November 7, 1970

Dear Mr Keon

After school father caught me checking the mail. He asked what I was looking for. I did not know what to say so I told him the truth, that I was waiting for mail from you. Father laughed. How will he know where to find you? He laughed again.

Then I remembered that I did not put my name or address on the envelope. And I did not put a stamp on it either. I wanted to run to the mail box and jump inside but father made me help him rake leaves before it rained and before he had to go to his new job. I was so mad at myself that I raked really hard and the more I thought about it the harder I raked. Father liked that I did not give up even though it was messy work and I worked really hard. I was still mad but I decided to keep writing and this time I would drop the letters at Maple Leaf Gardens for you.

Barry was going to come over after dinner to watch tv. I was going to tell him about Rollie and have him charm mother into letting us go out so I could put Rollie’s box in the garage like he said.

But after raking the leaves I went upstairs and saw Jane had all my building blocks piled up high with Rollie’s metal box on the top.

Look Johnny it’s a balancing box, see.

As soon as she said it the box came crashing down and all the blocks collapsed with them. She has this cutesy giggle I cannot stand and she used it on me. So I exploded and called her a stupid idiot and pushed her out of the way. She fell down but not hard because she was already on her knees but she yelled like her hair was on fire and screamed that I was hurting her. I told her to shut up. Then I saw that the metal box opened but nothing came out. I saw papers and some American money but had to close it fast because I could hear father coming.

Father rushed upstairs. Jane ran to him and said I pushed her head onto the floor. He asked me if it was true. I said yes but before I could explain father said I was grounded and that I could not go out tonight. He felt her head and said there might be a small bump that wasn’t there before but wasn’t sure.

He yelled at me. Again? How many more times before you really hurt her?

I was going to argue but he did not notice the metal box so I kept quiet even though I wanted to kill Jane. He took Jane to their room and I had just enough time to slide the box under the bed before mother came up.

Mother and I used to eat in our room. She would let me watch tv and I never missed a program. Now we all have dinner in the kitchen at the table. Mother looked at me after father told her what happened. But she was not mad at me. She took my side and said maybe Jane started it. I thought I could not lose with mother covering my back.

Father said it doesn’t matter she’s a little girl and he has to behave like a big brother.

They argued in front of us over dinner like we were not there and then there was silence. It is like a war in Canada ready to explode like Jane is the FLQ and she has come to break up the country by taking me hostage except I can not decide if mother or father is Quebec and if they will ever get along.

The one good thing is that I got to close the box and push the box under the bed before any body noticed. The other good thing is that father made mother sleep in Jane’s room that night after he went to work. That means I was all alone to open Rollie’s box.

I stayed up late because I waited until the house was quiet. Then I pulled the box out from under the bed and put it on top like it was a bomb ready to explode. I turned on the light and opened it. There was Meany Ming’s dragon pendant. I took it out and looked at it. No wonder Rollie kept it because it is really cool. That was the only jewel. No gun. No disguises. There was lots of American money. It took me a long time to count so much money. Finally I got $135. There was a passport for the United States of America and two drivers licence. Both licence had Rollie’s picture. One of them was the name Roland Brown. The other one was Roland Berry. I could not understand why would Rollie have two drivers licence with different names unless he was a spy but he is not. I think. There were some pictures of a little boy who looked like it was Rollie. He looked very shy and with dark hair. There were also lots of pictures of him with his family. It looked like he had a brother and sister. There was one of his sister in the army except she was a nurse smiling with a soldier who was all band aided up. At the bottom of the box were letters. Some of them were from a girl who said she loved him. Those were gross so I put them back. Other letters were from his family. The top one was from his mother. It said Sandra was seriously wounded when her MASH unit was bombed by friendly fire on September 15. I read it again because I did not understand at first that Sandra was Rollie’s younger sister. His mother asked him to come home and be with Sandra. That all was forgiven. It was written September 30. I think Meany Ming was killed around then.

This could be all Rollie had left from his home in Maine. I heard mother get up. She would be going down to the bathroom then she was going to check on me. I carefully put everything back after I folded up the letters and organized the pictures into a neat pile then closed Rollie’s box and put it under my pillow.

Your friend,

Johnny Wong