Read Online Triplines (9781936364107) by Leonard Chang - Free Book Online Page B

care of you children. I need your help. You and Mira have to do more chores.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œAnd you have to pray for me.”
    Lenny doesn’t know how to respond to this. He has never really prayed. Even when he was supposed to be praying at church he ended up looking around to see what everyone was doing. Although he understands the concept of God and prayer, he never really believed God could hear him.
    His mother drives into the parking lot, and Lenny sees some of the other kids heading up to the children’s service. He doesn’t tell his mother about his plan to skip both the service and the Korean language lessons. He’s here only for the tae kwon do.
    They walk into the church, his mother patting his head and heading up to the main service while Lenny slows his pace, watching her, and then turns around as soon as she disappears into the chapel. He walks past other kids and their parents, and out to the small building by the cemetery.
    There’s no one inside, so he takes off his shoes and socks, and begins stretching out. He hears the music from the church carrying across the cemetery, and looks out the window. The voices of the choir swell and echo. The early afternoon sun lights up the tombstones—glistening black marble and polished white granite glaring back at him. He hears the congregation joining in, and the music fills the graveyard. Only then does Lenny fully absorb the fact that his mother might be sick.
    The tae kwon do teacher singles him out again for his bad form, and humiliates him by making him stand in front of the entire class and practice a side kick a dozen times over. By the time the lesson is almost finished, Lenny’s shirt is soaking in sweat, his thighs burning in his jeans, and he can sense all the other kids watching everything he does, waiting for him to mess up again.
    The teacher has them do warm-down stretches, and finally, when they finish, Lenny runs out of the building and waits by the car. He knows his mother is having lunch with the rest of the congregation, but he doesn’t want to go anywhere near the church. He promises himself that he will never ever come back here again.
    He watches the other tae kwon do students file through the cemetery and back into the church, where they join their parents. Lenny sits on his car’s front bumper, his damp T-shirt now cold. When his mother appears, looking for him, she sees his expression and asks what’s wrong.
    â€œI want to go home now.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œI want to go home.”
    She studies him. “Did you get into a fight?”
    â€œNo. I just want to go home now.”
    â€œWhat about some lunch—”
    â€œI want to go home!”
    She sighs and touches his cheek. She says, “Do you know how important you are to me?”
    Lenny looks up at her pale face, her forehead shiny. She gives him a sad smile. He says, “I don’t like it here.”
    â€œAll right, Lenny. Let’s go home. Do you want to see amovie?”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œJust us two.”
    She lets him into the car, and as they drive away he sees some of the other kids walking out into the parking lot eating sweet rice cakes, talking and joking with each other.
    That afternoon Lenny torments his sniffling and coughing sister with the news that he saw
Meatballs
, and that she missed a great movie. Mira complains to their mother that it isn’t fair, and his mother, annoyed, says that Lenny has to take Mira to
The Muppet Movie
when she feels better.
    â€œBut that’s a little kid’s movie!” Lenny says.
    Mira gives him a satisfied “Ha!” and returns to bed.
    Their father isn’t home, and their mother lies down on the living room sofa and naps. Lenny gets on his bicycle and rides around the neighborhood, heading for the woods near the edge of town.
    Cedar Swamp is a small creek fed by run-off and has streams that lead toward the