Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
rough, clawlike hands and pressed the money into them. The old
woman looked at the wad, appeared shocked and insulted, pushed it
back into Roxanne’s hands, and kept a palm upraised as if fending
off a demon. They had expected she would. Marlena had already ad­
vised that the Chinese had to dramatically refuse three times, and
maybe they had a similar custom here. On the fourth offer, after
Black Spot muttered to the grandmother to take the money, she
snapped at him, saying the money was useless out here, and if any­
one was caught with it by SLORC soldiers, it would buy nothing but
a grave. Black Spot told her to take it and hand it to Grease, who
would put it in Roxanne’s satchel when the Americans were not
looking. So the old woman smiled at my friends, bowed and bowed,
kissed the money and held it toward heaven for the Great God to see.
She shrieked thanks as if deliriously grateful.
Warmed that they had done the right thing, my friends picked up
their packs and turned to leave. “We better head back,” Moff said to
Black Spot. Several members of his tribe cried to him, “Why does the
Younger White Brother want to leave us?” Black Spot quietly told
them not to make too much noise about this. It takes time for a Rein­
carnated One to recognize who he is, even if he has shown the three
signs. It was true for other holy people, true even for Loot and
Bootie. But once a Reincarnated One knows who he is, he will slowly
regain his senses and his powers, and fulfill the promises he made.
The tribe was soothed to hear mention of this. They all knew the
promise of the Younger White Brother. He would make them invisi­
ble, with bodies that no bullets could pierce. They would take back
their lands. They would live in peace, and no one would ever try to
harm them again, because if they did, the Younger White Brother
would unleash on them all the Nats.
Black Spot and his cohorts discussed how to handle this latest sit­
uation. They had been lucky in getting the boy and his followers
here. Perhaps they needed a little bad luck to keep them. They had
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