Carmen marched up to her brother, Harry, and said, “When’s it my turn?”

Maybe it was Carmen’s name that made her feisty, or maybe it was because she had an older brother who pushed her around. I had no training for the bullying I received outside of my home. I wondered again what kind of person I might be if my brother had survived.

“You’re too little,” Harry said, and shoved his sister to the ground. “Go away.”

“I’m not too little!” Carmen yelled. “I’m going to tell on you.”

“Go ahead. It’s not my game anyway. It’s Phillip’s.”

Carmen looked at Phillip, who just stared at her, annoyed. Carmen turned to Hilary. “Your brother is being mean. Why won’t he let us play?”

Hilary paused, stunned that this younger girl was bold enough to question her. “It’s for older kids,” she said. “We’re too young to play.”

“If it’s only for older kids, then why is Adam playing? He’s younger than us!” Carmen reasoned.

Hilary’s cheeks flushed. Over the few months we’d known each other, Hilary had sheltered me with her friendship. Once, May Donahue had demanded that I give her my Twinkie from my lunch box. I was about to hand it over when Hilary said that I was only interested in trading my entire lunch. My new friend was brave beyond words. May turned her nose up and ran away at the sight of my container full of chicken curry with rice and yu choy. I’d never seen May retreat like that before. From that day forward, Hilary imitated May’s face when she saw my curry. I laughed, but there were also tears in my eyes at the memory of the disgust I had seen on May’s face when she sniffed my food. That was the last time she asked for anything out of my lunch.

And so, I moved in front of Hilary and said, “Carmen, back off. If Phillip’s being a jerk, it doesn’t mean Hilary can do anything about it. Let’s play our own game.” I grabbed Hilary’s hand and we walked back to our corner.

Carmen stood there, dumbfounded. I had never spoken to her like that before. “Yeah!” she yelled right up in Harry’s face. “Let’s find a girls’ only game.”

Uncle Joe saw the discord brewing, so he rolled out a television on a cart and slipped Back to the Future into the VCR. This pacified Carmen, and all the girls gathered around, using her large stuffed animals as pillows. Dan Tang and the Woo brothers abandoned Phillip to watch the movie. Only Harry stayed loyal, probably to save face from his sister’s outcry. Phillip tried to seem unfazed, but we saw him angle his body so that he could see the screen. Bea leaned against me as I fought off sleep, the VCR quietly whirring in a corner of the restaurant.

The cigarette smoke hung around the ceiling, even though Uncle Joe had turned the fans on. The women had started smoking, too, and now the aunties and uncles were playing mah-jong together. Uncle Joe poured some beer for Auntie Miriam and she laughed loudly. Father was in the corner, smoking. He bent over to look at his watch and cleared his throat. Mother looked up from her mah-jong tiles and indicated that she was winning, so he had to be patient. Auntie Carrie flicked a tile with her middle finger to the centre of the table. Mother grabbed it before it stopped moving and placed it face down before her. She collapsed the remaining tiles in front of her and exclaimed, “Sik!” She had won.