Read Online Shanghai Shadows by Lois Ruby - Free Book Online

heard anything?” because none of us could get word from the outside. It was like living on an island surrounded by shark-infested waters; no one could reach us except the sharks.
    While I was walking home from school with Tanya one day, my frustration twisted around to an unkind attack: “How can you stand to have those soldiers visit your mother?”
    â€œWe eat; others don’t.” She thrust out one meaty hip; I was all skin and bones. “You don’t mind when we bring you oranges on Fridays.”
    â€œI’ll never again take anything you buy with their money!”
    â€œStarve, if that makes you happy,” Tanya said. “Anyway, I saw your father going into the bank.”
    â€œYes, but when Father went to draw out what little money he’d saved, our account was frozen. We’ve got nothing but small dribs my mother stashed away for living expenses.”
    â€œSo? My mama and I, we have no one to bring home pay. Nobody can buy the dresses she used to sew.”
    â€œBut Japanese soldiers ? Honestly, Tanya.”
    In hot silence we passed a beautiful hotel, its awning fluttering in the wind. The invaders had taken over all the finest hotels and foreign clubs, along with every thriving company in Shanghai. “Foreigners are tossed out like yesterday’s rubbish,” Father had said bitterly.
    We’d reached our block, both of us mad, when Tanya pointed to the house across from us. “It’s gone. The Tiffany lamp. Mrs. Kazimierz must have sold it.” Suddenly Tanya burst into tears. “The only pretty thing in any of our windows, gone. Everything gone.”
    I put my arm around her and let her tears soak my blouse. “Let’s not fight anymore, okay?” I felt her nod her head, her nose pecking my bony shoulder.
    We were just getting used to all the new indignities when the Japanese began rationing cooking gas. Since our hot plate was electric, we were able to slip in one cooked meal a day without going over our electricity allotment. If we could find food.
    Gasoline disappeared—shipped to Japan—so hardly any buses or streetcars ran. We didn’t have carfare, anyway. That meant hearty business for rickshaw pullers and pedicab drivers, whose fuel was their feet. Sometimes three or four coolies pulled gigantic wagonloads like a team of horses. Even the richest foreigners who used to have chauffeurs were now trundling bicycles, so we had to watch Erich’s Peaches more closely. Of course, she still drank oil, and there wasn’t much of that, so Peaches had a very dry, rusty winter. Her grinding sounds made my teeth ache.
    Electricity rationing worsened. Mrs. Kazimierz wouldn’t have been able to turn on her Tiffany lamp even if it were still sitting in her front window. We were only allowed to light one room at a time—no problem for us, since we had only one room—but even that room was limited to a ten-watt bulb. You could hardly see your hand in front of your face, much less read. The wraithlike shadows in our apartment haunted me, awake and asleep. I saw them as Japanese soldiers looming over me; tree branches outside the window were their drawn bayonets. When lights of the occasional passing car slid across our walls, I imagined them as the headlights of a Japanese tank headed straight for our building. For my own protection I forced the hot-liquid fear in my belly to congeal into jagged-edged anger. How I wished that I had Erich’s courage to fight back, or that the underground would give me a chance.
    Tanya came pounding on our door. “Did you hear? They’re making all Americans and British and Dutch here register with the Japanese police. Not so, Ukrainians, I am happy to say.”
    â€œOr Austrians,” I added haughtily.
    Tanya held Moishe with his head over her shoulder like a human baby. I heard his cat-motor running. As usual, he refused to turn around and look at me. We were sworn