Strawberry Yellow Read Online Free Page A

best he could offer.
    Salgado walked over to the crumbling stairs of the Stem House, and Mas followed. The fog had burnt off a little, and the sunlight accentuated the decrepit state of the building. If the house could talk, it would be moaning in pain and moaning loud.
    “We could charge you with breaking and entering,” Salgado said, gesturing toward the pile of torn four-by-fours, the rusty nails bent but still in the wood.
    Salgado ducked to avoid a spider’s web hanging from the porch eaves and the two men looked inside the open doorway. From the foot of the stairs, Mas could see the edge of thestaircase banister, the end of it shaped like an eagle’s talon. How many times had he, Shug, and Oily slid down that banister? Shug’s parents never scolded them or told them not to. Boys will be boys must have been their motto, even though they were on the cusp of being young men. The Arais in Watsonville had taken Mas in without requiring anything from him. If they hadn’t vouched for him, there was no way he could have returned to his birthplace, America, so early in his life.
    “Were you with Billy the whole night?”
    Ah, the million-dollar question .
    “Mr. Arai, you may want to protect Billy, but he’s not protecting you. You could be an accessory to murder. If you’re innocent, I would speak up.”
    “Ah, Billy go home,” Mas said. That he spoke the half-truth shocked even himself. He knew, however, that once he dove into these waters, there was no going back.
    “Do you remember what time?”
    “ Sugu . Right away.”
    “So you saw Billy Arai leave the premises. Didn’t hang around outside.”
    Mas shook his head, using all his might to steady his shaking legs and arms.
    “So you are the one who drank all these beers?”
    There were at least three empty beer cans littering the hallway.
    Mas nodded. Maybe being drunk could be his excuse for telling lies to the police. Only he was quite sober at this particular time.
    “Well, we’ll confirm these details with Billy,” saidSalgado, scribbling Mas’s motel room number in his notebook. “The Forever Inn, right? Okay, you’re free to go, for now. But I wouldn’t leave town if I were you.”
    I won’t, Mas thought. At least not for the rest of the day.
    After going back to the motel and showering, Mas dressed in the only suit he had, his funeral suit. Arriving at the temple, he sat in his usual place, the back row. Lieutenant Robin Arai obviously didn’t have time to change out of her uniform and was already sitting in the second row. Mas couldn’t see if Billy was in the customary place of the grieving son in the front.
    Wreaths were everywhere. Mostly red and white, as if they all were celebrating the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. One covered in red roses in the front had a white sash with the name “Sugarberry” glittering in silver. Right beside it, as if it were in a competition, was a more unusual arrangement, almost Japanese-looking, with irises, pine branches, and bamboo leaves. That one had a large sign, “Everbears.”
    The lesser wreaths spilled out into the aisles. There was a sad pot of Easter lilies that was in danger of being squashed by passersby. On a stake in the pot was a three-by-five card with a logo for the University of California Agriculture Department.
    The only bad thing about sitting in the back was that sometimes you ended up in the front of the incense line. When it was time, Mas was directed by a mortuary worker in white gloves to line up in the center aisle. A thin hakujin man in a simple long-sleeved t-shirt stood in front of him. Mas thought that the man—or was he just a teenager?—might have wandered into the wrong funeral, but he obviouslyunderstood the drill.
    Bow, pinch the powdered incense and sprinkle it into another larger pot, and bow again. Bow in front of the golden altar. Then bow in front of Shug’s open casket and take a quick look. Finally, a bow toward the family.
    As he waited for his turn,