An Incident in China Town
oh! Look at that! They leave the head on!” Troy Meecham wrinkled his nose, peering at the roast duck in the window display of one of the Chinese restaurants he and his pals looked into. He hunched his shoulders together to keep warm in his coat as small flurries fell from the sky.
Tom Brown lifted his orange eyes to the tanks of fish at the opening of the restaurant, keeping his scarf over his chin. “I hear the Chinese back in China will eat nearly anything. Dogs, cats…”
“Don’t say stuff like that,” Randon Spade turned away, his boots almost slipping on the ice that he hadn’t seen on the sidewalk. The tips of his dark hair had collected frost.
“…Scorpions, rabbits, sea slugs…”
“That is really gross.” Matt Calamori made a face and pulled on Tom’s arm, hoping to get warm someplace else. “Come on. Let’s go to that other shop. I thought I saw swords.”
“…Grasshoppers, silkworms…”
“Would you stop it!” Randon snapped, swatting Tom in the side. “No one is going to believe you.”
“Actually,” Rick Deacon pulled his head down into a shrug, stuffing his mittened hands into his coat pockets, “I’ve been to China on a trip with my dad and mom. And Tom’s right. We ate at a restaurant that served just about any animal that crawled. They even had alligators. And you should see their night market. I saw barbecued scorpions on sale.”
“Don’t say that!” Randon looked likely to scratch Rick. “He said they ate cats and dogs!”
“I’ve eaten rabbit,” Rick reminded him, shrugging more in sheepish apology. He tugged his scarf tighter around his neck, his reddish brown hair hardly peeking out from his hat.
Troy yanked Randon away from Rick. “You forget what you are talking to. To a werewolf, meat is meat.”
“Not true!” Rick barked back, looking likely to pounce, though he kept his eye out for ice this time. “I’ve never eaten a cat, and sea slugs are gross!”
“And you know this how?” Matt smirked at him, rubbing is raw cheeks to keep them from freezing.
Rick glanced the other way then blinked at a shop across the narrow lane through the snowy tufts. “Hey! How about a fortune teller!”
Matt turned with a laugh. “I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff?”
“I don’t,” Rick said, marching backward across the narrow street towards the entrance. “I think the whole thing his hokey. My last fortune cookie from Mr. Wong’s said I would come into a fortune soon and all my troubles would be over. If a fortune could buy me out of my troubles, my father would have already done it.”
“Then explain what happened that last time!” Matt followed him, dodging a delivery boy on a bicycle who had managed to avoid the slick parts in the road. Indoors was indoors, and it was getting colder.
Rick shrugged deeper into his scarf. “Fluke.”
However the moment he walked into that shop he got chills, and he abruptly stopped. No heat. The others followed him in, peering up at the Chinese knots and tassels of gold trim on red-and-black hanging on the walls, watching their breaths puff out. Everything within the shop was trimmed with bright gold fringe, from smiling Buddahs to winking cat clocks from Japan. It was also dark inside. No lights on. And no one was in the front room. However, they heard noises in the back.
Like a jack-in-the-box, a man dressed in a blue police uniform sprang from the back room. All five boys jumped aside. However, soon after they recognized the man’s face and the faces of three other men with him as the men were dragging out a sixteen-year-old Chinese boy dressed in cultural costume.
“Officer Johnson!” Rick followed him as the policeman spoke a strange dialect to the Chinese boy. “What are you doing here?”
A squat Chinese woman chased after the men out of the back room, screaming in Mandarin. “Gei wo ba! Ta wo de hai zi!”
Matt jumped back from her and grabbed Rick’s arm. “Let’s get out of here!”
“You boys! What you do here?” The old woman glared venomously at them.
Tom waved with a hop out the door into the snow, smirking. “Sorry. We didn’t know you were closed.”
That moment Officer Johnson noticed them, or at least he spotted Tom. It was hard not to with how Tom stuck out. “What are you boys doing here?”
“Just wandering China Town,” Tom replied, sticking his hands into his coat pockets as he hopped back to the street. Randon and Troy nodded, following him, though Matt had dragged Rick out of the shop with a tight grip, staring back at the old woman as though she carried the black plague and had full intention of giving it to them.
“Go home.” Officer Johnson glowered at them.
All five boys backed up. He wasn’t usually this angry.
“Yes, sir.” Matt saluted then dragged Rick down the snow-edged alley.
Tom looked after his pal and then back to the police, then back again to his friend again who was seriously hauling Rick away from that place. Randon and Troy rushed after Matt, shrugging to each other as the policemen helped the Chinese boy into a plain automobile as the old woman continued cursing at the car. Tom hopped with a flutter then jogged after Matt who had already dragged Rick into another alley far out of sight. Following the shouting of their imps to where they were crouched behind a rusty snow-topped dumpster, Tom peered at Matt who as struggling to catch his breath.
“OW! That’s hurts!” Rick tried to yank from Matt’s grip, unsuccessfully.
“Shh!” Matt hissed. He then looked up to Tom, waving to him. “Get in here!”
Tom strolled over then crouched down. “What are you doing?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Randon said, hunched near the ground more like someone playing a game.
“She’s a witch!” Matt hissed through his teeth and peered back at the alley opening.
Randon shrank down into a cat with a jerk, arching his little head around the corner his ears turning to hear if she had followed them. Rick’s eyes widened. He stiffened, backing away from the opening of the alley. Troy pulled on him, urging them all to go.
Only Tom stood unconvinced. With a tilt of his head, he closed one eye. “Really? You mean you understand Chinese
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.03.2010
ISBN: 978-3-7368-4026-3
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