Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
off-limits temple, they shouted at them to get out. Hearing these un­
intelligible threats, Dwight and Roxanne picked up sticks and swung
wildly, thinking the men were rogue thieves. Heidi screamed, certain
she was about to be abducted and sold as a sex slave.
The old man at the tollbooth turned out to be the Bai chieftain.
He shouted at Miss Rong and demanded a huge fine for all these un­
speakable crimes. When he realized she didn’t understand a whit of
what he was saying, he switched to Mandarin and ranted at her un­
til she began to cry, letting everyone see she had completely lost face.
In the end, he said, each of the “American hooligans” had to pay “a
severe price—one hundred renminbi, yes, you heard me right, one
hundred!”
What a relief, Bennie thought, when Miss Rong told him. That
was cheaper than a San Francisco parking ticket. Everyone was glad
to fork over the money and be on the way. When the pile was handed
over, the chieftain gesticulated and yelled again at Miss Rong. He
held up the money and slapped it, pointed to the back of the bus, at
the puzzled faces turned around looking at him, and slapped the
money again. With each slap, Miss Rong jerked but kept her mouth
pressed closed, her eyes tilted down. “Jeesh,” Wendy said.
When Miss Rong finally got on the bus, her glasses looked steamed.
She sat in the front seat, visibly trembling. She did not count heads
or speak into the microphone to explain what they would be do­
ing next.
On the bus ride back to the hotel, most of my friends were quiet,
the only sound that of fingernails scratching skin. They had stopped
at a roadside spot for the customary bathroom break, and a cloud of
mosquitoes had descended on them, as if it were the Bai army chas­
ing them away. Heidi passed out hydrocortisone cream. It was too
late for the DEET.
Bennie was exhausted. His shoulders sagged. Was this an omen of
things to come? Did they think it was all his fault for picking the tour
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