Diana-Huang

The hustle and bustle of the house stirred Vicki out of her dream state. She noticed the smell of toast and butter as sunlight streamed into the front window onto Vicki's eyelids irritating her to completely wake up and forget what she was dreaming about. Momentarily disoriented and confused with her surroundings she sat up and looked around. “Time to get up, Vicki!” said Jamal carrying his backpack down the stairs. “There's milk, grits, and some scrambled eggs on the table. Help yourself,” said the grandma as she loaded the coffee pot. What? Oh, right! thought Vicki as yesterday's events came rushing to the front of her brain. I need to get home! “What time is it?” asked Vicki slipping on her shoes. “It's 6:30. We leave at 7. I have to be at school at 7:30!” said Jamal. Vicki went to the bathroom down the hall, and then returned to join Jamal, Booker, and Driver eating at the kitchen table. Grandma handed her a warm bowl. Vicki didn't know what the white mash with bits

“Clear the table, Jamar. It's time to eat. Vicki, can you turn that thing off?” Jamar finished up his homework and Vicki went to turn off the TV as grandma set down food like baked chicken, cooked greens, and mashed potatoes. Vicki dished onto her plate some of the greens since she already had a greasy burger. “Child, we need to fatten you up! You are skin and bones!” said the grandma as she filled her plate with food. As Vicki did her best to eat what she could, a young lady wearing blue medical work clothes came down the stairs and joined them at the table. Vicki noticed a janitorial staff name badge that said Brianna. “Jamar, is this your friend? I didn't know you hung out with the Koreans.” said Brianna giving Vicki a big smile. “She's not Korean, she's Chinese.” “What brings you here then?” “We think she got off the wrong school bus or something, she was wandering around. We're going to get her home tomorrow,” said Booker as he sat down to interrupt the

“Ma! We're home!” Vicki could smell the aroma of delicious cooking as the back door lead into the kitchen. She hesitated at the door and watched the men walk over the faded yellow patterned linoleum floor with their shoes on before doing the same. A warm voluptuous lady wearing a colorful do-rag got up from a worn out avocado green sofa set in front of a TV with a talk show on. “Hello! You brought friends,” she greeted Booker first then Driver, “Dinner isn't ready yet.” “That's ok, mom, we already got burgers” said Driver as he held up his greasy bag of uneaten food. “I can see that!” said the mother seeing the ketchup, cheese, and grease stains all over Vicki's face from eating a burger bigger than her mouth could open in a moving car. “Hello, who do we have here?” “Hello, I'm Vicki” “We found her wandering around lost.” “Are you one of the Korean shop owner's kids?” “No, I'm Chinese.” “Something like that,” interrupted Booker, “We're going to get her home

The car pulled into a warehouse garage shop and the metal door was closed behind them. The men got out of the car. Vicki stayed put waiting for them to tell her what to do. “Get out, kid. Sit over there,” said corn-row guy. Vicki obeyed and went to sit on a metal folding chair next to a table with tools piled on paper plans to break into the bank. The men cleared the tools off the table and dumped the cash out of the bags. Vicki's eyes got big. She had never seen that much money in real life before. Babyface-guy started to count quietly and stack each bundle of cash and wrote numbers down on a paper notepad. “Man, I'm hungry,” said the driver, turning on a grubby fan on another table. “We got nothing,” said Afro-guy looking into an empty open fridge in the back corner. Vicky reached into her pocket and pulled out the pack of bubble gum she never got to open and offered it to the driver. He looked at her for a moment. “I can't do that. Keep it. I'm gonna go get

The station wagon zigzagged its way through red lights and wrong ways down one way streets between the concrete, glass and steel canyon of Downtown LA. Vicki, used to her dad's crazy driving with his stick shift sports-car, frantically tried to put on her seatbelt but the men were sitting on them so she could not reach the belt or buckle. Left and right she was pushed into the warm squishy cushion of muscle and fat of the men beside her. They put their big heavy bags of money on her lap and held out an elbow to hold her down so she won't get thrown through the front windshield when the driver broke hard. She could see they were heading south as the big green and blue glass building of the convention center passed by on her right. Then the rusty redbrick buildings of USC appeared in front of them. They drove through the parking lot of the science museum and Olympic stadium to the right of the university before making it to the on ramp of the 110 freeway. “Ok, we're in the

Los Angeles, April 1992 Victory Lee was quietly sitting in the back seat of her mom's station wagon looking at run down Victorian styled houses, brick, and concrete storefronts passing by. Her mom pulled up to a post office parking lot in the Chinatown area. “Stay in the car, Vicki. I'll be out in a second. Lock the door!” said her mom as she grabbed a handful of stamped letters and a small brown paper wrapped package. The keys were left in the ignition and the windows down just enough so she doesn't roast her own daughter under the hot afternoon sun. “Ok!” piped the raven haired and raven eyed ten year old wearing sneakers, jeans, and white t-shirt with a rainbow on in. Vicki unbuckled her seatbelt and reached forward to the driver's seat. She pushed the button to lock the doors then turned nobs to switch the AM Chinese language music/talk station to an FM easy listening radio station. “Hello darkness my old friend... I've come to talk with you again,” sang through the