Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – Climb Tree to Go to School

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock going off, the red digital numbers on the clock reading 7:01 A.M. I'm lying curled up under a warm blanket and mosquito net. I turn on my back and crack open one eye. There's something different about the backyard. Bananas! A huge bunch of ripe bananas hangs on the tree.

Our home looks like a military barrack. One side of the house bumps up against a high concrete wall. It extends from the front of the house to the back, and still miles farther away, all the way to the border between Vietnam and Dragon Kingdom.

When you walk right inside the house, there are two beds and a table with two stools, then next is the living room. Take a few steps, and you'll be under an open-air concrete backyard with a water tank attached to the wall. In front of you is the cooking area with a roof of corrugated tin sheets, and with tools, fire pits, and pots and pans.

I had dug a banana shoot bud out of the Assassin Jungle and planted the bud beside the water tank.

A banana tree starts out as a shoot bud that first grows straight up into a tube. The top one-third of the tube unfurls to form the first leaf, and the bottom two-thirds remain furled to become the initial tree trunk. A banana leaf can grow to be twice as big as me! After the first leaf has come, all other leaves coming after it is developed in the same way, with their bottom two-thirds rolled around the growing trunk.

A ruby bulb rounded like a very long egg with one pointed end serving as the tip of the bulb, has grown out of the top of the tree trunk, and the bulb has grown into bananas. Now a bunch of sunny bananas has come out on my tree when I least expect it.   

I hop off my bed, run to the water tank, and climb onto it. I pick a perfectly ripe banana, then rummage in an earthenware crock to find one remaining boiled cassava. Now I have banana and cassava for breakfast, a total treat. What should I do with all these ripe bananas before they go bad? Definitely make something to sell!

Mom says from her bed, "I saved the shrimp lomein for you. When I came home yesterday, you had gone to sleep instead of waiting up for me to return. Do you want to eat before going to school?"

I'm running late for school and afraid to face Miss My Lai. She teaches history and English, very strictly. She would lash a thick rubber ruler on the knuckles of her students who are late. I say, "I'll eat banana and cassava. Did you see the bananas? How is it possible?"

Mom comes out and stands beside me, smiling. "Green bananas have been there, hidden under the leaves. They must have turned yellow overnight."

I rinse my mouth with salt water without brushing my teeth. I throw on my school uniform, scoop up my schoolbag, and slide my feet into pink plastic sandals.

My friend, Hoa, comes by my house to collect me so that we can go to school together. She has just transferred to my school. Today is our first day of school.

She moves away in a hurry, saying, "Catch up, Mai. Better to cut class than to come to Miss My Lai's class late."

I try to catch up to her, and once getting near her, I reach for her shoulder. I say, "Wait, Hoa. We can quickly go to school by way of the shortcut enabled by the banana tree in my backyard. We climb up the tree and get on top of the high wall. Then climb down the starfruit tree on the other side of the wall to get onto the road. We go to the park next to St. Vincent Church, go through the alley behind the church, and come up to the school fence. We can climb the fence to get into Miss My Lai's classroom."

Hoa flinches. "Too much climbing. I don't want to ruin my new school uniform. Couldn't you offer me a much more sensible choice than climbing up your banana tree to go to school?"

I say, "I know there is no choice but to climb."

Hoa says, "I've resigned myself to running all the way to school, and to submit to being lashed on the knuckles by Miss My Lai's rubber ruler. But wait a moment. Gee, let me think a minute. Oh, let's climb the tall banana tree!" 

We go back to my house. Hoa turns and smiles at me, gesturing for me to lead her to the backyard.

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I climb onto the water tank, followed by Hoa. A peppermint plant poking through a crack in the wall, I pluck a stem and chew on it. I pull myself up on a banana leaf, but it would be much easier barefooted. I scramble on the smooth leaf and finally get on top of the wall, sitting there waiting for Hoa as she fumbles around on different leaves. She finally comes up on top of the wall, out of breath as she sits down beside me. 

We grab starfruit tree branches to climb to the ground. While Hoa struggles to get down, the twigs she's clutching snap, sending her tumbling down along with the starfruits and landing on her butt.

She dusts off the seat of her black pants, shaking her head in disgust. "No, look what you did, Mai!"

I stifle a giggle so that she doesn't get angrier with me, saying. "That's not my fault. I'm trying to save our knuckles."

She purses her lips. "Oh, I don't know. I'd rather get my knuckles lashed than have the seat of my pants soiled on my first day of school."

I'm trying to get up my courage to tell her that the back of her white shirt is also soiled, but I decide not to point that out. I let go of the branch and drop to the ground, landing on my hands and feet.

"You're up a tree, eh, girls," A boy says.

Three other boys roar with laughter. "Oh, wow, two girls up a tree."

"It's about time someone told them off for their bullying behavior," I say.

Hoa walks up to them, staring them down, saying, "No, we're down a tree. What do you see up a tree now? Stupid bullies."

I run up to Hoa, and pulling her by the hand, I say, "Let's get away from them. I'm sure they will deck us."

We keep on running to school but stop when we see a lot of kids standing at food stands on the roadsides. My stomach growls when I see a girl lick a banana cracker and then throw it away. I feel regret as if I threw it away myself. Where did I leave my banana and cassava breakfast? I'm going to make banana crackers to sell when I get home today.

We trot in silence through the alley behind the church and come up to the school fence. There's a bomb crater at the fence. At the edge of the crater, we hold up the barbed wire for each other as we crawl under the bottom to get into the schoolyard.

Our school is actually a closed military base. The open-air pavilions on the base have been converted into classrooms. We approach our classmates still standing with Miss My Lai in front of our classroom. Many other students are walking away from the school.

"Don't we have school today?" I say.

The girl who has licked her banana cracker and then thrown it away says, "We're allowed to go home. A bomb fell on the ground during the night. Fortunately, no one was here."

No one hurt. No school today. Hoa and I walk home.

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