Chu Ju's House Read Online Free Page B

boats. Little by little I worked my way under the netting. It was no easy task, for the netting was heavy and smelled so strongly of fish, my stomach turned over. I was as tangled inthe heavy wet netting as any trapped fish. I would be discovered, but by then perhaps I would be in another place.
    As I crouched beneath the netting and the hours passed, I began to see what a foolish thing I had done. I thought of hurrying back, tearing up the note, and climbing into my bed beside Hua. I peeked out and saw along the edge of the dark sky the thin bright line of the coming morning. The next moment I heard a stirring in the fishing boat. A boy with his back to me was peeing over the edge into the water. Hastily I ducked back under the netting. Moments later the boats came alive. There was calling back and forth. I heard the thud of the anchor dropping. Suddenly the fishing boat—with the small boat attached, and me in it—began to move downstream.
    I could smell the charcoal burning in a stove and hear a woman calling out that the rice was cooked. I tried to stretch my arms and move mylegs a bit, but the netting was too heavy for me. Overhead the sky brightened and a bit of sun found its way to me. A moment later someone stepped on my leg and I cried out.
    A boy shrieked, “Ba Ba! A devil is caught in the netting!”
    I was afraid they would go after me with one of their sharp fishermen’s knives, and I called out, “Please, I am only a girl and mean no harm.” The netting was pulled away. I looked up to see a man standing over me. I tried to leap into the water, but the man’s hand was around my arm like an iron bracelet. He lifted me from the small boat onto the fishing boat.
    â€œIt is only a girl,” a woman called out. Two boys, one older than me and the other younger, stood beside the woman staring at me.
    The man shook me angrily. “What are you doing on our boat?” he demanded.
    While the shaking was going on, I could find no words. The woman said, “Let her be.”
    The shaking stopped. “I’ve run away,” I said.
    â€œYou are a wicked girl,” the man scolded. “You must return to your home at once.”
    I thought he was going to pitch me into the water. “No, please. My ma ma and ba ba are dead, and my nai nai is going to sell me to an evil woman.”
    The man and the woman looked at me and were silent. Because of Hua, it was a story that had come easily to my head. Though they were for Hua and not me, the tears they saw were real tears, and the fear real fear.
    The man said, “We can have nothing to do with such running away. We do not want your misfortune on our boat,” but his voice was not so angry.
    â€œLet me stay. I have four yuan for my passage and I can help to clean the fish.”
    â€œFour yuan buys nothing,” the man said,“only the rice for a day or two.” He looked closely at me. “What do you know of the cleaning of fish?”
    â€œMy ye ye was a fisherman.” That was nearly the truth. “Until he died I cleaned hundreds of fish for him.” That was a lie. Ye Ye had cleaned the few fish he had caught, and I had closed my eyes while he had done it.
    â€œLet the child stay for a bit,” the woman said, “until we find out how true her story is.”
    The two boys only stared at me as if a demon had become tangled in their nets.
    The man let go of my arm. “Take care of her, then. Our nets should have been cast long since.”
    He gave me a push toward the woman. It was only a light push. The anger on his face was gone. He was a strong, stocky man, but I guessed that he would not use that strength unfairly.
    With the small boat trailing, we drifted down the river. When man was satisfied, he dropped theanchor. The fishing boat remained moored while the two boys, keeping as far from me as they could, joined their father in the small boat where I had hidden. A moment later they