Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
for his being American as well. All right, then, forget mentioning the
British birthplace. He was sweating though the air was cool. What
had he read about the military police? There were stories about
people who protested against the government and were then made to
disappear. What did they do to foreigners who crossed them? What
were those human rights groups always making a noise about?
The younger, taller policeman grabbed the passport from Harry
and looked at the blue front with gold letters, then inspected the
photo. Then both policemen eyed Harry critically. The photo had
been taken seven years before, when his hair was still dark and his
jowl line more taut. The shorter policeman shook his head and
grunted what sounded to Harry like a pronouncement that they
should kill the foreigner and be done with it. Actually, he was curs­
ing his colleague for leaving the liquor bottle in the pitch-black field.
The younger policeman flipped though the pages, examining the var­
ious entry and exit stamps, to England, to the United States, to
France with a new fling, to Bali with another, to Canada to ski at
Whistler, to Bermuda to give a talk to a wealthy dog-fanciers’ club,
to England again, which was when his mum, a difficult woman who
had hated every woman he had ever dated, was diagnosed with can­
cer. She refused all treatment, saying she wanted to go with dignity.
After that, he made a trip to Australia and New Zealand for his dog­
gie seminars. Then it was England, England, guilt-laden England,
the last not for his mother’s funeral but for her birthday, celebrated
with the knowledge that there was no more evidence of the cancer. It
was a bloody miracle. In fact, it was never cancer but only swollen
lymph nodes, and she had just assumed it was the worst possible
thing, because that was the kind of luck she had always had, she
said. Harry had prepared himself for her death so well that he even
made promises of all kinds to her, knowing he would never have to
keep them. Now she was calling in the chips, reminding him that he
had said he had always wanted to take her on a safari in Africa and
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