Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
just experienced a religious ecstasy? Had they glimpsed the edge be­
fore death? Maybe you got the same effect when you’d gone without
eating or sleeping for days....They guessed at it until they lost it.
And yet, without their knowing, some change had already taken
fragile root. Some part of their souls had broken free.
T HAT NIGHT, the first of four miracles occurred. Or five, depend­
ing on how you look at it.
The first revealed itself when my friends were standing in front of
the television. “Our top story this morning,” said the anchor on
Global News Network, “a videotape has been found, belonging to
one of the eleven tourists missing in Myanmar, showing us exactly
what happened after they were last seen. Belinda Merkin is with us,
live in Bangkok. Belinda, can you tell us how this tape came into your
possession?”
Belinda was standing at the night market in Bangkok. “Ed, as you
know, we’ve been working underground in Burma, finding credible
leads and following them into the secret recesses of a country that
exists behind a veil of secrecy. And because Burma is ruled by a re­
pressive regime, we have to protect the identity of our sources. Let’s
just say a birdie dropped it from the sky and into our hands.” She
held up a bogus camcorder tape, the real contents having been
copied onto the disc and sent to GNN headquarters from Bangkok
via a high-speed digital link.
“Your life must have been in danger, too, wasn’t it, Belinda?”
“Well, Ed, let me just say, I’m glad to be in Bangkok, with Burma
behind me. But what’s more important now are the missing Ameri­
cans. And within this tape are important clues. It is a home video
shot by one of the missing, Roxanne Scarangello....”
“What!” Roxanne yelped. “That can’t be.”
“And now,” said the anchor, “we’re going to show you at home ex­
418