door.

“About you, little Du,” she teases, pushing past me.

“Tell me!” I'm mad. I don't want him to know stuff about me. I'm mad because he told my dad about the bike and now I can't ride it and it's mine. I fixed it. I follow Lin into the dining room.

“He just wants to know if you're my brother,” she answers, opening her backpack. “I said no,” she adds, laughing. Thuy and Vuong laugh too.

“I am your brother,” I yell. Lin laughs more. That old man doesn't know about what happened. He doesn't know about the boats that left Vietnam in the dark and if you weren't on them you never got another chance to get out. My mom and dad had to leave me because I was just a baby and my grandma and I had TB. We waited and waited to get medicine and for her to get better. You can't come if you have TB. They wanted to get us here but they couldn't for a long time. Lots of people don't know that here. On TV the families live together forever in big houses.

I can see that nosy old man out in front. He's looking proud at his big orange tree. Big oranges so ripe they're getting wrinkled but he won't let anybody eat them. There's no way he can eat them all by himself but he keeps them all anyway.

I've got an idea. If I can't ride my bike he's not going to eat his oranges. I have to find some cardboard in the alley.