Read Online Year of the Dog by Henry Chang - Free Book Online

the steamy storefront window, he could see Billy near the back, animated, making faces, and gesturing with his hands.
    Jack stepped into the humid shop and listened as Billy ranted on about the latest atrocities. “The health department, wealth department is what they should call it, comes down with a new regulation every fuckin’ month. Just so they can shake down more money from Chinamen.”
    Preaching to the kitchen help, thought Jack.
    “Ew ke ma ga hei, motherfucker,” Billy cursed in his best Toishanese, the original tongue of the first immigrants to Chinatown. “Thousands of dollars in fines.”
    Jack picked up what he needed, went toward Billy who continued to vent in the general direction of the slop boys in the back. They frowned and nodded their heads at everything he said.
    Feigning surprise, Billy turned to Jack and laughed, “Oh shit, it’s Hawaii Five-0! Green cards out, everybody! Book ’em, Jack-O.”
    Jack was happy to see Billy grinning, a momentary departure from the edgy-depressive that Billy normally was.
    “Wassup, man? You look like you got some man tan there.” Billy took a breath, shook his head sadly as Jack plopped onto the counter the three plastic containers of bok tong go he’d taken from the refrigerator case .
    “What’s up with the crowd outside Sam Kee’s?” Jack asked.
    Billy chortled. “They’re waiting for the free for ngaap duck. The inspectors said it’s now illegal to hang ducks and chickens in the window, without temperature controls. Gave old man Kee a two-hundred-dollar fine, and a citation.”
    Jack was shaking his head, looking for So what?
    “ So the old man catches a fit, threatens to throw the ducks into the street. All the old folks are hoping to catch a freebie.”
    “It’s not going to happen,” Jack grimaced.
    “I don’t think so, either.”
    “All he’d be doing is inviting a Sanitation rap.”
    “Jack, yo, ducks and chickens been hanging in Chinatown windows a hundred years. All of a sudden it’s a health issue?”
    “Hundred Year’s Duck. Isn’t that the house special at Wally’s?”
    “It’s all bullshit,” Billy continued, “When was the last time we had an epidemic down here? Eighteen-ninety-three or something?”
    Through the frosted street window Jack saw the green car with the sanitation sergeant seated inside, idling at the corner of Bayard.
    “The city’s just trying to pump bucks by pickpocketing the Chinamen, brother. Kee junior called it the Fuck the Duck Law. The Choke the Chicken Law.”
    Jack chuckled, knowing that the more things changed in Chinatown, the more they remained the same. Been going on a hundred years. Old Man Kee had probably been too slow with the payoff, or the department had sent an overzealous , perhaps racist inspector looking to advance. The Chinatown lawyers found ways to work around municipal regulations all the time. Administrations changed. This, too, would pass.
    “Everybody’s talking,” Billy said quietly, “about the Ping woman. The Fukienese one who got killed?”
    Jack nodded, the cause of the demonstration at One Police Plaza.
    “Three hoodie-wearing punkass, hip-hop motherfucker wannabe thug gangsters.” Billy’s eyes steeled over. “And I lost half the backroom boys yesterday ’cause they went to the protest at police headquarters.”
    “It ain’t easy,” Jack said.
    “Fuckin’ A that. The Fukienese Association wants the punks to hang. They hired white lawyers even. Sorta like a legal lynching.”
    Jack checked his watch, thinking how long-winded Billy could get.
    “But crime never takes a holiday, huh,” Billy joked. “So what else you need, kid? Some fun or some skin ?” Both were references to tofu products, but sounded perverted with drug and sexual innuendo.
    The two of them broke out in laughter at this inside joke that arose from the many sweaty hours they spent in the cook room, boiling the beans.
    Billy loosed a long sigh, adding, “You remember Jeff Lee? Got a