In fact, Vong could not understand anyone else in the class. When everyone stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, Vong also stood up with his right hand on his chest, but said nothing. In addition, Vong realized that he was the smallest in the class, with his feet barely touching the floor when he was seated and he was beginning to think he wouldn’t really fit in.
Recess was even worse. Although Vong followed his classmates out of the classroom, he didn’t have anyone to play with since he didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak a word of English. He didn’t even know where to sit so he just stood near the playground and watched the other children play. They looked like they were having so much fun and wishing he could join them.
Suddenly, a group of kids approached Vong, forming a circle around him. At first, Vong thought they were going to ask him to play with them and he smiled but when he saw the looks on their faces, he frowned.
“Look at this illegal alien,” one of them said. “He’s so skinny he must be very poor.”
“He’s got a funny name, too,” another said.
“And look at that rag he’s wearing,” yet another said. “Yuck!”
They started laughing at him as they came up with funny names. Vong could not understand but he knew that the kids were making fun of him. Even so, he tried to ignore them but when they began to push him around, he pushed them back and stared each of them in the eyes. Sure, he looked different from them and he was new, but he was not afraid. He knew he was just as strong and as smart as they were.
Seeing that Vong was not afraid, the children didn’t know what else to do and left him alone. For a moment, Vong thought about running to Ms. Carter and telling her what had just happened but he realized he did not know how to tell her and so he just clenched his fists in frustration. He felt sad and frustrated but after a while, he remembered what his father had said about going forward no matter how hard things were, because they were sure to always get better, and so he kept his chin up and went to sit on an empty bench nearby.
From the bench, Vong continued to watch the other kids playing, some of them swinging on the monkey bars, others playing tag and basketball. Feeling lonely, he suddenly wished he had his old blue and white rhombus-shaped kite. He started to imagine he was flying it across the playground with his classmates cheering him on. He was so deep in thought, in fact, that he did not notice a red ball flying in his direction. It bounced off his knees and landed a short distance from his feet. Quickly, he picked it up and handed it to the girl who was running after it.
“Gracias,” the girl said with a bright smile as she got the ball. She went back to her friends and resumed playing kickball but after a while, she came back and signaled Vong to join them. Vong was happy to be able to play with the other kids and was very thankful to the girl, whose name he learned was Lucia, for inviting him. He did not know how to play kickball but he quickly learned, running as fast as he could from one base to the next and kicking the ball as high and as hard as he could. He had such a great time.
The next morning, Vong woke up extra early so he could ask his Grandma to make him an extra spring roll for lunch. Vong’s Grandma gave him a puzzled look but she made one anyway.
Later, at lunch, Vong looked for Lucia and when he saw her sitting all alone at the end of the lunch table, he went to sit beside her. Lucia smiled at him, remembering that he was the boy who had played kickball with her and her friends yesterday.
“¡Hola!” she greeted cheerfully.
Vong simply smiled back. He did not understand her language. He was pretty sure she would not understand his, as well, and so he did not speak. Instead, he opened his lunchbox and gave the extra spring roll to Lucia.
Lucia was confused, at first, but after a few seconds, she finally understood that Vong wanted her to have the spring roll. She decided to try it and looked at Vong with a bigger smile, her eyes gleaming.
“Mmm, delicioso! Gracias, Vong,” she said.
Again, Vong merely smiled.
From then on, Vong and Lucia spent a lot of time together. At first, they did not speak much, simply keeping each other company, but as they learned new English words together, they started talking and understanding each other.
Vong learned that just like him, Lucia and her family just recently came to live in the United States, which was why she didn’t know English, either. She wasn’t from Vietnam, but from another country called Mexico, and so she spoke Spanish.
Sometimes, after school, Lucia would teach Vong some Spanish words and in turn, Vong would also teach her some Vietnamese words. They would greet each other in the mornings, saying ‘Hola’ or ‘Chào’ then in the afternoons, before they went home, they would say, ‘Hasta luego’ or ‘Tạm biệt.
Apart from learning new words together, Vong and Lucia loved to do artwork. Once, when they were asked to make collages in class, Vong and Lucia poured out all their imagination into their works and ended up having the best works. The collages were so good, that Ms. Carter hang them on the bulletin board for everyone in the school to see.
At home, Vong and his family were doing better. At the end of each day, Vong loved to welcome his parents back home. He would sit by the window and wait for his father to come around the corner. Then, he would run up and give him a hug, even if he was covered in mud and grass from gardening. As a reward, Vong’s father always brought home a bag of treats from work, usually wild fruits such as wild pears, apples or persimmons.
Vong’s Mom usually came home late from the dry cleaners. Vong would still wait for her, and he loved hugging her even more because she smelled like fresh laundry.
Since Vong’s family could not afford a TV, Vong spent most of his free time reading the books Ms. Carter assigned, trying to finish one book before moving on to the next. Whenever he has trouble pronouncing a word or doesn’t understand a word, he would ask his brothers for help and if they didn’t know the word either, they would all go check the thick dictionary together.
As the days passed, Vong learned to love reading. Because he read so much, he realized he needed a bookmark. One Saturday, he searched around the house, looking for one, but he didn’t find any.
“I wonder if I could make one by myself,” Vong thought. “But out of what?”
Vong searched around the house again, keeping an eye out for anything he could make into a bookmark. Finally, he spotted a few extra wire hangers his mother had brought home from the dry cleaners sitting at the bottom of the closet.
That night, Vong asked his mother if he could have them.
“Can I have three of the hangers please?” he pleaded.
“I don’t mind,” Vong’s mother said. “But what will you do with them? Hangers can be dangerous, you know.”
“I’m just going to make bookmarks,” Vong said. “And I promise I’ll be careful.”
“Bookmarks?” Vong’s mother eyed him curiously.
Still, she allowed Vong to have the hangers and Vong set to work. For a while, he just stared at the hangers, wondering where to start. Then, he asked his oldest brother to cut the wire and straighten it out. Afterwards, he started bending the wire carefully, trying to make different shapes.
“What shape should I make?” he wondered.
He thought and thought and after a while, he decided to make a heart-shaped bookmark. He also decided that he would make three bookmarks — one for him, one for Ms. Carter and one for Lucia, since her birthday was coming up. He set himself to work happily, even humming one of the tunes he used to play on his flute. He was glad because not only was he able to make his own bookmark, he was also able to make gifts for others to show them how much he cared.