Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
ket. If so, notify the police and report back to me.” But Heinrich
knew it was unlikely that the generator would ever be found. Still, it
was best to follow proper procedures. He would simply charge the
Famous TV Star two hundred U.S. dollars for fire damage that could
be repaired for less than ten. With the remaining cash, he would buy
a new generator, perhaps a fuel generator this time, now that he had
a good black-market source for buying petrol without government
rationing coupons.
As with any problem, you simply had to be more creative.
T HERE IS A FAMOUS Chinese sentiment about finding the outer
edges of beauty. My father once recited it to me: “Go to the edge of
the lake and watch the mist rise.” At six-thirty, my friends had been
at that edge. At dawn, the mist rose like the lake’s breath, and the va­
porous mountains behind faded in layers of lighter and lighter gray,
mauve, and blue until the farthest reaches merged with the milky sky.
The motors of the longboats had been cut. All was quiet. The
mountains reflected in the lake waters caused my friends to reflect
upon their busy lives. What serenity had eluded them until now?
“I feel like the noise of the world has stopped,” whispered Mar­
lena. But then secretly she wondered what had happened to Harry.
Had he lain awake most of the night, as she had? She glanced at
Esmé, who still refused to look at her, despite the fact that Marlena
had offered to let her have forbidden things for breakfast, coffee
cake, doughnuts, a Coke. Throughout, Esmé had remained silent.
She was embarrassed by her mother and Harry. They looked so
stupid. They wrecked the little house. They nearly got themselves
killed. Everybody saw and was talking about it. She had done things
far less stupid than that, and her mother had been mad and wouldn’t
talk to her. “I just can’t deal with this,” she would tell Esmé, and
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