Chapter Fifteen

Dear Joe,

We were all wondering what you were doing, so we were real happy when we got your letters from Cheyenne and Casper. Your ma said to thank you for writing. She was crying when I read them to her. She said she wasn’t, but she was. I also read your letters to your pa and Sam. Sam acts like he doesn’t want to know what you’re doing, but I can tell he does.

I laughed when I read how funnily you walked when you got off the horse, and so did your ma and pa. Mr Culpepper laughed, too. He said he’s missing you something bad. He told me the man he hired in your place is no good at all, and he’s now doing the work of two men. The man doesn’t know it, but Mr Culpepper is looking for someone else.

You’ll be in Buffalo now so you’ll have read my first letter. This is my second, and I think you’ll be very happy when you read my news. I can’t wait a minute longer to tell you what it is.

I think you might already have guessed.

You know I told you I met Su Lin when I went to collect the first letter you sent me? Well, I saw her again when I went to send the letter to Buffalo. And I saw her brother, too. Su Lin was friendly, but her brother was mean. He made Su Lin go into the back of the store and then told me to keep away unless I had a letter to send. That’s mean, isn’t it? He knows she wants to be friends with me. She said he’s a good brother, but I don’t think he is.

But that’s not what will make you happy to hear (I’m starting to laugh with happiness as I write this). I’ve got more to tell you.

Joe let the hand holding the letter fall to his side. Leaning back against the wheel of the wagon, he gazed up at the clear blue sky. Charity’s words could mean only one thing. ‘Good on you, gal,’ he murmured into the air, and he smiled to himself in satisfaction.

Turning back to her letter, he read the details of their meeting, paused a moment, and then read on.

Su Lin speaks in a strange way, and so does Chen Fai. They can’t say any word with an r in properly. Instead of an r, they say an ell. I can say words like friend and very, so I’m not a Chinese girl, but they can’t. But even though Su Lin sounds funny when she speaks, I like her.

Now that her folks are in China, it’s easier to meet, and I’ve seen her several times. But we have to be careful as your ma’s starting to look at me in a funny way. I reckon she’s beginning to wonder why I’m later coming back from the bakery these days. I’m going to have to think of a reason why that would be. Su Lin has her empty bucket, but there’s no point in me having a bucket, too, as our well is too close to the house.

I don’t think your ma would go loco if she knew about Su Lin, but your pa and Sam might. They’re always saying real nasty things about Chinamen.

It’s almost a week later now. The big news is that your ma now knows Su Lin and I are friends. Mrs Oakland saw us going down to the gully one day when she was coming back from town, and she told your ma. She’s a real nosy neighbour, and so’s Mr Oakland. I used to think they were nice, but I don’t now. Your ma doesn’t either as, unless they want to stir up trouble and tell tales, they ignore her whenever they see her.

When I got home, your ma told me she knew about me and Su Lin. I was shaking all over about what your pa and Sam would say, but she said she wasn’t going to tell them as they’d got enough worries at work without having more. She told me it was okay for us to be friends as long as I did my chores and we carried on hiding like we’ve been doing. She thinks it’s better people don’t know about us as it might make them think even worse of me than they do now. But that doesn’t make sense. The whites think I’m Chinese so it’s just like me being friendly with another Chinese girl, isn’t it?

I asked her why everyone’s so angry with the Chinese. She said it’s still about the low price the company pays for coal. When I saw Mr Culpepper, I asked him why Chinamen didn’t want more money like the whites did, and he said it was because whatever the company paid, it was much more than they’d get in China.

And he told me that another thing was also making the white miners angry. The whites think the Chinese miners are being given better rooms in the mines. I think he means the rooms where the miners dig out the coal. If the Chinese are given the easiest rooms, they can dig out more coal and so make more money. That can’t be right, can it? The superintendent is white, and whites don’t like the Chinese, so why would he help them?

I don’t understand it real well, Joe. I wish you were here to explain it all.

But I understand the Chinese not liking me – they think I’m American, and they know I don’t have ancestors. They can see I’m not a good Chinese girl like Su Lin. Except she’s a bad Chinese girl as she doesn’t obey her brother, and is friends with me.

Did you know that Chen is their last name? The Chinese put their last name first and their first name last. That’s why it’s Chen Sing and Chen Fai. That’s funny, isn’t it? I found that out when I asked Su Lin why she didn’t just call her brother Chen. She laughed real loud and told me why. So I asked why she didn’t call him Fai. She said it’s not polite to use his name as he’s older than she is. It’s better to call him by his position in the family. I don’t know what you’d call me if we did that in America, Walker Joe. (I’m giggling now.)

You were right, Joe. I like having a friend. Especially now you’ve gone away. I’m glad you made me go into Su Lin’s store.

I hope you can read my letters easily. Miss O’Brien is still a mean woman, but she saw I was trying extra hard with my writing, and when the other kids were outside, she helped me.

I’m sending this to Columbus, Montana, like you said.

From your friend,

Charity

‘I wrote to Joe and told him we were friends,’ Charity told Su Lin a few days later when they were sitting in the gully.

‘I not tell dai lou,’ Su Lin said. ‘He be very angry I not obey him.’

‘I’m glad you’re not obeyin’ him,’ Charity said happily. ‘I’m not lonely any more. Oh!’ she suddenly exclaimed, and she thrust her hand into the pocket of her pinafore. ‘I’ve got somethin’ to show you. I bring it every time we meet, and then forget to show you. I almost forgot again.’

She pulled out her hand and opened her palm. On it lay the small golden tiger, with black stripes painted across the gold.

Su Lin leaned across and took it from her. ‘It a tiger,’ she said, smiling as she turned it over and studied it. ‘I see tigers in pictures.’

‘I know that – Joe told me. It was my ma’s. It was on the shawl wrapped round me when I was found. It’s the only thing I’ve got of her. There are no tigers in Wyoming, so she must’ve brought it with her when she came from China. It means she liked tigers, don’t you think?’

‘I not think so,’ Su Lin said slowly. ‘We born in same year, you and me.’

‘So what?’ Charity asked, a trace of impatience in her voice. ‘We already figured that out.’

‘So like me, you are born in Year of the Dragon. This is tiger not dragon, so this is for Chinese ma, not you.’

‘What’re you talkin’ about?’

‘Every year is year of an animal. You and me are Dragons. Dragons very impatient people. Rush into things where should wait, and get into trouble. That’s you and me.’ Su Lin giggled. ‘Dragons never give up – if want something, go after it till get it. That’s also you and me.’

‘You’re right about that bein’ us,’ Charity said. ‘You wanted us to be friends, and then so did I, and now we are. So why’s it a tiger brooch, not a dragon brooch?’

‘Think your Chinese ma born in Year of the Tiger.’

‘What are people born in the Year of the Tiger like?’

‘They stubborn people.’

Charity nodded vigorously. ‘That’ll be Ma all right. What about Joe? He’s seven years older than me.’

Su Lin shrugged her shoulders. ‘Depend on date is born. Maybe Year of the Rooster. Rooster is very good match for Dragon,’ she added solemnly.

‘And Chen Fai?’

Su Lin giggled. ‘He is born in Year of the Horse. Girl he marry is born in Year of the Rabbit. Rabbit is good match with Horse. And Dragon is good match with Horse, too.’

‘How d’you know all this?’ Charity asked, staring at Su Lin in amazement.

‘When go-between find wife or husband for son or daughter, must look first at year of birth to see if is good match. Is very important.’

‘So in China, your go-between looked for a Rabbit for Chen Fai. That’s very funny.’ Charity burst out laughing.

‘Sheep is better, but go-between not find Sheep. But Rabbit is good,’ Su Lin said lightly. ‘Is Chinese way. You and me, Charity, we must not marry man who is Ox or Dog,’ she added, her voice suddenly serious.

‘I’ll marry who I want. I’m not gonna ask every man I meet if he’s a Dog or an Ox.’ She burst out laughing again.

Su Lin stared at her for a moment, then laughed with her. But her laughter died away almost at once, and she looked at Charity, her expression grave. ‘But you must do this, Charity. One day you marry Chinese boy.’

Charity glanced at her. ‘No, I won’t. I’m American, aren’t I? It’s real interestin’, all this, but it’s nothin’ to do with me.’

Smiling, she tilted her face to the sun.

Su Lin stared at her, anxiety on her face. Then she, too, looked up at the sun, but her face was still worried.