Chapter One - Richard Lewis

Chapter 21
An hour after sunrise, Tina strolled down the beach to the boardwalk café where
Wayan Dharma had told her to wait. He'd phone her last night, after the toothfiling
ceremony. "I hear you are interested in 1965 and Gestapu," he said. "I have something to
tell you, if you care to join me on a trip to Temple Ped on Penida Island."
After ordering a coffee from the café's matron, Tina sat a wooden table, placed in
the sand under a scrub tree. She wore sunglasses and a first layer of sunscreen against the
brightening sun. Across the lagoon, waves plunged on the reef and rushed into the lagoon
to dissipate as ripples lapping the sand. Four elderly men bobbed in the shallow water,
chatting and joking. One she recognized as Anak Agung Mantera.
Nol's son Putu sauntered down the lane, a surfboard under one arm and his
girlfriend Zoe on his other. Tina hardly knew the girl, but in her classes had become
familiar with her tribe, sunny Southern Californian and smarter than hell.
Zoe gave Tina a friendly wave, but Putu dismissed her with a snide glance.
Tina set about to eavesdropping.
Putu to Zoe: "Want a coffee?"
Zoe, plopping down on a beach recliner: "Why do you always ask me that when
you know I don't drink coffee?"
"Whatever." He stripped down to his board shorts and began waxing his
surfboard.
"How long are you going to be surfing?"
"As long as the wind stays good."
"God," she muttered.
He rubbed the wax on her nose. "Okay. No surf. We'll go to Uluwatu and jump
off the cliffs holding hands and for a thousand years people will talk of our love.
Hollywood will make a movie. Halle Berry will play you."
A smile cracked through Zoe's frown. "She's the wrong skin color."
"Brad Pitt will play me so no problem."
Zoe laughed. "Oh, go on and surf. The waves look good."
Putu paddled out with vigorous strokes, the muscles of his back working in
sharply defined rhythm. Watching him, Tina felt fat and flabby. Dharma whisked into
view on the boardwalk, in sandals and temple dress. He held in one hand a painted
offering basket. After greeting her, he said the boat wouldn't be leaving for another hour
and ordered sweet coffee in a glass.
"I myself should be at my house," he said. "The preparations for our tooth-filing
ceremony are underway. All chaos and noise."
"Why do you are going to Temple Ped, then?"
115