The Trouble Begins (4 page)

“It's ugly,” I say.

Vuong laughs. “You waited too long to start,” he says. “Better ugly than not at all.”

Vuong would never take anything that ugly to school. Thuy and Lin laugh when they see it. I wait until they go to bed. Like the bears I sneak out to the garbage cans. I push my Jamestown diorama deep down under the garbage bags. I'm not taking that ugly thing to school. Maybe I'll make a good one. The best one in the class.

I still see that old man from next door spying on our house through our window. If he spies on our house all day when I'm at school our fat Buddha with his big wide smile is going to be laughing back at him. The Buddha will sometimes give you things if you ask right but he wouldn't give anything to that old man. That old spy must wonder about the pictures of people from Vietnam and the red lights that
look like candles. I wonder about the pictures too but when I ask, Thuy says, “Shut up, Du.” When I ask Lin she says not to ask because they're all dead from the war and it makes Ba and Ma sad to talk about them and it might bring the evil from over there to here.

When I look in the old man's yard I can see great big fat juicy blackberries growing up his back wall. He's got a shed back there where he keeps his lawn mower and he's the only one on the alley who has a big cement block wall to keep everybody out. The cement blocks are like they had in the Philippines and I know they can't keep me out. I'm going to get some of those berries. That's the price he has to pay for looking in our window all the time. I could vault over the wire fence between our side yards in one second but he might see me from his spying window. I'll climb over the big alley wall. I'll eat berries and I'll even bring some home. If he sees me and yells I'll be over the wall before he can get his old man legs down the back steps.

I scraped my knee and my elbow but I got here. I hope Ma doesn't notice the hole in my new pants. Hey, cat! I'm not the only one up here. “Here, cat-cat. How did you get up here? Do you belong to that old man? I think you're wild like a tiger except you're gray like the wall. That old man can't catch either one of us. Watch!” I jump down into his yard so I don't wreck any of the berries climbing down.

These berries are good American food. I never saw any
like them before. In the Philippines we'd raid banana trees. I was the leader. We'd run in every direction if the farmer saw us so he didn't know which one to run after. We'd meet on the field behind the market road. We'd eat bananas and sometimes they were green and made us sick. But this old man's berries are sweet and juicy. They're so juicy I drip some on my shirt.

“Du, answer the door. We're studying,” Thuy yells. No one comes to visit us except people selling stuff. I lift up the corner of the blanket I tacked over the living room window so I could see the TV better and sleep later in the morning. Now I see a police car in front and two policemen at the front door.

“Answer the door,” Thuy yells when it rings again. I just sit in the corner of the couch. My heart is pumping hard. Why would police come to our house? Are they here about me? In the Philippines the police sprayed water cannons and tear gas on some men for getting together in the street at night. The police were afraid they'd riot to get more food. I saw a man get arrested here on Fortieth Street when I was coming home from school. He was handcuffed and pushed into the police car. My mind races around thinking about stuff I've done. I hope they don't take me away because I ran away from school or because I tried to get free chickens at the market or I picked some berries. There's a bowl of berries next to my grandma's bed. I put them there so she'd have
something good when she woke up. I see little pimples of fear on my arm. Nobody arrested kids and grandmothers in the Philippines.

I pull back the blanket again and look sideways at the front door. The two policemen are talking to Thuy now. One of them's a lady. Thuy is using her nicest voice.

“He's our little brother,” she says. “We're so sorry. He just came two months ago from overseas. The family was separated. He had a hard time. We'll tell him he can't just pick berries because he sees them. He didn't know. We're so sorry.”

I did not have a hard time. I had a great time. Better than here. I had banana raids and swimming in the ocean and going to school only when my grandma could pay. I didn't have to sit with big fat books at the table and eat slimy cheese. I hear the police talk but their American is too fast to know what they say. I watch them walk down the stairs. I wasn't really scared and now I know it was that old man who tried to get me arrested. This means war.

I watch from the window while the spy slams out of his gate and stalks over to the policemen. He's waving his arms in the air and pointing at my house. They talk to him and the lady policeman puts a hand on his arm to calm him down. He's still sputtering after them when they get in their black and white car and drive away. That old man called the police because I took a few of his berries. I'm going to call the police next time he looks in our window. Thuy marches back to her studying but she yells, “Du, you stupid!” when she walks past me.

I put the blanket down. I go in the kitchen to get some food. My grandma's there in the hallway. She has her big straw hat on, rounded on top with the brim like an umbrella. Americans don't wear them. She's scared because the police came. I know she meant to go too if the police took me away. I tell her what happened.

“Berries?” she asks, not quite believing me. “Berries?” She can't understand that someone would call the police about berries. I shrug. Neither can I. “It's okay now,” I say as I help her back to her room. “Don't worry.”

“You buy berries, Du,” she says. “All you want.” She gives me money from her pocket to buy berries but it's Vietnamese money. She forgot. Then she adds, “This country has bad food but nice police.” I don't tell her it has mean old men too. Everybody in the Philippines said, “America, America, it's a wonderful place, the best in the world.” So Ba and Ma and Thuy and Lin and Vuong came here but the Americans wouldn't let my grandma and me come. That old spy didn't want us to come, I'm sure. Now maybe he wants to send us back so he spies and calls the police.

My dad comes home late like always. Thuy hurries to tell him about that old man spy calling the police about the berries. My dad slumps in the kitchen chair but his face sets into anger. “You stay in our yard from now on,” he orders me. He goes to get something to eat. I make a face at Thuy. I guess I won't go out of the yard unless I get hungry and want some more berries. I don't care about staying in the yard. My dad'll forget about it anyway. He's too busy working to worry about a couple of berries. But that old
man scared my grandma. I wonder if she worries we'll get sent back.

Later I take her tea and she tells me a story about a monkey in Vietnam who picked berries and when a snake bit him he thought it was a thorn from the berries so he didn't pay attention and the snake ate him. Usually in her stories I am a dragon, lordly and smart and powerful, not a stupid monkey. I laugh because we both know she's trying to teach me not to pick the berries.

I'm lying here thinking that some ripe berries would be very good for breakfast. It's so early that that old man is sure to be asleep. It's still mostly dark outside but I don't even need a light. I'll just toss my blanket in the closet, feel around for my clothes here on the floor, and I'm getting out of here.

It's nice outside in the time before morning. It's cool and quiet. Those berries must be fresh and wet from the dew. The old man's not even awake but I'll still go over the wall in back. It's so easy for me.

I'll just back up to get a run across the alley. Run. Jump as high as I can to grab the little crack in the blocks near the top. I strain with just my fingertips holding until my feet can find a rough spot to give me a boost up to the top. This is so easy. His big wall can't keep me out. It's easier than last time. I just reach over the top now and pull.

My hands flail around to get a grip but there's nothing to
hold on to, just slippery ooze all over the top. I'm going to fall. Oof! Ow! I can't breathe. I'm flat on my back in the alley gasping for breath and I know as soon as I can think that it's that old man who did it.

Finally I can pull some air into my lungs. I put my hand to my face and my hand is covered with black slippery oil. I look up at the top of the wall. At the end near our yard sits that cat, looking down at me. “Did you see that? He tried to kill me,” I call to the cat.

I don't want anyone to see me lying on my back in this dumb alley. I thought I was dead but I can breathe now. I fell hard. I got black stuff all over my shirt and arms and hands. I hate that old man. He put that stuff there so I'd slip off his wall. I scraped my hand on the wall too, trying to grab something when I fell.

He thinks he saved his berries. No way. I'll just find something to put over that stuff. There's a lot of trash out today. Here's a box. Mash it down. Throw it on top of the wall. That's all.

Stupid cardboard won't stay up there. It's getting light out. I have to hurry before people start driving down the alley. There! It stuck. Now back up. Run, jump, pull. It's harder with this black stuff on my hands but I'm not going to let him stop me.

I'm on top but the cardboard is slippery. I can't reach many berries from up here. I'll just bend my knees and jump down into his yard.

Now what? I land with a splash in smelly stuff that stinks like a latrine and I almost lose my balance. What is this?
Yesterday his yard was all smooth green grass. Now there's smelly stinky water in a hole. Two traps that old man set for me. I don't want to fall over in this stuff. It's slippery and it's way over the top of my shoes. I hate that old man but he's a tricky old man, like the snake in my grandma's stories. Two traps when I thought he had only one. There's his kitchen light going on. I gotta get out of here. He'll think he won but I'm not going to forget. Two traps. My shirt and my arms are all covered with black stuff and my shoes are full of stinky water.

I throw away my shirt with all that black stuff on it, way down at the bottom of the garbage so my mom won't see it when she gets up. I put on another one but I only have three because she says that's all I need. I wear the same pants to school but they don't have so much stuff on them as the shirt. I wear my smelly shoes too because that's all I have. They're squishy with water and mud. The old man put dead fish or something in the water.