Name or Word Who or What Pronunciation Vũ Thọ's older brother voo xe lam a three-wheeled vehicle sair lam A note on usage Vietnamese kids use mother and father and are always consistent in that form This is why words like mom and dad aren't used in this book Similarly Vietnamese say America not the United States The word anh is a respectful way of addressing someone It technically means brother
Hồ Chí Minh City formerly Sài Gòn CHAPTER 1 April 1980 Mine's going to bite the leg off yours Thọ Lâm smiles devilishly rubbing his hands with glee That's what you said before the last fight I laugh not at all fazed by the threat And remember how it turned out Lâm rolls his eyes The last fight had not gone his way I add I believe I've won the last four fights No the last five fights That'll make this one number six If you win interrupts Lâm When I win Okay Thọ let's get started We are sitting in the doorway of my house We've each chosen a cricket for the duel Lâm who lives next door has brought his insect in a matchbox which he carefully holds in the palms of his hands His black cricket chirps and nibbles on a piece of banana Lâm has given him unaware that he's about to go into battle All the boys we know like cricket fighting But Lâm takes
it more seriously than most Although he spends more time training his crickets than I do they rarely win That's why he doesn't have nearly as many as I have I use a cardboard box to make a housing complex for my crickets I separate the insects in walled cardboard compartments with a screen covering the top of the box so they can get air but won't escape I feed them pieces of banana lettuce and grass and train them to act aggressively by taunting them with a dead cricket's head mounted on the end of a toothpick Lâm and I have always lived next door to each other We're both eleven years old and have been best friends for as long as I can remember We're opposites and that's why we get along so well I'm the shortest in the class and he's the tallest Lâm is a jokester who doesn't pay attention in school The only things he's serious about are cricket fighting which he never wins and soccer which he's amazing at I am quieter and do well in school and some of the things my mother wishes that I didn't do well in like cricket fighting Each day after school we either play soccer or fight crickets Lâm doesn't usually complain when his crickets lose to mine and I never grumble when he scores on me in soccer With cricket fighting the rules never change The winner gains the loser's cricket And if the losing cricket dies in battle as sometimes happens the loser gives the winner another of his crickets Resting between Lâm and me sits a small box in which the war will take place
I examine my crickets and select my prized fighter from my collection and put him in the small box Then Lâm carefully takes his cricket out of his matchbox While he takes his time placing it in the box next to mine I pluck a hair out of my head that I plan to dangle in front of the insects tickling them in an attempt to aggravate them and make them want to fight Instead of using the hair to provoke the crickets I reach over and tickle Lâm's cheek This startles him and he drops his cricket into the box Hey But he doesn't have time to get mad as the two crickets puff their wings and chirp frantically Then Lâm's hops toward mine and bites him Mine bites right back harder and more vicious Bite Bite Chirp Chirp The insects lock their bodies in a feisty embrace Suddenly thirty seconds into the fight Lâm's cricket flees from my champion and seeks protection in a corner of the box My cricket flutters his wings and chirps a victorious cry Yes I punch my fists into the air What did I tell you That's six in a row I quickly retrieve the crickets placing them one at a time in separate stalls in my cardboard complex rewarding each of them with a piece of lettuce You cheated Lâm whines My cricket wasn't ready when I dropped him into the box Lâm looks disappointed as he picks up his empty matchbox I'm running out of crickets I'm going to have to buy some more at this rate I'm running out of room in my cardboard box I'm going to have to make another box at this rate I tease Lâm gives me a friendly slug I'd better head home Thọ
