Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
For once, Harry did not need to use a loo. But he, too, left the bus,
to clear his head. He and Marlena were suddenly at odds with each
other, and he could not fathom why. In his mind, he had simply tried
to show a bit of affection—this was in the way of rubbing her
rump—and she had recoiled, as if he had been trying to sodomize
her in front of her dozing daughter. She shot him a look, a castrating
look. His ex-wife used to aim such a look at him frequently toward
the end of their marriage, and he was an expert at interpreting it. It
meant: “Not if you were the last sperm bank on earth.” Yet the night
before, Marlena had been as passionate as he had been, he was cer­
tain of it. There was absolutely no reluctance there. She had recipro­
cated on the sidewalk of Ruili, providing fully fifty percent of their
physics of frottage. Why this sudden turnabout?
The look Marlena gave him was actually one of mortifying dis­
tress. She, along with several others on the bus, was starting to feel
the cramping effects of dysentery as it prepared to make its inex­
orable descent. How could she tell him, especially in front of Esmé,
the reason that their ardor needed to be put on hold? Even if Esmé
were not there, of all things to put a damper on romance, not this.
Dear God, the agony, the inconvenience.
Rupert, Moff, and Bennie hurried off with feeble flashlights in
search of a spot where they might have solid footing. Here, I averted
my eyes. I would like to point out, however, the highly unfortunate
coincidence that what an American takes to be an ideal outdoor
toilet is what some Nats—perhaps the one who died of intestinal
malaise—consider to be home sweet holy home, in this case, a small
grove of jacaranda trees, still leafy in winter but missing their mag­
nificent mane of lilac-colored blossoms. Cross-culturally, mistakes
were made, unintentional to be sure, and nothing would have come
of it had Rupert not yelled out: “Daa-ad! Dad! Do you have toilet pa­
per?” He cursed, pulled out the paperback from his jacket pocket,
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