The Trouble Begins Read Online Free Page B

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 anylike 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 havesomething 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