Aaron spent the night on Jiro's bed. Jiro claimed the floor, since Aaron was the guest. Aaron guessed he should have argued, he didn't, because Jiro was already sound asleep.

Aaron didn't have a lot of sleep, even though he was tired. Aaron's mind kept thinking about the contract, his dad, and his mom, too. At last he slept, when the rooster called, only to be waken a few minutes later.

“Rise and shine, chores to do!” Jiro's mom yelled.

“Ugh, mom, don't wake up our guest,” Jiro grunted through his sleep, “and don't wake me up while you're at it.”

“You always neglect your chores! The guest has decided to work for us, too, so he should follow the daily routine, then you can do whatever you want!”

Aaron opened his eyes. This chattering he was not used to. Aaron was used to the maids silently entering his room and leaving him be until midday.
 

Aaron decided to get out of Jiro's bed. They were already nice enough, he should contribute. Aaron found out he could contribute little.

“No, no, no! It will burn down the house in a second!” Jiro's mom would yell.

“Ah, no, the cows would be mad!” Jiro would proclaimed.

“Keep the cat out of the washer!” Jiro's mom would warn, “The dog likes to be in it, but he would fracture a few bones.”

After three hours of non-stop working, and failure, Jiro's mom dismissed both of them.

They exited out the back door and headed for the lake. The lake was beautiful at this hour, at any hour, and Jiro sat down on a haystack. Aaron reluctantly sat on the floor. It was a bit moist.

Jiro put his arms into the air and said, “Freedom at last! Good thing you kept on messing up, or we would have had to work more.”

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mess up so many times.”

“It's fine, you'll get the hang of it once you do it a couple times. I remember the first time I milked a cow, I ended up under its feet.”

Aaron laughed, “How?”

“Uh, I tripped and fell on the floor. I think the cow was mad, because it stepped on me.”

Aaron laughed again. He hadn't laughed in a long time, not so freely.

“By the way, I knew you couldn't tell mom the reason you REALLY were here, can you tell me?”

“I was telling the truth.”

“No, really,”

“Uh, to attend high school.”

“Boring! Oh, whatever. You can tell me when you feel like it. There's this girl I've liked a long time, but she doesn't glance at me!”

“Oh, kinda like a crush?”

“Uh, no! She's ... just beautiful,” Jiro paused, as if he was thinking of the girl, “Oh, by the way! School starts the day after! We need to get you stuff! Wait, I need to get stuff, too! Let's go ask ma later.”

“Uh, should I just call your mom Mrs. Wang, Wang ma ma, or... Lady Wang?”

“Haha, you're funny,” Jiro slapped Aaron on the back, “Just call her whatever, sometimes I call her lao ma (old mom), she hates that.”

Jiro plucked a blade of grass and began to whistle. Aaron was amazed, how could a little strand make such a noise?

“How do you do that?” Aaron asked out of curiosity.

“Magic,”

“Wow, really?”

“No, I've been practising to show her,”

“Your mom!?”

“No! The girl I mentioned earlier. Really, where are you from? Oh yeah, China. Someone would think you came from Mars.”

“Mars might have life on it.”

“Okay, stop showing off. I at school. Maybe you could be my tutor!” Jiro smiled, “I'm now going into grade ten! Our school is going to be huge, I'm going to try out for soccer, and then I'm going to ask that girl out. You can meet her, but I call dibs. Just in case you meet her, her name is Hebe.”

Aaron looked at Jiro, Jiro was all muscular, and outgoing, he didn't seem the type to crush on a girl. Aaron was also wishing he was back at China, he used to like a girl, Gui Gui, there. But she had probably dropped out of school and went into modelling.

Aaron looked around him. Jiro's house was in the middle of nowhere. Where would his school be?

“Where is your school?”

“In the city, of course. We would have to drive there, there is no bus that comes here.” Jiro whistled again.

A dog ran out of the house and jumped on Jiro. Jiro pet it and continued, “Also, it would take about an hour to drive to school, so you probably need to wake up earlier than today. On school days we still have to do chores. I can't believe that! Oh! I also have to show you to my best friend, Wu Chun! He's been my friend since I first scored my fist goal! Which was a long time ago,”

Aaron listened to Jiro droning on and on. He found out that Jiro had had a crush on his third grade teacher and he hated academics. He liked to play basketball with Wu Chun, and he was the fastest runner in his grade last year. He had never been anywhere out of the country, and had never been on a plane.

Jiro finally quieted down when he fell asleep. Aaron couldn't believe it, he'd spent four hours sitting on the ground. What was there to do in Canada? Was Canada a totally backwards society that didn't have tv or Internet?