Staking a Claim Read online

  I miss Uncle already. He is always cheerful, finding reasons for everyone to smile. If a windstorm flattened the rice, he would say that at least it was good kite weather.

  What will happen to Uncle? And what will happen to us?

  Ninth and Tenth Months,

  Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  November 1

  On the way to school, Blessing grumbled that the waiting is the hardest.

  I started to agree with him, but then Piggy said that this is going to be the easiest bet he has ever won. It seems that they have made a wager on Uncle.

  Piggy told us the odds are already eight to one.

  Piggy has plenty of money for his allowance, but I knew Blessing didn’t have any money, so I asked him what he had risked.

  It turns out that Blessing has staked me.

  I got mad because he can’t treat me like a slave. Blessing just laughed. His laugh is a lot like Uncle’s. If he loses, I will have to let Piggy copy my homework for a month. Blessing was pleased with his cleverness. He slapped me on the back because my book learning was finally good for something.

  How could I refuse after all the times he protected me against the bigger boys?

  More than ever I wanted Uncle to reach the Golden Mountain. Not just for the money. I want to see Piggy’s face when he has to pay up.

  November 11

  The odds are twelve to one now. The other guest boys are getting into the bet. It will be bad enough to hear that Uncle is dead, but I will also be doing other people’s homework for the rest of my life.

  November 13

  The other night Blessing surprised me. Usually he’s asleep as soon as we lie down on our sleeping mats. He asked me if I had read anything about the Golden Mountain in any book.

  I said I hadn’t but he could check the geography books in our teacher’s little library. Blessing hemmed and hawed at first, but finally confessed that the words might be too hard. Could I help him?

  If I hadn’t been lying down already, I would have fallen over. He is the strong, handsome one. I am just the runt. I am always the one who has to come to him for favors.

  Blessing said that he thought the Golden Mountain would shine in the sun. It would be so bright, you’d have to squint.

  I’d never heard him talk like that. Usually he’s tough, but his voice was all soft and dreamy.

  I did my best today. No luck, though. I couldn’t find anything on the Golden Mountain.

  He looks so disappointed.

  November 16

  It’s strange. I never knew Blessing had an imagination. For the last several nights, he has tried to guess what the Golden Mountain is like. He’s heard that the Americans there have hair of all different colors.

  He guessed that they eat strange foods — maybe flowers or raw lava. And they are so tall they must have giant-sized furniture. Maybe they even sleep in tree branches.

  The Golden Mountain has changed my brother. He’s a whole different person now — one I like a lot better.

  November 17

  Blessing hangs around with the guest boys all the time now. He says he’s going to the Golden Mountain as soon as Uncle sends for him.

  Sometimes the guest boys can be snobs because they’re so rich. However, Blessing is so popular that they welcome his company. I’m still the runt, though. When I tried to join them, they chased me away.

  November 26

  I don’t believe all the stories the guest boys feed Blessing about the Golden Mountain. They say there are cards that can capture people’s faces. And machines that eat mountains.

  Blessing believes anything they say. He got mad at me when I told him his new friends were fooling him. He came close to hitting me like the old Blessing would have.

  November 27

  I was still puzzled about why Blessing got angry, so I asked Mother. She told me that sometimes dreams can be worse than opium or any drug. And it doesn’t do any good to tell the dreamer to stop.

  Then she found Blessing and told him there is no way any more of the family is going to that awful place.

  Blessing was even more mad because I had told Mother his and Uncle’s plan.

  I don’t understand my brother anymore. What kind of place can reach across a whole ocean and change someone that way? Only one that has powerful magic, I think. What will it do to Uncle? What will it do to the rest of us?

  Tenth and Eleventh Months,

  Year One of the Era, Prosperity for All

  December 12

  The days are short now. I feel as if Uncle took the sun away with him. If it isn’t rain, then it’s gloom, gloom, gloom.

  Wars and rebellions have popped up all over the kingdom like weeds. That means even more taxes to pay for the new armies. I don’t see why we give money to support a Manchu emperor we don’t want in the first place. But we have no choice.

  My parents sit up all night fretting. My mother jokes that we could pay the taxes if we gave up eating.

  Poor Uncle. Poor us.

  January 1, 1852

  It’s the American New Year. I wonder what they do to celebrate?

  January 3

  We had weed soup today. We can no longer afford to eat the rice we saved from our last crop. We’ll have to use that for our taxes. So Mother gathered weeds from the fields and boiled them. They’re bitter and horrible, but Mother said they would fool our bellies.

  Mine didn’t stay tricked for long, though. It started grumbling and growling the moment I set my bowl down.

  January 4

  Weed soup again!

  January 5

  Weeds. Ugh and double ugh!

  January 6

  Today Blessing found a boiled bug in his weed soup. I told him to be glad of the meat, so he put it down my collar.

  I was so mad. I thought my parents would be, too. They were too busy laughing, though. At least it took our minds off our troubles for a while.

  January 11

  My brother and I are growing thin. So are all the other boys in school. Piggy, though, is as round as ever. All the guest boys are. It’s the magic of the Golden Mountain. It’s a spell that protects them and their families.

  Every night I say a prayer that Uncle will reach the Golden Mountain, too.

  January 12

  Mother asked my brother and me to help her find weeds. Almost everyone from the village was out hunting with us. Our valley has been picked clean.

  The winter vegetable crops are rich. But they must all go to paying our rent and our taxes.

  As I searched the dirt I could hear Piggy and the other guest children playing. And this evening they will sit down to their usual banquet of several courses. I know, because I can smell some of it cooking.

  The magic of the Golden Mountain truly is powerful.

  But will its magic ever touch us?

  First Month,

  Year Two of the Era, Prosperity for All

  February 20

  New Year’s Day

  Our Chinese New Year’s was grim. Hardly any more weeds. Father showed us a trick he used during the last famine. He cuts off a young shoot from a tree and chews that.

  February 27

  All I can think of is food. Isn’t that awful of me? I should be worrying about Uncle.

  March 8

  Things get worse and worse.

  My parents are talking about taking us out of school and hiring us out. There is always lots of work for the planting of the first rice crop.

  Blessing looked happy, but I thought it was the worst news of all.

  Without my books, without school, I don’t know what I’ll do. With all due respect to Father, I don’t want to work in the dirt all my life like some water buffalo.

  March 18

  I hold on to any hope. So when I saw the Crane passing through our village, I bolted from school and almost tackled him. My teacher shouted at me.

  I knew he was mad and I would pay for it with bruises when I got back. However, I wanted to
know if there was any word from Uncle.

  Behind me I heard the other boys. At first I couldn’t figure out why. Then I heard them talking about the odds, which are now fifteen to one. I guess they wanted to know if they had won their bet against Uncle. The vultures.

  The Crane is a tall northerner who flew south and found a perch with a merchant in the city. As the merchant’s clerk, he brings the remittances to the guest families along with any letters. Then he takes back any letters.

  He recognized Piggy and the other guest boys, joking with them as he handed over the magical packets of money. Money that could let me stay with my books.

  When I asked him about my uncle, the Crane looked down his long nose at me and said he didn’t know a thing yet.

  When will we get one of those magical packets?

  I’d rather die than leave school.

  I feel so ashamed. Uncle could be dead already. I have no right to write such things. But it is getting harder and harder to believe.

  Please, Uncle. May you reach the Golden Mountain alive.

  Second Month,

  Year Two of the Era, Prosperity for All

  March 23

  Uncle arrived on the Golden Mountain!

  You have to forgive me, my diary, if my writing is jiggly. I feel like dancing rather than writing. In fact, Blessing is still hopping around.

  The Crane gave us a bundle full of cash. I’ve never seen so much in my life. There are strings and strings of coins. And that is just one month’s remittance.

  On top of the cash was a letter, but we’re leaving that for later. There’s too much happening at the moment. Mother says the letter will be the final treat for the evening.

  I hope we don’t sound heartless. We have kept our celebrating indoors with the door and shutters closed.

  Poor Lucky and Virtue died during the voyage. The whole clan is stunned. They were sure the other two would make it rather than Uncle.

  Lucky’s parents were rich enough to buy his ticket overseas. However, Virtue had bought his ticket on credit. And now his family will have to make up the debt somehow. The Crane suggested that Virtue’s wife sell her children.

  We feel sorry for the others. If our hearts weren’t singing, we would be wailing with them.

  My parents are calling me. They want me to buy a fat hen from Piggy’s family. (They have a big flock.) Tonight we’re going to have a chicken. All of it!

  I know just the one. Mmm!

  Afternoon

  As usual, Blessing disappeared when there was a chore to be done. I wound up plucking the chicken by myself.

  What a mess! I had to save as many feathers as I could. Mother’s hoping to stuff them into a cushion.

  Early evening

  What a feast!

  Tomorrow Father’s promised us pork. A prime cut, too. No gristle.

  People have been coming by to congratulate Father. Some want him to invest in their schemes. Others need loans. Father and Mother promised Virtue’s family that we will help them out. I am so proud of them.

  Well, time to wash the dishes. Blessing’s gone again. Guess who has to do it? But I don’t care. Nothing can make me mad tonight.

  Late evening

  It’s late, but Mother says I can burn the whole candle if I want to!

  I like being rich.

  Blessing showed up as soon as the last chores were done. Typical. He was collecting from Piggy on his bet.

  Neither of my parents could read Uncle’s letter, so they handed it to my brother. However, Blessing doesn’t read very well. He handed it to me, saying that it was too dim inside the house for him. My eyes were better.

  So I read Uncle’s letter. After the standard good wishes, he said (I am copying from his letter), “The land of the Golden Mountain is everything I had hoped. We can get twice as rich if there are two guests here. Blessing is already fifteen and almost a man. Therefore, as head of the family, I command Blessing to join me.”

  Mother immediately began shouting that she wouldn’t allow that. At the same time, Father was yelling that Uncle had lost his senses.

  Meanwhile, Blessing leapt from the bench and began to stamp his feet like a lion dancer. He began whooping that Uncle had remembered his promise. He halted only when Father ordered him to sit down. Blessing reminded Father that Uncle is the eldest. Father has to do what Uncle orders.

  Right away Mother and Father retreated to their bedroom. They’re still arguing.

  Blessing and I should have shoved the table and benches to the side in the family room and spread out our sleeping mats. However, as soon as our parents were gone, Blessing began skipping around, saying that he is going to the Golden Mountain.

  I’ve never felt happier and yet at the same time I’ve never felt sadder. On the one hand, Uncle made it to the Golden Mountain and found work. We are now a guest family.

  But I am going to lose my brother. I’ll miss him even more than Uncle when he leaves.

  Hasn’t he learned anything from our dead cousins? What if the voyage kills him?

  I want to warn him, to beg him to stay. But what if my warning comes true? Sometimes to say something is to make it happen. And then I would feel awful.

  Anyway, how can anyone say such gloomy things to someone who is so full of joy? It would be cruel to bring him down from his clouds.

  Until now, my big brother has always protected me. Tonight I will protect him.

  March 24

  Blessing tried to get out of going to school this morning. He argued that a guest doesn’t have to be smart, just lucky.

  Mother used her broom to sweep him from the sleeping mat. She and Father still haven’t decided if Blessing is going to be a guest.

  My brother cheered up when he remembered all his winnings from the bet. I figured he would waste it all on candy and toys. However, he surprised me. He said he is going to keep it as his stake when he gets to the Golden Mountain.

  At school, our teacher was ready with a half dozen cards of carpenters and other businesses. We are now the family of a guest. So we have to start acting like one.

  My rich cousins, the sons of guest families, also began to chat with us.

  I can’t get over the way the whole clan bows to us now. Before, we were one of the families that got snubbed at every turn.

  If only we could enjoy Uncle’s triumph. But Mother and Father aren’t speaking at home. Blessing is no help. He keeps reminding them that they have to do what Uncle commands.

  Uncle’s triumph has turned as sour as an unripe plum.

  March 25

  Mother and Father are arguing again tonight.

  Blessing keeps insisting that they have to send him. I don’t see how he can be so heartless.

  Blessing says I’m jealous. I have to bite my tongue to say what I really think: that anyone with sense wouldn’t want to go to that horrible place. With the exception of Uncle, of course.

  I have only you, diary, to tell my worries to.

  March 26

  Father and Mother both look grim. I think they’ve decided to obey Uncle. But for some reason they haven’t announced it yet.

  Today Father took me down to one of our fields. I thought it was to tell me that Blessing was going to leave. However, Father just stood there and told me how much this earth means to our family. In fact, my great-great-grandfather died fighting a bandit on just this spot. So his blood is literally in the soil.

  I didn’t know why Father was going over family history that I already know. I waited patiently until he was finished. Then I told him that I understand that Blessing is leaving to help keep these fields. I promised him that I’ll be right by his side doing everything I can to help him.

  Father began to cry.

  March 30

  It’s strange, but when Mother saw me this morning she broke into tears. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she just shook her head.

  April 1

  Something is wrong. Blessing feels it just like I do. But we cannot fig
ure out what. It is clear that he must go.

  Maybe it’s because the remittance won’t cover the cost of his ticket. Perhaps they are upset that they have to sell the last field.

  However, with two guests, we’ll be getting twice as much money. We should be able to buy back the fields and get prime land as well.

  April 7

  I have not been able to write in here for several days because so much has happened. Mother and Father have come to a big decision:

  I am to go. Not Blessing!

  Blessing was mad because Uncle had wanted him and not me. Father insisted that if Uncle needed help, I would do just as well. That puzzled Blessing as much as it did me.

  “But he’s so small. What can he do?” Blessing protested. “I’m five years older and bigger and stronger. Runt’s always got his nose buried in a book. How can he help Uncle carry the gold?”

  Those were exactly my sentiments. I turned to Mother and asked her if she was really going to let me go.

  Mother wouldn’t look at me.

  Blessing poked me and asked me if I wanted to leave.

  Of course I don’t. But I have to do what my parents say. So does Blessing. He’s fighting a battle he can’t win.

  I thought writing in this diary would help, but I can hear Blessing arguing with our parents. He is saying they are condemning me to death.