Kapitel 1: Chapter 8 Opening nights.

It'll always be in the way.. It probably makes a terrible racket and when joy comes in here with her friend jabbirng.. I had an idea. Suppose we have Joy sleep on the servixe porch? it must be joking..yeah. mother face lit up.. ypu mean.. would she? we could put her bed in there. Make it cozy. Give her the throw rug.. and a little table, this chair. We' ll arrange all her toys, she must be in your dads room together.. you and I stay up much later. She can never get to sleep in the porch.. when we listen to radio, she wont be yelling, I added. And I can bring my friends in and have some privacy, gerlie said.. lets do it now.. It be all done when she come home. she'll see how nice it is.. because she is together with my parents.. and my sister are also have own bed and room.. what about the window? the window was barred ugly.. Well, when you learn to sew on that machine, you can make her some pretty curtains too.. I'll help you pay for material. Suddenly I was doubtful. Maybe we should make the curtain first, then tell mother and joy, show her how nice it is.. No I said firmly. I want to do it now, while I have time. I've got a school project. All right. Still I hesitated. We should ask mother. Mothe's at work. She won't care. We're no doing anything wrong.' All right. We hurried to move in the furniture. Then we spread out Joy's doll and stuffed animals up on the wundowsill, the bed, and top the wooden board that covered the deep gray-metal washtub. The washtub in her bedroom does't look so good.. I murmured, surveying our handiwork..well put a cloth over it. Sheljane said .it will be okay" She won't like the water heater and the pipes. she won't even notice.. All right. I sat down at my new machine. it had its own little light. father had also left me a little pile of scraps. I took a scrap, just for practice. Zipppp! The machine raced as I lightly pumped the treadle. I could sew an entire seam in less than a minute, once I learned control over this monster. I made a potholder with crisscros stitching, practicing my skill with the new machine, ripping, repairing, concentrating. I did not hear Joy come in. I heard only her gasp. Out in the hall Bibian told her, We've fixed it all up for you, honey. It's so cute! look we've put your toys out, and your dolls on the bed. . Joy said nothing. I saw her face at the door, though, her eyes upon me as she watched me sitting there, sewing. "You move me out of the room, " she said, both of yoy.. The look on her face left me speechless. I had always been joy's friend, her protector. If Bibian didn't have time for her or got cross with her, there was always me. prithjoy counted on me. Joy" I began, I didn't mean to make you feel .. But she said vanished into the service porch, instead into the room of our parents. closing the door behind her.That night Mother and Father went directly to their English class. bibian and I fixed a supper delicious or yummy of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Joy took her sandwich into the yard. She sat on the stone bench., eating and reading. Later James came out, and the two of them went to james yard to play. By the time Mother and Father came home, we were all in bed. I was reading a novel. How Green Was my Valley, Which Bibian's only real extravagance. It was a rare occasion that bibian let me read one of her books before she was finished. I thought how well we were getting along together. Mother came into the room and lookedaround at the machine, at me she said. Do you know what you two have done to Joy? your sister shooked about this. even your ate's didnt know about what you'ved done to young younger sister. I shook my head, yawning, appearing unconcerned, while in reality I felt a twisting pain in my stomach. She didn't care,' Bibian said. The room was too crowded, I added. You didn't even ask her, Mother said.. So what? She's always brings in her friends... Mother stood there looking at us. her expression grave. You girls have to learn to get along, she said Her gaze rested on me." Maybe Joy will forget this," she said, but you never will. Later I got up, went to the room of mother, knocked on the door. No answer. A night-light shone under the door. I realized that in her entire life joy had never slept slone before. Inside me, the twisting felt like a worm in my gut. Joy.! I whispered. Can I come in? I opened the door. She lay there bunched up on her side. She would not turn over to see me.. All right, then I murmured.. Good night my sweet sister.. Bibian, sheljane, gerlie and I go back to room. two of the have the same room..only frithgie together with my parents.. Bibian and I have plan to Sears and bough saome material. I did make a curtains for parents and joys room. But Mother was right. The guilt stayed with me. Joy didn't come into our bedroom at all. A coldness seemed to have washed over her a layer of solemnity. And then came the terrible blow. It was early on a Sunday. Joy came running into the house screaming. They're leaving! Everything's packed. All the furniture is gone! James, janet and Janice didn't even talk to me. She didn't even say good-bye. She left in the truck with her uncle. They're all being sent away someplace to the desert- why? Why?" Heaven help us!" Mother stood up, hands raised. that poor woman and the baby-oh, what a terribles thing, to be chased out of your own home!" The japanese are being sent away, Mother said. She did not look at any of us. They could be spies, " Bibian said. James not a spy! Joy screamed. Father halfway through shaving, came out at the commotion. what's going on?" Frithjoy sat in the kitchen nook, sobbing. They've taken James and janet away. Just because she a japanese. It's isn't fair! Joy, Joy, Father sat down beside her and hug her, put his arm around her tightly.. poor James, it's too bad she had to go, but her family.. Where are they going?"They didn't want to leave their house! James mother was crying. They"ll be sent to. . to camps, " Father said. So they can all ve together. Until the war is over." You knew this!" Joy cried, accusing, Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you do something?" Child, what can I do? Be reasonable. It's up to the goverment. The president. Joy, this is wartime. People have to make sacrifices. We have to be careful. We don't know which Japanese are loyal and which are spies. So all of them have to leave the coast-do you understand to father? If even a few of them were spies, they could destroy this country. Don't you see? No! No! I want James and janice back! She's my friend. When this war is over, Mother said.. then. The rotten war will never be over! joy shrieked. It's horrible. it makes people nean and bad. I hate it! I hate evwrything. You don't hate your father, do you? .. Father crooned joy looked at him, glaring. She did not reply. I knew she was thinking of the sewing machine. Father had brought, what it had done to her life, and now this. She'll get over it. Father said later, when Joy was outside in the garden again, sitting alone on the stone bench. No. she won't." I said. I went outside, stood on the sidewalk. next door the large wooden house stood empty. I could see it by the windows:, windows have a way of looking sad when a house is alone. Neighbors stood around in small clumps, shifting their weight the way grown ups do when they are embarrassed, when they know they have to say something.I say good riddance, one woman flung out. Her hair was done up in curlers:, her face shone with cream or sweat. If they hadn't of left, said another, Raniel was gonna rout them out anyhow. We don't want Japs in this neighborhood. Apart from the women, the men talked together while they smoked their cigarettes. Every time one made a statement, the others rumbled and nodded and shifted their feet. Sometimes they laughed. Mostly they frowned, and they flipped their cigarettes butts out into the street. don't believe everything you hear, it all propa ganda, one of them said. They say that with Mussolini in power, at least the trains run on time. Laughter, like an invisible net, bound them together. Its the jews themselves invented those stories,. said another.. all about concentration camps and those ghastly murders. Nobody would do things like that.vA Nazi is still a human being,' said another. Listen, if you ask me, it's all apack of lies, to get sympathy. like they always do. I went around to the backyard. There was Joy, squatting over her victory garden. How's it doing? I asked. I knelt down beside her. The beans are the best," she said soberly. touching several little green leaves with the tip of her finger. Those fermy things are carrots. corn over there. squash. That's really beautiful,." I said. I wish I had more space. I'd plant everything tomatoes, potatoes, everything. I wish I had a farm. I wish we could move away to a farm, far away, maybe to Australia." Maybe james and jnice will come back,' I said. It wasn't fair,' she said. the same week Father came home and said he had finally met a man who was willing to go into business with him. His money, you mean and your sweat. Mother said grimly. It's the same thing." What will you do, Rudy?" Make ladies, coats and suits. Eventually, fur-trimmed things, like I made in Philippines. Would women wear fur in the climate? Women who can afford fur will wear it anyplace," father replied with a smile. But that comes later. First I'll make some samples, show around, I'll make orders, and Mrs Miles will give me the money to have the coats made up." Why does this Mrs. Miles want to give you meny Rudy? He liked me, said Father, hands outstreched, besides we'll share the profit. We met at the delicatessen. I showed him your photographs. We talked, I showed him my designs some sketches on the tablecloth. The tablecloth! oh, Rudy," Father was always drawing on the tablecloths, napkins, even the wall. A week or so later Father came home with a large garment bag over his shoulder. Inside were two coats, one beige and one red-samples Bibian and mother tried them on to show us how beautiful they were, and father stroked the cloth. straightened the lapels, shook his head in admiration over his own handiwork. One hundred percent wool," he said proudly.. I'll sell it for eighteen ninety five. Look at those gorgeous buttons! Expensive buttons, and they'll never fall off, never. Are we going to be rich Father? Joy asked. Father pursed his lips, lit a cigarette. Rich? No, Joy We have debts to pay back first. It take a long, long time to get rich. It takes a long time just to catch up, to make a decent living. When father said we would soon move out of the neighborhood, none of us was sorry. Father was looking for a house to rent, one with a separate garage where he couldvwork. In the new house we could have a telephone, too! Prosperity was just around the corner, Father said. My birthday was on May 14. In my diary I wrote.