TIGER IN THE WOODS
By Arabella Uhry
Maybe you have heard
That all Chinese fairy tales are
Lovely and beautiful.
Here is one that isn’t.
Once upon a time in China,
Three thousand years ago,
There was a village on the edge of the woods.
Rich war lords controlled the whole village.
They were horrible to the villagers.
The war lords taxed the villagers
And beat them
And even killed them
When the villagers did not say and do
Exactly what the war lords demanded.
They made the villagers their slaves
Just because they could.
Things were very bad.
In a forest near the village
Lived a young tiger.
Everyday she watched the town.
The tiger watched and waited.
And waited and watched.
She saw the warlords being cruel to the villagers.
She saw people suffering
And she wanted to help them.
`````
But she was still too small to help the people of that village.
As time passed, the young tiger got older
And she got much, much bigger.
Soon she was an enormous tiger
With teeth as big as this.
The tiger waited in the woods by the village.
As the warlords became even more cruel and dangerous
To the villagers and their families.
One day, the tiger was fully grown.
She was so big and strong.
She crept out of the woods one dark China night
And crept softly into the town.
The tiger devoured the warlords as they slept
And freed the good people of that Chinese village.
I am Arabella.
I am also Mao Yue.
I was born
In Maoming, China
In the end of the Year of The Pig.
Maoming means “city by a forest.”
My birthparents abandoned me
When I was born.
The left me
In a place where they knew many people
Would soon arrive for work.
Maybe they hoped someone would find me.
Which they did.
I went live in an orphanage.
That sounds bad
But really it wasn’t too bad at all.
The director of the orphanage
And all of the caretakers who took care
Of many babies.
Were always kind and good to me.
They fed me and
Played with me
And even maybe loved me a little.
When I was a few months old,
My real mother came from New York City
To adopt me in China and
Love me a lot.
Forever.
The orphanage director only said two words
To my mother in English.
She said, “Special baby.”
She meant me.
My mother said
All babies in China are special.
And all babies all over the world are special.
And everyone is someone’s baby.
So everyone is special.
That is what I know.
I went to live in New York.
Which is where this story really begins.
And it is not about adoption
From China or anywhere else.
It is about a kind of friendship.
It is about my trying to be as kind
As they were to me in that orphanage.
This story is about a tiger waiting in the woods.
And about how every single person
Is someone’s special baby.
Seven years after I was adopted and went to New York,
It was the summertime.
I had already finished first grade.
I could read and do math
And I could play soccer.
Boy could I play soccer.
That summer I learned about a girl
Almost exactly my age
Who was also adopted from China.
From a small city that was actually near Maoming.
But she really wasn’t that much like me at all.
She loved art and I love science.
She loved drawing nature and flowers and gardens.
I love math and fencing and writing.
She loved the color purple.
I hate purple.
I love singing and the color green.
But in my heart that girl was
Maybe a lot like me.
Except she had a brain tumor
And she was very, very sick.
When I learned about her
I began to write to her.
Just little cards and notes and emails
To say I was thinking about her and that I hoped
She would get better.
I never knew her. I never met her.
I never even spoke to her on the phone.
And she was too sick to answer anything I ever sent.
I once made her a picture
Of her and me in a garden.
It was called “When You Get Well”.
I know garden probably wasn’t as beautiful
As one she could have painted or drawn.
But it was my wish from the garden in my heart.
It was the picture I had in my mind.
I never knew this girl.
But I did know her.
I must have known her
Because it hurt so much
When she was never really going to get well.
She died in the fall,
On the day after her 8th birthday
And a few months before mine.
I didn’t know her but I know
That I cared about her.
Because if I didn’t
Maybe it would not have hurt so much
To say goodbye.
I heard a voice in my head.
It said: this girl I never knew could not end there.
It called: “Arabella Uhry. Arabella, pay attention.”
That voice said this girl’s life
Meant so much more than her death.
I knew then that
I wanted to help other kids who are sick
In some way.
Even in a little, small, tiny way
Because I knew I could.
Back then
I wasn’t even in second grade yet.
So I thought I could go out and
Find the cure for cancer in kids.
I really thought that.
I was really wrong.
Seven year olds can’t cure cancer.
They will never be able to
No matter how hard they try.
No way. Not ever.
I had to think of another plan.
My mom and I also found out about a foundation
That offers all kinds of help to
Children with cancer and their families.
It was started by a mom whose daughter died
When she was five.
I learned all about the little girl.
I learned who she was and what she had loved
In her lifetime.
I even learned that she loved mint chocolate chip ice cream
Exactly like me.
Her name was Julia C. Levy.
I learned how much her mother wanted to find
A cure for cancer
And, just like me, she couldn’t.
I learned her what her mother could do
Was help kids with cancer until someone does find the cure.
And that I could do that too.
My plan was to try and be a friend
To kids with cancer and other
Serious sicknesses.
To be a buddy.
I wrote to them to say hi and I am thinking of you.
I sent little presents to cheer them up.
With my mom’s help I raised some money to send
One girl to summer camp
And help find a tutor for a little boy who had missed
A lot of school. I sent some new clothes to one little girl.
I sent the brother of a boy who died a scooter to ride
Just because he wanted one.
I sent one of my buddies named Bailee
100 Butterfingers candy bars on Halloween
Because she loved them
And was in the hospital and couldn’t go trick or treating.
They were all my buddies.
I became good friends with some of them
And some I never met and never knew.
Some got better and some didn’t.
I laughed with them.
I cried for their parents when they died.
I remember them all.
I know I love them all
Because of how hard it was to say goodbye to some of them.
And how happy I am that some of them recovered.
The thing is this
Kids can’t cure kids. No way.
But they are kids just like us.
They like Spongebob and Pokemon
They eat Spaghetti-o’s and read
The Lemony Snicket books.
And they have to have
A normal kid life
That has nothing to do with doctors and nurses and
Hospitals and treatments even when they are very sick.
Kids are just kids.
Every single one of them.
Oneday a big newspaper, came to my house
To interview me and take a picture
Because I was nominated for a big award
In New York.
It’s called The Liberty Medal.
The Liberty Medals were set up by the newspaper after
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
They are really ten awards that honor ten normal, ordinary New Yorkers who have done something special as volunteers during the year.
Nine adults and one kid.
The winners are decided by a group of judges
Who are all very famous for doing different things.
And I won. I was the kid.
I won for trying to help kids with cancer
And be their friend.
That was all I did.
That was all I wanted to do.
I didn’t do it for a medal.
I never even thought I would win a Liberty Medal.
And I never expected to
Or really even wanted to.
I didn’t even know what it was when I started
To reach out to other kids.
It was exciting and I got to be on television and
In the newspapers a lot.
And I went to mayor’s house to the awards ceremony
And I met the Mayor of New York and the Governor.
And I met many other people. Even Tony Danza.
I was even on Tony’s television show twice
And he even came to see me perform
In a concert at Lincoln Center and give a speech about me
A long time afterwards because he remembered
That I had invited him.
Because he remembered what I was trying to do
For sick kids.
It exciting.
But I promise this is true
I would take my Liberty Medal and throw it
Into the Hudson River to the fishes and the crabs
If I thought doing that would cure kids
Of cancer.
Even only one kid would be fine.
Maybe oneday I will
be part of that cure.
I hope so every single day.
I am Arabella.
Born in Maoming, China
A city by a forest
In the end of
The Year of The Pig.
Everyone is someone’s baby.
And everyone is special.
I am Mao Yue.
And I am the tiger waiting
In the woods.