Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
His friends are watching a man pour a gooey mixture onto an ar­
tisan’s screened frame. Harry realizes this must have been the paper­
maker’s place. All the things that these witnesses had reported were
true! So what happened after? Harry can barely breathe. Cut.
And here it is: A flash of green, a patch of sky, and bodies jostling
about with shouts and groans. An engine grinds into gear, and
someone—it sounds like Moff—yells: “Hang on!” The world is
heaving from side to side, and Dwight lurches into view and then
out. Roxanne shouts in a sarcastic voice: “As you can see, we’re on
this ultra-deluxe bus, making our way to a Christmas surprise in the
rainforest. . . .” “This better be good!” Wendy’s voice is heard to yell
back. Cut.
All is quiet, save for a bird calling and the creaking bend and snap
of young ferns being stepped upon. The camera eye looks ahead and
sees the travelers’ backs trudging upward in single file. A man is com­
plaining: Bennie. A woman is, too: Vera. Cut.
Some are sitting on a log, others leaning against it. The camera eye
closes in on an oil-coated paper umbrella, and when Roxanne calls,
“Hey, you,” it tips back, and underneath is Esmé, snuggling the white
puppy. She wrinkles her nose at the camera. Cut.
What’s this? A river? A gully? Definitely some sort of deep chasm,
but even though the eye drops down and down and down, the bot­
tom can’t be seen. It looks sickeningly deep. Cut.
Long ropes run over the perilous rift—oh, it’s a suspended bridge.
“Hell, no,” Bennie says off camera. A hiss of words follow: “Safe?”
“Scared.” “Shit!” Are his friends actually going to cross it? Good
God, there goes Moff! Now Rupert! Heidi! And Marlena—she
makes it, too—good girl! There goes Esmé, Dwight, Vera, Wyatt,
Wendy, Bennie...Roxanne calls for Dwight to take the camcorder
from Black Spot, and the camera blurs and then is on fixed on her,
and she, too, crosses with a wobble and a shout. Cheers and laugh­
ter. Cut.
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