Something bad is going on in Hong Kong, where our granny lives.  Bad things are happening here too.  Someone came into our house when we were sleeping and took the silverware.  They dropped a knife near the door.

We don’t have our house anymore.   We are in Avo’s house.

She is our mom’s mother.   When we say the Big House we mean her house.  Avo has her own amahs, but Ah Seem comes with me.

Everyone eats at the long table in the dining room, except me.  I have to wait another year, when I am five, even though I sat at the dining table in our own house.  I don’t mind eating at my own table because my nanny Ah Seem is with me.

My dad does not like it here.  In our house even our mom spoke only English.  Here she speaks Portuguese with everyone except us.  There are many uncles and aunties and cousins.  We didn’t even bring the piano.

We leave Avo’s house.  We are in a new house.  Ah Seem says, look, your sister’s school is just over there, on the other side of the park.  Soon you will be going there too.

Our building is new and round.   We have an apartment upstairs.  It is shaped like a piece of pie.  Ah Seem thinks it is very clever because all our rooms are lined up on the edge of the pie, and they all have views of the park.  My sister and I have a room, then my brother has his own room, then there is a verandah outside the living and dining rooms, then our parents have their bedroom, then Uncle Pedro has his bedroom.

Uncle Pedro is not our real uncle.  He owns ships.  He was stranded in Hong Kong when they commandeered his ship, and he became a refugee.

I play with my new friend downstairs.  She has many boxes of shiny beads and balls of many colors.  Her father has a factory that makes them.  When we get tired of stringing them and tossing them around, I draw a house that is just like our house that we had to leave.  My friend likes my picture so much that I give it to her.  I think they had an old house like ours.