Beautiful Country Read Online Free

lived in Hong Kong, I suspected, so they could have more children, and had just moved back to Beijing because, as Mr. Zhang had told my father, the children’s written Chinese was very poor. They had attended the American International School in Hong Kong, where half the classes were in English, half in Mandarin. Ten-year-old David arrived holding a Nintendo DS in front of him as if it were a steering wheel. Mrs. Zhang laughed that David was never without his Nintendo. He stood motionless staring at the tiny screen in front of him until his mother said something tohim that sounded like a reprimand. He looked up and waved a hand. “Hi,” he said.
    â€œOkay, you two talk now, yes?” Mrs. Zhang said. It was a command, not a question. David clearly resented the interruption from his video game, and he gazed at me sullenly. There was an awkward silence. Exhausted from my flight and wanting only to lie down, I was not thrilled by the prospect of having to struggle in conversation with a grumpy ten-year-old.
    â€œDavid,” Mrs. Zhang said sharply. Her tone got his attention. “Chase plays tennis, very good,” she turned to me. “Yes. David likes to play tennis, too.”
    â€œDo you play a lot of tennis?” I asked.
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes,” he said.
    â€œHow about soccer?”
    David shrugged again and did not answer. Mrs. Zhang hid her irritation with a laugh. “David plays too many computer games. I hope you will inspire him to play sports,” Mrs. Zhang said.
    David’s six-year-old sister, Lily, was dressed in a pink Disney princess outfit and was hiding behind her nanny. Victoria knelt down to say hello, but Lily hid her face in the back of her nanny’s leg. Mrs. Zhang told Lily to speak, but she just burrowed her face deeper into the folds of her nanny’s skirt. Finally a small hand stretched out from behind the nanny and waved a timid hello.
    Victoria squeezed me on the shoulder and said that she was going to go home. She said good-bye to Mrs. Zhang and the two spoke in Chinese for a few minutes. When they had finished, Victoria turned to me and told me that she would pick me up the next day at 10 a.m. and take me to the tennis center where I would have my trial with the team. Mrs. Zhang nodded her approval.
    â€œTomorrow?” I asked. “In the morning?” Victoria’s words caught me by surprise. I knew I was scheduled to have a trial, but I assumed it would be several days from now, after I had a chance to adjust to the time difference.
    â€œYes, tomorrow,” Mrs. Zhang said. “Don’t worry, everything already organized.”
    Her words gave me the sense that there would be no use in trying to postpone the trial a few days, and in any case, I was too tired to protest. Victoria waved good-bye and disappeared with the maid who had let us in.
    Mrs. Zhang brought me back to the kitchen where two maids were washing dishes. She explained that if I wanted any food when they were not home to feel free to help myself. She also showed me the room next to the kitchen where the maids lived. In this dark room, with low ceilings and not larger than twelve by nine feet, were a pair of bunk beds that had been set up side by side. Four women were living in a space smaller than the size of the single dorm rooms my friends were currently occupying at New England boarding schools. “If you need something just ask them,” she said. “You want water?”
    â€œI’m fine. Thank you,” I replied.
    She clapped her hands, and one of the maids from the kitchen appeared. Mrs. Zhang spoke so quickly that I could only understand shui , the word for water. The maid disappeared and reappeared with her arms full of plastic water bottles. “Okay,” Mrs. Zhang said, “we go now.”
    Mrs. Zhang brushed past the maid and walked through the kitchen to the door at the back. I turned to the maid and extended a