Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
All at once, the people in front of him fell to the ground and pros­
trated themselves.
“For God’s sake,” Moff said to his son. “They’re begging you. It’s
a Christmas present. Just be polite and take it.”
“You take it,” said Rupert, and as Moff started to reach for the
cloth, Bootie cried out, “No, no, he teks.” She walked up to Rupert.
Moff whispered fiercely through clenched teeth that Rupert should
simply accept the damn dress and be done with it. And once Rupert
took the unwanted gift, the people rose to their feet, and the twins
sidled up to him.
Loot tapped the hand holding the cards and pantomimed a fanned
deck.
Rupert grinned. “Man, everyone in Burma likes to see card
tricks.” He happily shuffled the deck, drawing the cards up with one
hand and letting them slide into place. He held the deck in front of
Loot. “All right, pick a card, any card.” And the twin divinities were
delighted to hear this start of the ritual, the identical words that had
been uttered more than a hundred years before by their founding fa­
ther, the con artist Seraphineas Andrews. In short order, the twins
shrieked joyfully as their sign appeared, the Lord of Clubs, the
avenger of all evil.
Three other children aligned themselves near the center of the
camp and began to sing a cappella. The tune sounded almost like a
church hymn, but much sadder, Vera thought, and it had that Asian
tonality, as if the harmonic thirds had shifted to fifths. She and the
other Americans stood quietly, appreciating the heartfelt perfor­
mance. With the second refrain, two men joined in, one beating a
bronze drum decorated with detailed frogs, the other blowing a buf­
falo horn. My friends gave Black Spot the thumbs-up. “What tribe
are you again?” Bennie asked him. “I want to tell my people in Amer­
ica that we visited you.”
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