Staking a Claim Read online

  To H. Mark Lai,

  a pioneer in his own right

  Cover

  Title

  Dedication

  Contents

  CHINA, 1851

  Eighth Month, Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  October 1, 1851, Tiger Rock, Southern China

  October 2

  October 3

  October 4

  October 6

  October 8

  October 18

  October 22

  October 23

  Ninth and Tenth Months, Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  November 1

  November 11

  November 13

  November 16

  November 17

  November 26

  November 27

  Tenth and Eleventh Months, Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  December 12

  January 1, 1852

  January 3

  January 4

  January 5

  January 6

  January 11

  January 12

  First Month, Year Two of the Era, Prosperity for All

  February 20, New Year’s Day

  February 27

  March 8

  March 18

  Second Month, Year Two of the Era, Prosperity for All

  March 23

  March 24

  March 25

  March 26

  March 30

  April 1

  April 7

  Later

  Second Month, Year Two of the Era, Prosperity for All

  April 10, Somewhere in Southern China

  April 11, Hong Kong

  April 12

  April 13

  April 14

  Second to Fourth Months, Second Year of the Era, Prosperity for All

  April 15, On Board the Excalibur

  April 25, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  May 4, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  May 24, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  May 29, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  June 3, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  June 13, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  June 17, Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean

  June 18, San Francisco, or First City

  June 19

  June 20, Somewhere northeast of San Francisco

  June 22, Sacramento, or Second City

  June 23, In the Gold Country

  June 26

  June 27

  June 28

  June 29

  June 30

  July 1

  July 3

  July 4

  July 5

  July 7

  July 11

  July 12, Big Bend

  July 13

  July 14

  July 15

  July 16, Big Bend

  July 18, Big Bend

  July 19

  July 20

  July 23

  July 25

  July 26

  July 27

  July 28

  July 29

  July 30

  August 1

  August 2

  August 5

  August 10

  August 13

  August 16

  August 17

  August 20

  August 22

  August 24

  August 27

  August 28

  August 29

  August 30

  August 31

  September 1

  September 5

  September 9

  September 14

  September 18

  September 21

  September 24

  September 27

  September 28

  September 30

  October 4

  October 10

  October 14

  October 25

  October 27

  October 29

  October 31

  November 1

  November 8

  November 11

  December 5

  December 8

  December 9

  December 10

  December 19

  December 20

  December 21

  December 22

  December 23

  December 24

  December 25

  January 1, 1853

  January 2

  January 3

  January 6

  January 7

  January 13

  January 14

  January 24

  Year Three of the Era, Prosperity for All

  February 8

  February 14

  February 27

  February 28

  March 1

  March 9

  March 24

  April 1

  April 2

  April 3

  April 6

  April 7

  April 8

  April 9

  April 10

  April 11

  April 12

  April 13

  April 19

  April 22, Califia

  April 23

  April 24

  April 25

  April 26

  April 27

  April 29

  May 4

  May 24

  May 26

  May 27, En route to Sacramento

  May 31, Sacramento

  July 22

  July 28, Sacramento

  July 29

  Epilogue

  Life in America in 1852

  Historical Note

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright

  Eighth Month,

  Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  October 1, 1851

  Tiger Rock, Southern China

  Great news! My uncle, Precious Stone, has announced he is going to the Golden Mountain, or America, as the natives call it. Gold was found there almost three years ago. Many Chinese have already crossed the great ocean to become guests of the Golden Mountain.

  So Uncle will make the trip. Then we can eat meat every day instead of once a year at New Year’s. And the meat will be prime cut instead of the fat and gristle we usually get. And we’ll own five fields like a great family, not two. He’s got many plans for when we are rich.

  The clan doesn’t think much of Uncle. Though Father is younger than Uncle, he actually runs things. The clan thinks Uncle is only clever at knocking scraps of wood together into shelves or little boxes. Worse, they claim he has no luck. They say that if Uncle stood among a thousand people and a cloud drifted overhead, the cloud would rain only on poor Uncle.

  I know Uncle is a great man. I’m the only one he can talk to. Maybe because most people don’t think much of me, either. My parents had several children, but only my brother and I lived for very long. And I barely made it. Though my name is Bright Intelligence, everyone calls me Runt. I guess it’s because I’m so small.

  All great families and great men have chronicles of their achievements. For the sake of future generations, I have begun this diary. And in honor of Uncle’s journey, I will record events by both the American and the Chinese calendars.

  That’s thanks to my teacher, who has an American calendar. Americans do not number their years from the year a ruler comes to power. Perhaps that’s because they have no emperor. Nor do their rulers give a name to the era of their rule as ours do.

  Another odd thing: Americans measure the year by the sun rather than the moon. So their months don’t match the Chinese ones. And their year is fixed at 365 days with an extra one thrown in every four years. It’s so rigid. The Chinese calendar can grow large or squeeze small like a living thing.

  I ru
bbed the extra ink stick in the water in the inkwell to make the ink thick for these first pages. And . . .

  Well, this chronicle of Uncle’s exploits will have to wait. Mother’s calling me to wash the rice. It’s Blessing’s turn but he’s disappeared as usual. Though he is fifteen, five years older than me, I wind up doing most of the chores.

  October 2

  Father is against the idea. He says that none of Uncle’s schemes ever work. There was never a blue sky Father couldn’t find a cloud in.

  Father went to town today just to ask questions. He came back with a bushel basketful of dangers. I didn’t know so many men die during the trip. Even more die once they get there.

  Uncle tried to argue that it is just as risky staying here. I agree with him. Between taxes and the rent on our other three fields, we barely have enough to eat in a good year. And most of the years have been awful. We once had a drought that lasted for three years. Though the rains came this year, they also brought wars and rebellions over China. Between the soldiers, the rebels, and the bandits, it’s hard to keep your head, let alone your food. And the barbarian Manchus, who rule China, keep loading us with more and more taxes to pay for fighting their enemies. The new emperor has chosen “Prosperity for All” as the name for his reign. The prosperity must all belong to him in his palace, because there is no sign of it for common folk like us.

  Uncle has to go. He’s our only hope.

  October 3

  I wish my parents would leave Uncle alone. They and the clan keep saying mean things to him. He’s hopeless. He’s stupid. As they keep at him, he’s looking less and less sure. And more and more sad. I think he’s starting to believe what they think about him.

  When I began this diary, Uncle seemed so tall. However, day by day the clan is shrinking him down to my puny size.

  October 4

  When I got home from school today, Uncle was all alone in the house with his head in his hands. He looked in such pain that I thought he had cut himself somewhere.

  But the pain was all inside. Father and the clan had done their work. They’d convinced Uncle that he had only a thimbleful of luck. And to get to the Golden Mountain, you need a river of it.

  I hated to see him so miserable. So I told him to spin backward to change his luck.

  “Spin around, turn around, luck changes,” he said. He spun around on one foot and then spread his arms. “There. I’ve shed the bad luck.”

  It cheered him up a little.

  October 6

  I can still hear Uncle and Father arguing in my parents’ bedroom. (By rights, the bedroom belongs to Uncle, but he’s kind. Instead, he sleeps out in the family room with Blessing and me.)

  Father found out what the ticket would cost. It’s so much! It would take years and years of good rice harvests to pay for it.

  The usual way is to have a merchant buy the ticket for you. When you get overseas, you work off your debt. Because of the interest, it can take eight to ten years.

  Uncle, though, wants to be his own man over there, so he told us he is going to sell one of our two fields. Of course, Father was horrified. It shocked even me. As miserable as our two fields are, you never sell land.

  I’m no longer sure Uncle is right. Land is everything.

  However, as the eldest, Uncle Stone is the head of the family. His word is law.

  October 8

  Uncle left this morning to sell the field and buy his ticket.

  At school, I asked my teacher how far it is to the land of the Golden Mountain.

  He hemmed and hawed and quoted from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. However, one of the guest boys knew. His father went to America the same year gold was found there. It is officially 10,447 kilometers between Shanghai and an American city called Los Angeles.

  My teacher used it as a practical arithmetic problem. We had to work it out in American miles. I got the answer first. Even the guest boys with their fancy desks and inks and brushes couldn’t beat me. It was something like 6,493 miles.

  My teacher seemed surprised I had gotten an answer right. However, I didn’t enjoy the glory long before the numbers sank in. I didn’t think the whole world was that big, let alone an ocean.

  When I asked my teacher how long the voyage would take, he couldn’t give me a definite answer. It depends on the winds that blow against the ship’s sails. It could be two or even three months.

  So we would remember what really counts in life, he had us recite his favorite proverb: “Stinking money, fragrant ink.”

  It means that it is better to be a scholar than a merchant. A scholar uses perfumed ink, whereas a merchant handles filthy money.

  Even so, the wealth of the guest boys keeps them safe from our teacher’s bamboo rod. Will it protect us soon?

  Later

  Until now, I have always envied those boys like Piggy. Guest boys live in fancy houses. Piggy knows all the latest tunes because his family is always visiting the district capital. They eat only the best foods.

  Piggy can buy any book he wants. He reads all the time instead of doing chores. Best of all, Piggy and the guest boys don’t have to leave during harvest season to work in the fields. The rest of us do. Then we have to study harder to catch up.

  It’s almost like they’re living in a fairy tale.

  In a way they are, because in fairy tales, the heroes are always brave and risk great dangers like the guests have done. And in the end, they live happily ever after.

  Once Uncle is a guest, we’ll be able to stay in school all the time.

  My brother hates that idea. He hates studying. In fact, he’s had to repeat several levels already. I’ve caught up to him, so now we use the same textbook.

  He says he wants to go with Uncle. He’ll do anything to get out of homework and chores.

  October 18

  Father, Mother, and Uncle have argued ever since Uncle got back. They say it’s not too late to get a refund on his ticket. Uncle is standing his ground.

  For once, the clan treats him with respect. Our whole family has gotten some. My teacher has even stopped beating me.

  Most of the time I am his target. He doesn’t dare strike the guest boys if they act up. They are too rich, and the school depends on their donations. So he makes his point by whipping poor boys like me.

  Today, though, he told me that he knows a good carpenter who could make new desks for my brother and me. He also knows a good ink maker. When my uncle reaches the Golden Mountain, I should stop using these cheap ink sticks. All the guest boys use ink sticks that have perfume mixed in with the ink.

  I promised to ask for his references when Uncle reaches America.

  October 22

  Just got back this evening after a walk with Uncle. I went with him as he said his good-byes. Blessing tagged along, too.

  The landlord’s son, Lucky, has decided to go along, as well as a cousin named Virtue. They act as if they had the idea first rather than Uncle. From the way the clan fawns over them, you’d think Uncle had dropped off the face of the earth. Uncle doesn’t seem to care. We left them bragging about the fist-sized nuggets they would bring back.

  Blessing, Uncle, and I walked out the village gates. The fields had been freshly manured. I held my nose, but Uncle inhaled as if it were incense.

  He walked from field to field and tree to tree and along the stream. He was saying farewell not to people but to our valley.

  I was getting bored. Blessing got more and more fidgety. I couldn’t understand why.

  We climbed with Uncle to the mouth of the valley. Tiger Rock stood guard there. Centuries ago, a tiger was said to have led our first ancestor into this valley. Then it changed to stone to protect him. Over the centuries it had helped the clan fight off its enemies.

  Uncle patted the tiger’s head. People from the clan do that when they want good luck. After a thousand years of rubbing, one side of the head is smoother and smaller than the other.

  Then Uncle gazed toward the next valley. I realiz
ed I didn’t know what was beyond that. Another valley? And maybe another and another? Until you reached the great ocean?

  Suddenly, the world seemed so huge that I felt as tiny as a bug.

  Uncle told me that he has never been beyond the market town. I haven’t been even that far.

  I told him how far the Golden Mountain is.

  Uncle looked a little afraid. “That far?”

  I remembered what father had said at dinner. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

  Uncle thought about it, then shook his head. He has no wife and no children. He has been nowhere and done nothing. This is his one and only chance. For himself. For the family.

  I was never prouder of Uncle than at that moment.

  Suddenly, Blessing got on his knees and bowed formally to Uncle.

  I guess my brother had been working up his courage to that moment. Blessing begged Uncle to take him with him. After all, he is the head of the family and could order Blessing to go.

  Uncle turned him down politely. When he gets rich, he said, he’ll send for Blessing to help pick up all those gold nuggets. He isn’t going to bother with any fist-sized nuggets like Lucky and Virtue. He is going to pick up only the melon-sized ones.

  Blessing said that if he was my size, he would stow away in Uncle’s basket.

  I thought of that big, big world outside. Then I patted the tiger’s head. I like our valley. I’m going to stay here forever with my books.

  October 23

  It was a regular parade when Uncle, Lucky, and Virtue left.

  The clan lined either side of the street. “Good luck! Good luck!” they called.

  Lucky led Uncle and Virtue toward the gates. He strutted like a rooster. He’s the smartest in the clan. Everyone is sure Lucky’s going to come back rich.

  Virtue promised his wife and children that he’ll send back necklaces of gold nuggets so big they won’t be able to walk. Everyone believes him, too, because he’s the strongest.

  Uncle just walked humbly in their shadows. We escorted him as far as the village gates. Then my family climbed the walls to watch the group leave. They walked along the dikes through the rice fields. The sun was so bright they seemed like paper cutouts.

  Father shaded his eyes to watch. I’d never seen him so sad. He looked as if he were mourning already.

  I guess I was wrong when I thought Father was just being mean to Uncle. I suppose Father was really trying to keep Uncle alive.