Chapter One - Richard Lewis

Chapter 20
Rumors flew that the Governor would be attending the palace's tooth filing
ceremony, and fancy BMWs and Mercedes lined streets bumper to bumper without a
space for Nol's pedestrian Toyota. He had to park by the market, and with his family
trailing behind him, gingerly stepped around piles of rotting garbage.
The elaborate palm leaf ornaments decorating the palace's outer courtyard and
gate must have cost a small fortune. Gede Raka and his wife greeted the arriving guests.
A high-caste family entered before Nol and his family, and were fussed over with
exquisite courtesy. When it came to Nol's turn, there was not the slightest lessening of
manners, either on Raka's or Nol's part. This was, after all, a public and formal occasion,
when one put on the politest of faces.
But as Suti was being greeted, Raka's gaze slid over her shoulder at Nol's mother
Arini, and for a moment his expression was one of undisguised contempt and loathing.
The intensity shocked Nol but before he could react, Raka's face closed over and he
greeted Arini with the same gilded graciousness.
A few steps beyond, Raka's younger brother directed the guests this way and that,
that way for the common village folk and this way for important personages. Closest to
the garden pavilion where the priest would conduct the ceremony was a row of velvet
arm chairs shaded by an awning, the place of honor for the governor and his party.
In the back corner, under a temporary thatch shade for the village farmers, Uncle
Dharma sat sideways on a plastic chair, one bare foot propped on his knee and rudely
exposed. Normally he would have been there on the other side of the courtyard with the
legislator and the police commander and the several foreigners in Balinese dress,
including Tina, regaling all with a story, but there he was, alone and silent and glowering.
"What are you doing here?" Nol said.
"It's an insult," his uncle snapped, "that's what it is."
Tina caught Nol's glance and came over to say hello.
"Do you anthropologists still study the tooth filing ceremony?" Dharma said.
"Surely you have learned all there is to learn about it?"
"I'm here with acquaintances who've never been to one," Tina said. "See that
worried-looking fellow with his sarong wrapped like a woman? I had to explain to him
that the teeth aren't filed to points. It's just a few rasps of the file along the incisors to
make them less sharp. It symbolizes the person's maturity over base animal desires, I said
to him, but he still looks uneasy, doesn't he?"
A ripple of excitement spread from the gate, and word flashed that the Governor's
limo had pulled up, but the fellow through the doors was his secretary, who conveyed
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