The Dragon Princess

My Life

I laughed shaking my head as we took off down the street. Traffic was heavy for a Saturday, cloudy sky, and the streets were still wet from this mornings rain, but the news set everything would pass. We made it across Atwater street and jogged into Riverwalk.

It wasn't as busy as it could have been on a sunny day. Usually Riverwalk was filled with joggers, people hanging out on the benches, and kids taking advantage of the sprinklers. As we got to the metal bars that kept people from jumping over, I smiled again thinking about Hakeem's ploy.

"These bars are made to keep kids like us from jumping over and drowning..." He smiled climbing over the rails and hanging on as he walked down. "Hey, you know if anyone sees us we'll get in trouble!"

"Thanks, mom." He smirked. "Nobody will care, trust me..."

"I'm just saying,"

"Rai, can I ask you a question?"

I looked over at the waves of the river, created by the large boats that passed by. On the opposite side was Canada, my mom told me, an entirely different country. I wanted to ignore his question, but he would have kept asking. "What is it?"

"I see you with your mom all the time, and she's always with officer Gary. Where's your dad?"

I looked down the trail as a man with a track suit jogged toward us. Just as Hakeem said the man jogged right pass, never paying us any mind. "My dad died," I said with a matter of fact tone.

He stopped for a minute. "Oh, sorry, Rai."

"What are you sorry about, I never knew him...to tell you quite honestly, I'm not sure how much my mom liked him, she never talks about him." I raced my hand across the metal bars.

"Are you guys from here...America I mean?"

"No, well I guess I am. My parents came to America when my mom was pregnant with me. I was born in Detroit...I guess that makes me Japanese-American?"

He nodded, continuing to walk behind the bars. I think my answer shut him up for a bit as he became silent, for the last 3 weeks I had never witnessed him being silent this long, it bothered me.

"What about you, you from Detroit?"

"No," he replied nonchalantly.

"Oh, where in the U.S you from?"

"Actually, not from the U.S..." he replied becoming a little quieter. "Rai, do you think I'm weird?"

I widened my eyes not facing him, knowing the truth, but I think he did too deep down. That's why he asked. "No Hakeem, not at all..."

"Cool, if I told you something, and you made a promise not to tell anyone...you wouldn't, right?"

"I don't know Hakeem, in secret you have to tell..." I replied jokingly.

"Then never mind," he sighed in frustration.

I turned and grabbed his hand on the banister. His eyes slowly rolled up meeting mine, and that's when I noticed that he was troubled by something. "Hey, you know I was joking right?"

"But I'm not," he licked his lips. "I have a secret Rai, something big...something you can't tell anyone. If you did, it could mean the end for my mom and me, and a lot of others."