Eleanor McCallie Cooper - Dragonfly Dreams

Dragonfly Dreams

by Eleanor McCallie Cooper

Copyright 2021 Eleanor McCallie Cooper

ISBN 978-1-64663-422-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the author.

Map created by Evie Zhu

Review Copy: This is an advanced printing subject to corrections and revisions.

Published by

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800-435-4811

www.koehlerbooks.com

Dedicated to Grace McCallie Divine Liu

Four years is a long time and if I tried to tell only a part of what weve been through since I last wrote I would fill a book.

November 20, 1945

DRAGON F LY

DREAMS

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

ELEANOR MCCALLIE COOPER

FOREWORD

PRELUDE

S unlight sparkled in the grass and flashed off the pool of water. At first, I didnt see what landed on my armthe shivering wings of silver, blue, and green, the long narrow body, and the big round head with the bulging black eyes that seemed to see in every direction.

I started to reach for it, but Chiyoko stopped me.

No, dont hurt it.

Why not? I asked.

Its a dragonfly. When a dragonfly lands on you, its good luck. Its a sign that change is coming. You better watch your dreams, Nini.

It flew off, wings fluttering rapidly, and then changed directions and hovered over us. I lifted my hand hoping it would land again, but it flew quickly out of reach. Two others appearedthen suddenly there were five or six, and more, flitting around Chiyokos head, their blue-green wings reflecting an iridescent glow. We began to flutter too, trying neither to catch them nor to chase them awaydancing with them in the sunlight, holding our arms out like wings, hovering, rising, falling, laughing.

Part One

CHAPTER 1

December 5, 1941

A coastal city in China

I t was the day before my tenth birthday. Chiyoko and I were walking home from school.

When we usually reached the Avenue of Many Nations, we parted to go home in different directions, but this day we stopped dead in our tracks. Japanese soldiers were blocking the way, barking orders, and shoving people to the side of the street.

A soldier wearing a dark helmet had a rifle with a sword at the end, pointing directly at us.

Chiyoko froze, but I saw an opening in the crowd, and dodging the soldier, I pulled her away, stepping quickly to a place in the crowd where we could see down the street.

A shiny black car was moving slowly toward us. Rows of Japanese soldiers marched stiffly behind it. I could feel as well as hear the thump, thump, thump of their heavy boots against the pavement.

Suddenly a rickshaw swerved into the street. The Chinese puller didnt seem to notice the black car or the soldiers as he shouted in English, Out of way! I have French ambassadors wife!

The passenger was a woman in a fur coat, wearing a black hat with dark netting covering her face. She held her arm around a boy with blonde hair dressed in a heavy coat.

Usually a rickshaw carrying a foreigner, especially someone important like the French ambassadors wife, could get through any crowd easily. The puller ignored a Japanese officers command to stop, continuing down the street as if he didnt hear him. Then the officer moved toward him, lifted the butt of his rifle in the air, and struck the rickshaw puller hard on the head.

The puller groaned and crumpled to the ground, still holding on to the poles as he fell. The French ambassadors wife and the boy were thrown forward. A man next to me tried to help her but was shoved back by two soldiers. The man yelled, Call the police! But no one came.

The woman in the rickshaw straightened her hat, then grabbed the boys hand and climbed out, stepping right on top of the fallen rickshaw man.

The Japanese officer yelled again, and two soldiers quickly dragged the rickshaw and the limp man out of the way of the oncoming car.

Chiyoko, pushing next to me, stiffened as if she saw or heard something I didnt. Oh no, she said. My father. He warned me

The soldiers stood at attention as the car passed by. The crowd stayed quiet but as soon as the car passed, everyone began pushing against each other, trying to move in all directions.

We better get out of here, Nini. Chiyoko grabbed my arm. Come on! You cant go that way. She gestured in the direction I usually went home. Not with these soldiers here. I know another way.

Not having a chance to question her, I chased Chiyoko across the street. She broke into a run, and when she turned into an alley, I almost lost her. The alley was a narrow passage behind the buildings, stacked with all sorts of junk. Chiyoko seemed to glide through like a fish in water, but I tripped on some broken tiles, bumped my head on a pipe sticking out of the wall, and nearly choked on a clothesline stretched across the alley. My heart pounding, I dodged ladders and bamboo poles, bicycle parts and broken carts, and nearly gagged on sour smells from earthenware pots.

I finally caught up with Chiyoko as she slowed at a wooden gate and pushed it open. I followed her through. She shut the gate behind us, sighing with relief.

We were in someones garden, but it looked abandoned. There was a fountain in the middle of the garden covered in vines. The statue on top of the fountain was a fish that looked like it was trying to swim out of the vines. The house was dark and shuttered, surrounded by a crumbling brick wall with glass shards on top.

Chiyoko leaned against the wall next to the gate. I fell against my knapsack beside her.

You dont need to run so fast, I panted. No one is following us.

I know, she said. But I couldnt stop.

She took off her knapsack, dropped it to the ground, and then squatted beside it. I slumped down beside her.

Chiyoko and I looked alike in so many ways, but we were different in so many others. We were about the same height and both wore our hair in long braids. When we were dressed in the school uniforma navy-blue skirt and a white blouse with a sailor collar and navy-blue tiethe other girls couldnt tell us apart and just called us the little Chinese girls. That angered Chiyoko, but she didnt say anything. She couldnt brag that her father was Japanese, not then, anyway, when the Japanese were causing so much trouble. But she was proud that her hair was blacker and straighter than mine and her skin was fairer. She had a narrower face and was slimmer than me. I had a rather round face and body. My eyes were hazel, and I had more of a bridge on my nose, which made me look more like the foreign girls.

We attended an international school where most of the girls were from foreign families living in China. I had a hard time telling the French girls from the British or the Russians from the Poles; they all looked foreign to me. What made me mad was that they treated me as if I were the foreigner in China!

I felt I could stand up to them because I was American. Da, who is Chinese, married Ma when he was studying engineering in New York, and thats where I was born. I guess you could say Im half-American and half-Chinese, but all they saw was my Chinese side. Like the time Chiyoko and I were walking together when two British girls, I think they were sisters, were coming from the opposite direction, and the older one said, You Chinese girls better get out of the way when we pass. Chiyoko looked down and moved aside. I just stood there and yelled, I belong here more than Before I could get the words out, Chiyoko pulled my arm and jerked me back, causing me to trip over my own feet. The girls just walked on, giggling and poking each other.