Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
Some of those animistic beliefs came from China more than a thou­
sand years ago, when sprites and demons headed south, as my friends
were doing now. The peripatetic Nats clung like burrs to the robes of
persecuted tribes and defeated armies taking a back road into Burma.
Were bad-tempered hitchhikers now riding on the tailpipe of the bus,
sitting on the bumper? Nats have always been tied to disaster. They
were the coincidence of accidents. And they grew with a never-
ending supply of tragedy and death. No religion would eject them,
not Buddhist or Baptist, not Methodist or Mormon.
Walter faced forward in the bus. While he appeared calm to his
charges, he was, in fact, troubled by what Bennie had told him in
their morning phone conversation. It is impossible that Miss Chen is
dead, Walter thought. I talked to her just yesterday. He tried to ra­
tionalize and recalculate how he had known ahead of time to change
the documents for an earlier entrance into Burma. Had her death
been gruesome? (It was.) Had she been angry that the tour continued
without her? (No, I was with them.)
Walter heard Bennie mumble. He had partially opened his eyes to
check his watch. “Mr. Bennie,” Walter said softly, and Bennie turned
to acknowledge him. “I beg your pardon, but could I trouble you to
tell me how Miss Bibi Chen died?”
Bennie bit his lips as the vision of my body sprang into his mind.
“Nobody really knows,” he said. “Some say that she was murdered.
She was found with her windpipe slashed. She either bled to death or
suffocated.”
“Oh, dear.” Walter’s heart raced. For certain, Miss Bibi was a dis­
turbed spirit.
“It was horrible, a total nightmare for all of us. We almost can­
celed the trip.”
“I see....Was Miss Bibi of any particular religion?”
“Religion? I don’t think so....To be honest, I don’t really know.
Isn’t that awful? I knew her really well, but religion wasn’t something
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