Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
pression he was merely a bumbling drunkard, too soused to be of
any threat as they spoke of under-the-table deals when he was under
the table himself.
All this I heard. But I found it too incredible. If I knew of the story,
then wouldn’t the people he was supposedly spying on have caught
wind of it as well? He would have been ousted by the Myanmar gov­
ernment long before now. No, no, he could not possibly be a spy. Be­
sides, I had smelled the alcohol on his breath. How do you fake that?
I watched him drink the “bubbles” until he nearly burst of carbon­
ated blood. Then again, he had to be up to something to have man­
aged all these years to hang on to a job. Granted, his career had taken
him to the backwaters of Asia. For a hotel executive, this was clearly
a demotion.
Strangely enough, only Esmé detected early on that Heinrich was a
phony. The child was innocent yet astute beyond her years, as I had
been when I was her age. She saw how easily her mother was duped
into liking him. “Our Ravishing Beauty,” he called her. Harry became
“Our English Gentleman,” and a bit later, when someone informed
Heinrich that Harry had a popular television show on dogs, he dubbed
Harry “Our Famous TV Star,” which pleased him a great deal.
Heinrich, however, was not skilled at beguiling children. He
smiled too broadly and spoke as many adults do to infants. “Is your
tummy hungry?” Esmé watched him suspiciously and saw the pat­
tern: how he always had some excuse to touch the women lightly on
their arms, press a palm on the men’s backs, compliment each person
in private with, “You look like a seasoned traveler, different from the
others, a person who seeks more deeply when in another’s land. Am
I right?”
Esmé was carrying Pup-pup in a nylon sack. A light scarf was
draped over the top, and the puppy was content to curl up in this
improvised womb, that is, until she needed to relieve herself and
tried to climb out. Then she let forth a yelp. When Heinrich glanced
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