Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
than anyone else’s. (He had inherited this technique of estimates and
overruns from his father, who was a building contractor.) There were
always unavoidable, perfectly legitimate reasons for the overruns, of
course, and in the end he endeared himself to the clients, for they
were always ecstatic with the final product. He was, in fact, a very
talented designer. But by going away to China and Burma for three
weeks, he risked missing his deadlines—again.
On the other hand, the current project was for the Asian Art Mu­
seum, and Bennie believed that they, of all people, would under­
stand. He even convinced himself that I, dearly departed Bibi, was
sending him signs to lead the tour in my permanent absence. For in­
stance, he found a message in a fortune cookie: “Go where your
heart leads you.” A book on Burma popped into his hands when he
was in a bookstore. That same day, while purging his files, he hap­
pened upon an old invitation to a fund-raiser for the Asian, for
which I was listed as a patron and he as having provided a donation
in kind. I assure you, I was incapable of sending any such billets­
doux. And had I been, I would have been far less subtle. I would have
advised Bennie to stay home.
To his credit, Bennie did conscientiously study the itinerary I had
prepared. Before the departure date, he had called the various
tourism offices in China and Burma to confirm that all arrangements
were still locked in. He was so obsessed with making sure everything
was right that he ate cashews constantly to assuage his gnawing anx­
iety. He later switched to pistachios and sunflower seeds, since
shelling them required slowing down his consumption. Nevertheless,
he gained several pounds, which meant his goal to shed twenty be­
fore the trip had to be increased to “a little more.” Going to Burma
would aid in that direction, he believed. With the heat and all the
running around he would have to do, the fat would melt away like
glaciers transported to the Gobi.
As he eased into bed that first night in Lijiang, he was confident
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