The Red Pagoda and Other Stories

By Day's Lee

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step.
- Old Chinese proverb.

Can you pinpoint the moment when one decision changed the course of your life? The characters in these six stories face that moment and embark on the road of self-discovery.

A little Chinese girl is taunted by bullies at her new elementary school until another new student arrives. A teenage girl realizes that a woman from her grandfather’s past is seeking revenge for a broken promise of an arranged marriage. A cook finds her destiny in a Chinese movie. Four elderly men have a fun filled afternoon when one of them secretly borrows his daughter’s car for the day. A newly divorced man reminisces about his childhood and his first heartbreak. After his father’s death, a son takes over the family restaurant and uncovers a secret that changes his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Day's Lee
• Release date: Dec 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370591602

Day's Lee

Day’s Lee is the author of the young adult novel, GUITAR HERO, which was named “Best Book for Kids and Teens” by The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, and the children’s picture book, THE FRAGRANT GARDEN. Her blog covers a variety of topics from writing, Montreal, the Chinese community and Comicon, but her most popular post is an old family recipe for Dry Garlic Spare Ribs. Her latest projects include writing a play based on her mystery short story “The Red Pagoda.”

Book preview

THE RED PAGODA AND OTHER STORIES

By Day’s Lee

Smashwords Edition

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PUBLISHED BY:

Cinnamon Bowl Publishing on Smashwords

The Red Pagoda and Other Stories

Copyright 2014 by Day’s Lee

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sisters

A Matter of the Heart

The Gang

Warrior Women

The Last Bachelor

The Red Pagoda

Other Books by Day’s Lee

SISTERS

Ming’s father often complained to her mother: Some people have no respect for others!

Once a week, sometimes twice since her family had moved into the neighborhood that July 1964, she and her father would pick up garbage scattered in their backyard. They would clean every inch of the yard, filling the large brown paper bags they each dragged behind them.

Her father would mutter in Chinese, I know it’s not the wind. My yard is in the middle. I don’t think the garbage goes through all your fences just to come here. The sound of the paper bags rustling across the grass would be unchallenged in the backyard, which was normally filled with the noise of squeaking clotheslines, foreign tongues and children playing. The neighbors often would be on their balconies, leaning on the railing and watching.

Last Sunday, a little boy cried out when Ming picked up a muddied plastic racing car.

Keep it! her father had angrily ordered as she was about to toss the toy over the fence towards the plea. Too bad for them! Throw everything out! Teach them a lesson!

Lack of respect. That was how her father explained it at the dinner table one evening. She had told him that some kids in her new school were making fun of her. Can do nothing about it, he said shaking his head. Their parents don’t teach them anything.

Mr. and Mrs. Yuan had moved the family from a small, two bedroom apartment on the edge of Montreal's Chinatown to their first home, a three-bedroom brick bungalow in a working class district.

One evening, a few days before the move, Ming's parents had celebrated their purchase by preparing a feast for neighbors and friends. Between mouthfuls of roast duck, Cantonese lobster, black bean shrimp and other succulent dishes Mrs. Yuan had spent the day preparing, Mr. Yuan would raise his glass filled with a sweet mixture of whisky and seven-up, and toast each of his guests' future happiness.

Ming listened to the adults' laughter and cheers while she huddled sadly with Francine Laplante, her best friend, on the weather-beaten balcony that warm summer evening. Francine and Ming had spent most of their lives together since kindergarten. That night, the two girls vowed solemnly that as soon as they were old enough to ride the bus alone they would visit each other.

Mrs. Yuan had promised to buy Ming a new bedroom set and to paint her bedroom in peach, but those promises did little to alleviate Ming's anxieties about leaving the only friends she knew and starting the school year in a new elementary school. Her brother was lucky; he was entering high school and would still see all of his friends.

That September, Ming discovered that life as a fourth grader at Beechwood Elementary School would not be easy. Being the first Chinese pupil the school ever had, she quickly found herself the center of curiosity. She answered her classmates' probing questions as politely as she could. Yes, we eat all our meals with chopsticks. No, I don't understand Japanese. No, I don't have a pet. No, it's not because we eat dogs, we just don't have a pet.

On her third day, while heading home after school, she had the strange feeling that a small cluster of boys were following her. Looking over her shoulder, she was startled to see four boys stretching the outer edges of their eyes, making strange noises at her. She quickened her pace to distance herself from them, but they kept up with her.

Her short legs broke into a frantic run when they started to chant, Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, look at these!

Their hysterical laughter faded away as she raced up the sidewalk and bounded up the steps to her home. Slamming the front door behind her, she turned the lock and leaned breathlessly against the wall. With her heart pounding, she waited for the boys to come knocking at her door. They didn't.

Ming avoided the troublesome boys some of the time by varying her route to and from school. She would run down a laneway or duck behind a car if she caught a glimpse of any of them. Occasionally, she would meet Maria Papadopoulos who was the tallest fourth grader Ming had ever seen. It was Maria's commanding size and sharp tongue that had rescued Ming from the boys' taunts one afternoon. Ming wasn't really sure if the boys were actually afraid of Maria or of Maria's fifteen-year-old brother who had once pummeled two other boys who tried to rob him. In either case, after Maria had given Ming's tormentors a good tongue lashing, Ming was relieved to discover they would leave her alone whenever she was in Maria's company.

Ming had spent a month and a half in her new school when the new girl arrived.

Safi, Mrs. Caron announced warmly in front of the class that Monday morning, welcome to our grade four class here at Beechwood.

Six rows of heads turned towards the back of the classroom to look at their new classmate. Her red plaid dress with its starched white collar stood out among the navy blue and white school uniforms. Matching red bows held two small tight braids in place over her ears. A shy smile greeted the class.

Man, is she ever black! Gino whispered under his breath.

Ming sat uncomfortably as others who overheard his comment snickered.

Mrs. Caron quickly called