“Hey!” a man yelled as he grabbed Sparrow’s arm. She had been so lost in thought, she had been picking pockets without even thinking about it. She didn’t recognize the man who grabbed her. Had she even stolen from him?
“Don’t touch me, you bad uncle!” she said as she tried to rip her arm from his grasp.
“How dare you, thief!” he said, grabbing tighter and shaking her. “I haven’t touched you. You just stole my comb from me. Give it back!”
Sparrow felt in her pocket with her free hand and indeed felt the pricks of a bristle, but she wasn’t about to admit to such a thing. Not if she wanted to keep her head.
“Help!” she screamed. “He touched me! Bad uncle!”
The man’s eyes went wide and he grabbed both of her arms and shook her. “Shut up before I sell you to the first madam I see!”
His angry face was now close enough to her own that she spit in his eyes. As he pulled back, releasing her arms to wipe it away, she kicked him in the shin.
“You little whore!” the man yelled, but that was all she heard from him. She laughed as she ran through the crowd, far away from the smoking dragon and the platform where she had seen the empress. Several people looked at her as she scurried along, but no one bothered to stop her. If she didn’t steal from them personally, few people bothered to try and stop her from stealing from someone else.
She ran along one of the main city streets for a while before turning into a marketplace where she knew she could sell the things she had stolen that day and then buy food for supper.
Sparrow had been stealing since long before her father disappeared. She didn’t know what her father had done for work or why the family was poor. They just were. If Sparrow didn’t steal, they starved. And if they starved, it would only be a matter of time before Mama sold her to flower house.
Not that Sparrow hadn’t considered going to a flower house on her own anyway. She couldn’t help but admire the pretty clothes and makeup the flower girls wore. And they never begged for food. She didn’t know what exactly flower girls did for money, only that whatever happened behind the closed doors of the brothel was considered disgraceful. And she knew that once she entered that world, she would never be allowed to leave. There were days when the promises of a full belly and warm bed were tempting. But after Mama gave birth to Pheasant—Sparrow had to catch the squalling creature as Mama pushed her out into the world—Sparrow knew she had to stay home for as long as possible. Until Dove and Pheasant could steal and earn enough money for themselves, Sparrow would take care of them.
Sparrow knew which shops would give her the most money for her ill-gotten goods without asking questions, and then which shops would give her the lowest price on the very meager food rations she could afford. She felt her face beam with pride as she was able to buy enough rice for a week and two days’ worth of pork—and have three coins left over! The pork was mostly fat, but still, it was more meat than she had been able to buy in weeks. With the weather being so cold, few people were venturing out of doors, and even fewer were gathering in large crowds. Picking the pockets of isolated individuals always carried more risk than stealing in a crowded place. Throughout the winter, the small family had survived on even less than usual. Sparrow was afraid to admit out loud that she was surprised Pheasant had survived at all. But the baby was strong. If she survived until spring, there was a good chance she would live until the next winter, when survival would once again become a struggle.
Sparrow followed the narrow winding lane of the hutong alley where her family lived. The houses were all smashed together, so you could hardly tell where one ended and another began. She hopped over muddy puddles that were certain to be more fetid than water and dodged clothes hung out to dry that would never truly dry in such cold, damp air. She sighed at the smell of dumplings being fried in one of the homes she passed. The only time she ate dumplings was when she stole them, but she would never steal from a neighbor.
Before she reached her house, she slipped down a narrow path, one too tight for an adult to use. The path opened up to a small square area where four brick homes didn’t quite meet. At the back of the area, she counted four bricks up and seven bricks to the right. The brick she landed on was slightly loose to the touch, but no one would know by looking at it. Her tiny fingers gripped the two sides, and she shook it until the brick pulled out from its spot.
Behind the brick, the dingy sunlight illuminated a small cache of coins. Coins that Sparrow has secreted away from her thieving and hid—even from her own family. She wasn’t sure why she did it. She knew her family needed every last coin she could steal. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she might need the extra money someday. She took one of the coins from her pocket and added it to the others before slipping the brick back into its place. She didn’t know how many coins she had saved because she couldn’t count that high. But it was a comfort to know they were there. Satisfied that the coins were once again safe in their hiding spot, Sparrow slipped back out to the hutong.
“Little Sister,” a woman sitting on a stoop nursing a babe called out as she passed. “Have you eaten?”
Sparrow proudly held up her little bag of rice and meat. “I will tonight, auntie!” she said. “Today is lucky. I saw the empress!”
The woman waved her off. “Such lies from a child’s mouth. I hope your mother slaps you.”
“It’s true!” Sparrow said. “She just arrived back in the city. She is in the palace now.”
“Good,” the woman said as she moved the baby to her other breast. “About time those white devils leave.”
Sparrow nodded as she went on her way. She didn’t hate the foreigners as much as most people, but she knew they were bad and avoided them when she saw them on the streets. They had invaded the city, running the empress and emperor off. Then they tried to rule the city as their own. But how could such stupid, ugly people ever hope to rule a country as powerful as China? They should have known that the gods of Heaven would not bless them. And now they were leaving.
Sparrow pushed open the rickety wooden door of the one-room hovel she shared with her mother and sisters. Mama was doing her best to heat a pot of congee that had already lasted them three days. She just kept adding more and more water to it until it was only water with a few grains of rice.
“Ma!” Sparrow called as she entered. “Look what I brought!”
Mama took the bag without a word and nodded when she saw the contents. “About time you brought us something of substance.”
“There was a large crowd today at the train station the foreigners built,” she said as she took the baby from her mother’s arms. “The empress was there. I saw her.”
“Such stories you tell,” Mama said as she chopped the meat as finely as possible, setting aside most of it to make it last more days, and then adding a small portion to the congee. “I should box your ears for such lies.”
“It’s not a lie,” Sparrow said. “I saw her. She got out of the train and then waved to the crowd. She waved to me!”
Mama harrumphed as she kept a watchful eye on the food. “Maybe she gave you a blessing. That is why you had a good day. Any money?”
Sparrow nodded and dutifully handed over the two coins she had left. Her mother smiled and held the money to her breast, uttering a quick prayer of thanks.