Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
to see this ceremony, and I found it quite moving, rather like the emo­
tions I had when I watched a bris.
For poorer families, this was the only way in which their sons
could receive an education. The well-to-do families collected their
sons after two weeks, but the poorer boys stayed on longer, if they
could. Through the monasteries, the boys learned to read the Pali
scriptures, reciting them en masse under the watchful eyes of their
elders, those who had chosen to remain in the monastery as ordained
monks and abbots. And thus, they became both literate and devout,
schooled in the piety of poverty. Being devout, as far as I could see,
didn’t rid the young monks of their love of mischief.
Wendy did not know any of this about the acolyte monks. She had
not read the materials I had suggested in a reading list. “It’s incredible
that these poor kids are forced to become monks,” she said to Wyatt.
“I mean, what if they decide they want to have a sex life one day?”
“Check out those smiles,” Wyatt said. He showed her the back of
his digital camera. The monk boys crowded around to see as well.
They pointed and hooted at their images.
Wyatt had not answered her question, she noticed. He did that a
lot lately, giving non sequiturs in lieu of answers. Was he falling out
of love? Or had he never been in love? Lately, what she felt when she
was around him were twinges, pangs, aches, cracks, rips, and sudden
hollows. His every response, or lack of one, hurt her. Maybe she was
feeling this way just because she was hot, sticky, and cranky. She had
left her sunscreen on the bus, and her freckled arms were growing
pink. The sun burned hotter in this part of the world, and she wor­
ried what her face would look like in the half-hour before they could
return to the bus. Her freckles would be the size of clown polka dots.
What would Wyatt think of her when her face was sherbet pink and
her nose was peeling like a bulb of garlic? He didn’t have that prob­
lem. He may have been fair-headed, but his skin turned a delicious
toasty brown from his frequent outdoor adventures. God, why did he
158