to chase them away.
Dee Dee complains.
I tell him,
“Look at the bright, round moon
and the stars around it
to distract you from the mosquitoes buzzing.”
Dee Dee says,
“I want to go home.
This is no fun at all.
I don’t like to eat the cold canned food.
It all has funny smells.
I want Ah Mah and Ma
to fix me Singapore noodles.”
I say,
“I miss their food, too,
but we can’t go back now.
Someday, we will be united again.
Right now, I just think about
seeing the snow and touching the snow.
You can think about
going to Walt Disney with Baba,
and you will feel
better.”
“Will Baba recognize us?”
“Sure he will.
It has only been two years
since we last saw him.
Even if he can’t recognize us,
we will recognize him.”
Dee Dee is already sound asleep.
53 | THE CRY
I hear a sharp cry
while I am sound asleep,
“My face hurts so bad!”
“Why?” I ask.
In the light of dawn,
I see Dee Dee covering his left eye with his hand.
His cries wake up Uncle, Auntie,
and the Chans,
who are lying next to us, opposite Uncle.
“What’s wrong?” they ask.
“I don’t know,” I say.
I move Dee Dee’s hand away.
I cry,
“Oh, his face has swollen up
and is almost covering up his left eye.”
Uncle gets up.
He comes over to inspect Dee Dee’s face.
“Maybe he was bitten by a poisonous insect.
We need to find a doctor
before the poison gets into his bloodstream.”
The Chans and other people are wide-awake now.
They suggest we inform the soldiers.
Some say the soldiers won’t understand,
but they have heard that a Chinese herbal doctor
was on our boat.
Dee Dee is scared. He asks me,
“Am I going to die?”
I hold his hand tightly.
I try to suppress my fear,
“No, you won’t die.
I am here.
I won’t let you die.”
But my hands are shaking.
54 | THE HERBAL DOCTOR
Uncle says to his wife,
“I am going to look for a doctor.”
You keep an eye on Dee Dee.”
Right away, I hear Uncle calling,
“Is there a doctor here?
A little boy has been bitten by a poisonous insect.
Is there a doctor here?”
He calls in Vietnamese and Cantonese
from space to space in the whole camp.
Sometime later,
a man holding a small cloth bag
comes with Uncle.
I recognize
he is the man
who wanted to donate a jar of coffee to the fishermen
while we were at sea.
(Later I heard that the jar of coffee was hiding
some melted-down gold.)
I beg, “Are you a doctor?
Please make my brother get well.”
“I will try,” he says.
He inspects Dee Dee’s face.
Now it is almost as big as a pig’s face.
The swelling has completely covered up his left eye.
He is still crying in pain.
The doctor says to Uncle,
“Acupuncture may help to draw out the poison.”
Uncle turns to me,
“Is it okay with you?”
I say, “Yes. Do it.”
Dee Dee cries harder,
“I don’t want him to do it. It will hurt. . . .”
The doctor says,
“You will only feel like someone just pinched you.
That’s it.”
Dee Dee still refuses until I say to him,
“You will die if the poison stays inside.”
It works.
He calms down right away.
He lets the doctor clean his face
with a wet cloth
while I hold his hands
and Auntie holds his legs in case he kicks.
The doctor tells Dee Dee to close his eyes and relax
while he inserts the first needle into his face.
Dee Dee doesn’t complain.
He lets the doctor insert more needles
into his face
and a couple on his arms and legs.
Dee Dee’s face looks like a porcupine
with its quills standing out.
The doctor says Dee Dee is a good patient.
He lets the needles stay in Dee Dee for a while
before he takes them all out.
“The pain and swelling should go down
in a couple of days,”
he tells Uncle.
He must think that we are Uncle’s children
until I try to give him my jade Kwun Yum
for payment.
He doesn’t take it, but says,
“We are all in the same boat.
We should help one another out.”
55 | DEE DEE’S CONDITION
Dee Dee sleeps for two or three hours.
The swelling on his face
is still pumped up,
but the pain has diminished.
The doctor comes back to check on him.
Dee Dee complains that he is hungry.
The doctor says
that it is a good sign.
He instructs Dee Dee to rest for a couple more days
and not to run around
until the swelling goes down.
I am very surprised that Dee Dee doesn’t protest.
I tell my ma, ah mah, and baba
silently that
we really have met a noble family
and a noble doctor.
56 | THE NECESSITIES
Uncle gets his purchases.
There are four mats to enclose their own sleeping space,
a pot for cooking rice and also to serve as a teapot,
bowls that can serve as teacups,
chopsticks that can also serve as a spatula,
a wok,
a bucket with a rope, a can opener,
an ax, a few candles with matches, and
several packages of insect repellant.
He says
since nobody knows
how long they will have to stay in this camp,
and they need to save the gold for the unknown future,
he just got the basic necessities
like other people did.
My throat feels tight again
as Uncle hands me two bowls,
two pairs of chopsticks,
two candles with matches,
and a couple of packages of insect repellant
to chase the mosquitoes away.
I receive them with both hands
to show respect.
And I swear in my heart:
I will always remember you,
Uncle.
I will always remember you,
Auntie.
57 | OUR FIRST COOKED MEAL
To save firewood,
Auntie suggests that
we cook all the food together
instead of waiting for our turn to cook.
I am very thankful.
I hand her all our rice,
instant noodles,
and canned goods,
and we share food with them
like a big family.
Uncle takes his new ax,
and Nam, Dao, and I follow him
to get firewood.
Dee Dee wants to join us
so he doesn’t miss the adventure.
Auntie says, “I don’t think it is a good idea
for you
to move around.
You are not completely well yet.”
Dee Dee doesn’t protest.
He minds Auntie
better than he minded Ma and Ah Mah back home.
I really don’t want to leave Dee Dee.
Auntie sees through me and says,
“I will keep a close eye on him while you are gone.”
We find some dry palm tree fronds,
and Uncle chops some small branches with the new ax.
Each of us
drags a handful of fronds
and branches back to the camp.
Auntie has already dug two holes in the ground,
surrounded by a circle of rocks,
and she has put the wok and pot on top of them
as stoves.
Soon, smoke is rising everywhere.
Soon, the campsite is diffused with
the fragrance of rice,
instant noodles,
and the canned food cooking.
We have fresh rice
cooked with well water
instead of salty sea water.
We have curry chicken,
stirred with
canned green beans.
We drink fresh-brewed jasmine tea
while Uncle and Auntie drink black coffee.
It’s by far the best meal
that we’ve had
since we left home!
58 | LIFE IN THE TEMPORARY CAMP
Our most urgent job is finding firewood.
Auntie cooks;
Dao and I help.
Dao and I wash dishes.
Uncle gets well water
and sips tea or coffee with friends he just made.
Sometimes he returns with green or ripe coconuts
that his friends have found or picked.
He makes sure everyone has some coconut water
and meat.
“The only vitamin C we can get right now,” he says.
While many people, especially the young men,
swim every day,
we take our baths next to the well
by pouring water over ourselves
from head to toe.
We change clothes
in Uncle’s “house.”
But Auntie is happy just to have a sponge bath.
While Auntie and Dao wash their clothes
around the well,
I wash Dee Dee’s and mine.
We hang our clothes on the rope
suspended between two palm trees
or just drape them on top of the shrubs.
The colorful clothing waving in the breeze
around the whole campsite
reminds me of prayer flags
on the hills in Tibet
that I saw in my textbook back home.
59 | LEECHES
Dee Dee’s face eventually goes back to normal.
He joins us to get firewood.
I am so thankful for the doctor who
didn’t ask for anything in return.
Once in the woods,
Dao points behind me and says,
“You have leeches on your foot!”
I jump.
Two leeches are sucking my blood
on my bare right heel.
I cry and try to pull them off,
but Dao stops me, saying,
“Don’t!”
She runs back and gets a box of matches.
She lights a match, blows it out gently, and says,
“Don’t move.”
I stand still while she moves the smoking match
close to where the leeches are
until they drop off my heel.
I am very grateful to Dao as I say,
“I am terrified of leeches.”
“The leeches do not bother me.
I got used to them when we visited my bà ngoại
in the countryside.
I am only scared of snakes.
I panic if I see them.”
Dao lets me wear her sandals
because I am barefoot.
I tell her sincerely,
“I will return the favor to you
whenever I have the chance.”
She shakes her head
and waves her hand.
“Don’t bother,” she says.
“I don’t expect anything
in return.”
I like her.
60 | UNCLE MAKING FRIENDS
We have a lot of spare time.
Uncle and the doctor
sometimes join the old comers
as they fish in the late afternoon.
Very often
they use long, slim tree branches
as fishing poles to fish at the shore.
It isn’t an easy task.
Once, they catch a tiny fish
and grill it over the fire.
Oh, the whole campsite is infused
with the aroma of roasted fish
that everybody longs for,
because we all miss eating fish,
like we did back home.
Some brave single men make a raft
with large branches lashed together
and go farther out into the sea to fish.
But some do not return.
Their raft must have been swept away,
or it must have sunk.
That’s why Auntie always prays that
Uncle and his friends
will never go out to the ocean
on a raft
but will just fish at the shore.
61 | AUNTIE MAKING FRIENDS
Auntie makes friends with
the Chans who are next to our space.
They share some coconuts that
picked from the trees.
Auntie also makes friends with the ladies
while they are washing clothes around the well.
They compare their lives here
to their lives back home.
Some had maids to serve them,
but now they have to do everything
themselves.
They hope
that they will have a maid
to serve them
when they settle down in the new land.
And they wonder
if
their dream will come true.
62 | DAO AND I MAKING FRIENDS
Dao and I make friends
with two girls named Ming and Jan.
They are the same age as us.
We take turns jumping rope
one by one,
or
two of us jump while the other two
twirl the rope.
Sometimes we just stroll along the bay
after supper,
trying to find the best seashells
or pick up the dried driftwood
as fuel
and look at the beautiful sunset.
Or sometimes we just whisper jokes
and cover our mouths,
giggling.
We even go to the latrine
together.
It is safer than just Dao and me going.
63 | DEE DEE, NAM, AND THEIR NEW FRIENDS
Uncle ties two ropes
between two tall palm trees
as a swing for Nam and Dee Dee.
One rope is higher,
for the back to lean on,
and one rope is lower,
to sit on.
It attracts many kids.
They are so noisy
and sometimes argue,
“Me first!”
And when someone falls
from the swing,
they laugh their heads off,
like they are not in the camp
but on the school playground back home.
Sometimes Dee Dee and Nam,
along with their friends,
all naked from the waist up,
wade into the shallow water
of the small bay
or race as the waves crash on the shore.
Then they all line up and
dry themselves on the sand,
like people back home
hanging fish on a clothesline
to dry.
64 | SHARING OUR DREAM
In reality,
I do not like strolling at the bay.
I do not like seeing the ocean.
It makes me feel like I am
being rocked up and down by the huge waves.
There are about ten refugee boats
anchored in the bay not far from shore.
I don’t want to see them again.
I hope that
I won’t sail on that kind of boat ever again.
Dao says she doesn’t like the sun, either.
It will darken her skin.
She and Auntie have the kind of fair skin
that most girls wish for.
So we stay in the shade, where
the view of all the boats is blocked,
while Jan and Ming look for seashells.
Dao and I share our dreams.
I tell her
I hope Dee Dee and I will live in San Francisco
with my baba,
and we will ask him to take us
to Disneyland
and to see real snow.
“Oh!” Dao cries,
“I want to meet Snow White.
I want to see real snow, too.
How come we are thinking
the same thing?”
I suggest,
“When we are in America,
you can visit us in San Francisco,
and we can go to Disneyland together.
In the winter,
we can all go to see and feel the snow!”
She cries,
“How nice!
Do you know what?
I haven’t known you very long,
but I like you.
I don’t get along very well with my brother.