EARLIEST MEMORIES – 1866, San Francisco Chinatown
I stared at the grey sky, clouds looming in the distance. The usual seagulls were absent. I was lying flat on the ground, my hands clutching the mud. Ah Chen stared at me fiercely; his shaved head covering half the sky. In the distance I could feel his two minions whose names I never bothered to remember. I was fearful alright, not so much of Chen’s ruddy red cheeks and looming figure but the tree branch he was holding in his hand. Instinctively, I put on a more fearful face; with a slight tinge of awe and submission. As hoped, Chen’s face softened, grew into a smug and walked away.
I seized the opportunity to pick myself up and ran home, angry at myself for having tears running down my face despite my excellent strategy so effective deployed to minimize self-damage.
It all started 2 weeks ago one day when I was with Old Ma at the kitchen. I was sitting on my stool munching a cane of sugar. Old Ma was chopping firewood or another with her back turned from me when Ah Chen and his minions sauntered by the windowsill, their dirty faces seemed determined, like they were on an important mission. Usually they would taunt our old sick dog Ah Jiao before scampering away when Old Ma hurled abuses at them. Those children are bad news, according to Old Ma, without elaborating, and I would do well in not hanging with them.
But today, they weren’t interested at Ah Jiao at all. Something tells me they were up something more fun. I had been ignored by Old Ma the whole morning and fidgeting with boredom. Usually I got to help her with sifting flour or washing rice for lunch. But Thursday was firewood day, and I would serve my bottom well by not bothering Old Ma while she’s at her least favorite chore. Still, sitting on a stool and not allowed to touch anything was quite dull for a boy 6 years of age. Ah Chen was always seen with a couple of minions. According to Old Ma, he was only two years older than me but appeared older because he was ‘built like a water buffalo like his father; along with a temper and brain that resemble the beast’.
Since Old Ma wasn’t looking, I ran up to join them; with an expectant look on my face. They pretended to ignore me but didn’t seem to mind me tagging along. We made a beeline for the railway tracks whereupon Ah Chen ordered us to build a rock barrier with the railway stones to derail the train. After a whole hour labor, we constructed a respectable looking stone mound. As soon as we heard the sound of an on-coming train we ran a long distance and hid in the bushes; my heart pounding in anticipation of the on-coming destruction. To our dismay the loud and obnoxious engine rolled on by, flattened our stone barrier without even slowing down. We went home despondent, with Ah Chen repeating some curses he learnt from his father at the butcher’s shop.
Soon I discovered a sense of importance in being Ah Chen’s minion. Accomplishing the ‘missions’ he gave me and earning his approval became important to me. He seemed to know the hilly alleys of Chinatown like the back of his hand. He knew exactly which children-friendly shopkeeper to manipulate for a free candy. Amongst the unfriendly ones, which ones are careless enough to pilfer from and which ones to avoid at all cost. And we roamed everywhere within the confines of Chinatown. In fact, the only alley we wouldn’t venture into was the last row on Market Lane; where Ah Chen’s father’s butcher’s shop was.
Stealing from shopkeepers, building stone barriers on the railroad tracks, teasing the neighborhood dogs and running from their irate owners grew dull with time. It didn’t take long for our adventures to take on bolder streaks. One night I was awakened by the sound of a cat ‘in heat’; which Ah Chen determined to be a loud human-like purring. It was also our secret signal. Ah Chen and Ah Gong were outside the kitchen compound waiting for me. I climbed out the window as softly as I could and we sneaked to the back alleys where the night-soil carrier was collecting the ‘night-soil’ from underneath the outhouses. We hid about ten yards away. Ah Chen took a pebble and fired.
