Jewel of the East (10 page)

Now it was Felix who didn’t answer. Instead, he reached for his sister’s hand and took it in his own. They slept that way all night, holding hands, each of them dreaming their different dreams.

First, Mr. Kung stopped coming.

Then, foreigners from the north began arriving in Zhenjiang. Their clothes were ripped, their bodies bruised and broken. They told stories
of the Boxers beating them and burning their houses. Frightened, they arranged for junks to take them to Shanghai for safety. Many of them told stories of how their children had starved to death or died from sickness along the way. With each new story Mrs. Sydenstricker heard, she begged her husband to let them leave. Each time, he refused. More resolved than ever, he insisted he must stay and fight the heathens.

Still, Mrs. Sydenstricker had Pearl, Maisie, and Felix fold all their clothes and leave them on a chair by their beds. “In case we have to leave quickly in the night,” she told them.

Maisie and Felix wore the cotton pants, tunics, and cloth shoes that all the children wore. They folded them neatly along with the party clothes they’d arrived in. At night, they lay in bed, Felix trembling with fear and Maisie trembling with excitement. The sound of Pearl’s parents arguing rang throughout the house.

On the day the empress issued an imperial edict calling for death to all foreigners, Maisie and Felix sneaked out of the house and walked to Horse Street. They did this every afternoon while Mrs. Sydenstricker napped and Pearl rocked baby Grace on the veranda. Both of them hid their hair
under hats just like Pearl did whenever they went out.

“I think it’s time,” Felix said. “I’m really afraid of what these Boxers might do next.”

Maisie didn’t answer.

Out of habit, Felix reached into his pocket to touch the little jade box.

“Oh no!” he said. “The box is missing!”

He stopped walking and looked around the ground. “We have to retrace our steps,” he said. “Without that box, we’ll never get home.”

Panicked, he began to walk back in the direction from which they’d come, his eyes desperately on the lookout for the box. What if the dirt spilled when the box fell from his pocket? Felix wondered. Was the dirt important, too?

He turned to ask Maisie these very questions, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Maisie!” he called.

At first he heard nothing. Then a loud scream came from down the road.

Felix stood, frozen for a moment, until his sister’s voice cut through the silence.

“Felix! Felix! Help!”

In an instant, Felix was running back toward Horse Street, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might break through his ribs. He opened
his mouth to tell her he was coming, but his voice came out like a squeak.

“Help! Help!” Maisie yelled.

Right before the marketplace, Horse Street split and part of it dipped down toward the river. Felix followed Maisie’s voice there, tripping over roots that stuck out of the ground and scraping his arms on low branches as he ran.

On the bank of the river, a small group of teenagers stood huddled together. And in the middle of them, crouched and covering her face with her hands, was Maisie. Her hat had come off, and all Felix could see clearly was her mop of hair. What were these boys doing? he wondered as he ran, panting.

“Hey!” he called to them, his voice finally returning.

A few of the teenagers turned in his direction. Felix saw then that they had big sticks in their hands. One of them held a large rock in the air, about to bring it down on Maisie.

Felix increased his speed and leaped at the boy with the rock, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him with a big thud.

The boys with the sticks poked him hard in the ribs, taunting him in Chinese as they did. Felix tried to ward them off, but he couldn’t. The boy
beneath him threw Felix off of him. Now Felix was flat on his back looking up into a crowd of angry faces.

The biggest, meanest boy of them all took a step closer to Felix, his stick raised high.

Felix closed his eyes tight, preparing for the terrible blow.

“Zù zh
î
!”
someone shouted.
“Zù zh
î
!”

Felix peeked from beneath his eyelids and saw the boys scattering.

“Zù zh
î
!”

There, in the middle of them all, stood Wang Amah, slapping them on the arms and shooing them away.

Carefully, Felix sat up. His side stung from where he’d been poked. Now he could see Maisie clearly. Her cheek was scraped and bleeding, and her arms had red welts all over them.

Wang Amah helped Maisie to her feet, scolding them in rapid Chinese.

Felix’s and Maisie’s eyes met above Wang Amah’s head.

“I have it,” Maisie said through her tears.

“Have what?” Felix said.

“The box. I took it so we couldn’t leave.”

Even though he wanted to be angry with her, the sight of his strong, independent sister hurt and crying made Felix rush to her side and throw his arms around her.

“I don’t care,” he said, hugging her.

Maisie reached into her own pocket and pulled out the jade box.

“Here,” she said. “I think it’s time we gave this to Pearl.”

The next morning, Maisie and Felix woke up and headed to the kitchen as usual. Mrs. Sydenstricker had been so angry at them for sneaking out that they’d gone to bed early to avoid her. Even as she gently cleaned Maisie’s cuts, she’d shook her head in disappointment.

“I hope we’re not still in trouble,” Maisie said.

“I hope Mr. Sydenstricker doesn’t yell at us. He scares me even when I’m not in trouble.”

To their surprise, the atmosphere in the kitchen was light, like it had been before all the trouble with the Boxers, before Mr. Sydenstricker had returned home to stay. Wang Amah and Chushi were chattering happily, and Pearl sat eating rice and salted fish out of her bowl with chopsticks.

“Father has gone to give communion to an old lady,” Pearl said.

That explained the lighter mood, Felix realized. Without the frightening presence of Pearl’s father, everyone relaxed.

The day took on the old rhythms. Chushi told
them the story of the Red Dragon, acting out each part. After breakfast, they all sat on the veranda, and Wang Amah told them once more about her childhood and her daring escape from the soldiers.

“I wish we could go to Horse Street and get some candy,” Pearl said. “That would make today perfect.”

But Wang Amah would not hear of it. “Danger!” she shouted in Chinese. “Danger!”

Relieved, Felix went with Pearl to the hills behind the house to fly a kite. Even Maisie didn’t want to leave and stayed behind instead to rock Grace on the porch.

The wind wasn’t very strong, and neither of them could get the kite into the air. Finally they gave up and flopped onto the warm grass.

“Felix?” Pearl said. “Aren’t your parents worried about you?”

His mind drifted to the Christmas party. “I don’t think so,” he answered honestly.

“Are you orphans?” Pearl asked gently.

Felix didn’t know how to answer. As he struggled for a reply, Pearl said, “It’s okay. You don’t need to be embarrassed.”

Felix propped himself up on one elbow.

“I have something for you,” he said. “A thank-you present for letting us stay with your family.”

“Is it candy?” Pearl said, her eyes shining at the idea.

“No,” Felix said. “Sorry.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the jade box.

“Here,” he said.

Pearl grinned. “It’s pretty,” she said.
“Xiè xie.”

“Bié kéqi,”
Felix said effortlessly.
You’re welcome
.

“What should I keep in it?” Pearl asked, starting to lift the lid.

Felix grabbed her hand. “Oh,” he said, “there’s already something in there.”

“A ring?” Pearl asked playfully. “A brooch?”

Felix shook his head. “I don’t even know what a brooch is,” he said.

“A pin,” Pearl explained. “A fancy pin that ladies wear.”

“No,” he said. “Sorry. It’s nothing like that.”

Pearl opened the lid and frowned.

“Why did you fill it with dirt from our yard?” she asked, puzzled.

“How do you know that dirt is from here?” Felix asked her.

Pearl put some on her fingers and showed Felix.

“The color,” she said. “The earth here has this color. I would recognize it anywhere.”

Pearl laughed. “But I certainly don’t need more of it,” she said, pointing at the hills.

Without warning, she tipped the box to empty the dirt from it.

“No!” Felix shouted.

The dirt seemed to float in the air.

“Don’t throw out the dirt,” Felix said.

“You’re so odd,” Pearl said. “Why would I need to keep dirt?”

Felix swallowed hard. “Maybe,” he began, then paused before continuing. “Maybe no matter where you go you’ll always take this with you,” he said. “Maybe it will inspire you someday.”

Pearl studied Felix’s face until he squirmed under her stare. “Maybe it will,” she said finally.

Felix thought that Mrs. Sydenstricker was trying very hard not to look worried. But he could see how she jumped at every small noise and glanced out the window anxiously whenever she thought no one could see. Evening had arrived without any word from Mr. Sydenstricker. After dinner, Pearl tried to amuse everyone by making up stories, but her mother could not concentrate. Finally, she sent them all to bed.

“Do you think he’s been killed?” Felix asked Maisie.

Remembering the gang on Horse Street, she shuddered.

“I thought an empress would be beautiful,” Maisie said. “But Pearl told me she’s old and wrinkled. Like Wang Amah.”

“Wang Amah saved our lives,” Felix said.

“I know.”

“Maisie,” Felix said. “I gave it to her.”

“Gave what? To who?” Maisie asked, confused.

“The box. I gave it to Pearl this afternoon.”

“Again?” Maisie said. “You went behind my back again?”

“I didn’t go behind your back,” Felix began. “You said yourself that it was time for us to give it to her.”

“Us, Felix! Not you! Us!”

“I did it so we could get home if we needed to,” Felix said. “I was trying to help us.”

“First you take Lily Goldberg to The Treasure Chest, deliberately leaving me behind. And now—”