Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
They pointed to Harry, then to the two of them, and nodded. They
spoke magnanimously in Burmese about ensuring Harry’s safe re­
turn. The map was laid on the table near the money. They burst into
rapid discussion about a careful plan of action that resembled a mil­
itary deployment: “We take this route, you see, heading due south
from latitude...Hey, what’s our latitude?”
As Harry leaned forward to see, he saw the money palmed by the
man in charge. The discussions became more animated: “To judge
by the foreigner’s clothes, he’s probably staying at the best, the
Golden Land Guesthouse. In any case, we’ll do a recon on that and
investigate.”
As one man refolded the map, another offered Harry a cheroot to
smoke along the way, and although Harry did not smoke, he deemed
it unwise to refuse and thus compromise the level of camaraderie
achieved so far. Ten minutes later, a small white police car was blaz­
ing down the road with its light spinning, sending fear into the hearts
of all who heard its siren.
One of the fearful was the bus driver. He saw the police car ap­
proaching. It was white, white like the horse that the Nat rides on,
bad luck. What calamity had happened? Was it before him or behind
him? The police car flew by.
Twenty seconds later, Mr. Joe saw a flashing light in his rearview
mirror. Walter looked back. The police car was right on their tail,
like a butt-sniffing dog. Mr. Joe looked at Walter, and Walter, whose
heart was pounding in his neck, forced himself to act calm and told
him to pull over. As the bus eased to a stop, Walter gathered his com­
posure, swept his hand into his pocket, extricated his identity card
with the grace of one who had done it thousands of times, and then
stepped out. Mr. Joe opened his glove compartment and tossed in
three more cigarettes to the Nat shrine.
“Shitheads!” he heard Harry cry fondly as he leapt out of the
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