Chapter One - Richard Lewis
Chapter One - Richard Lewis Chapter One - Richard Lewis
male orderly in white uniform read a newspaper. He looked up as Tina approached, but relaxed as the office clerk with Tina gave him the okay sign. Tina knelt on the grass and gently grasped both the old woman's hands, her fingers lumpy and twisted. "Hello, honored mother. My name is Tina." Men Djawa gaze fell to slow and puzzled focus on Tina's face. "Did my daughters send you?" "No, Mother," Tina said softly. "Do you know where they are?" "I don't. I'm sorry. But I am sure they are in a good place." "Are you, now? How do you know they aren't in a very bad place?" That hit Tina hard, and out the pain she felt for this woman, rose a much older and deeper agony, an image of her sister Nancy, lost like these two girls to the darkness. "Are they taking good care of you here, Mother?" Men Djawa gaze dropped to her hands, still in Tina's grasp. "The cells were wet and damp. My bones twisted. They asked me questions, you know. Men smoking cigarettes, writing down my answers. They said they'd tear out my fingernails if I didn't answer. I told them everything. It was no secret. I was Gerwani. It was all public knowledge, we weren't rats hiding in secret. Gerwani was a legal organization. But I did not tell them lies. I did not make up stories. Soon I was no longer pretty. I no longer interested them that way. So they left me alone." She pulled her hands back and placed them on her lap again. "The tea cakes here are terrible. I make much better ones. Traditional recipes. They sell very well." She leaned forward and whispered to Tina, "Recipes from the Berita Gerwani magazine. We used to have cooking classes for the women. They were very popular. In prison, I wrote them down from memory. When I got out, I made Gerwani food. I had a market stall, first in Java and then Batu Gede. I sold Gerwani food to everybody. They couldn't get enough of it. Military officers, bureaucrats, fat children. Gobble gobble gobble on Gerwani cakes." "Now isn't that something," Tina said, her smile matching Men Djawa's conspiratorial grin. "Are you Red Cross?" "I'm a professor." "The Red Cross were allowed to visit us in our camp. I told them I left my daughters with my cousin in Singaradja but the nice Red Cross man came back and said he didn't know where they were or what happened to them. They were lost. Do you know where they are?" "I'm sorry, Mother." "They were sleeping in the back room. At my sister's house. Endang and Sri. When the military came. I didn't want the soldiers to wake up my daughters. I gave them one last kiss. Their skin was warm and sweet and sweaty. It was very hot. I dried the sweat and tucked the hair back into place and then I went out and gave myself up. What sort of terrible mother loses her daughters? You're from the Red Cross, aren't you? Where are they? Can you find them for me?" "Honored mother, I was at Batu Gede when the bones were found." The old woman again leaned forward to whisper, "I was selling cakes in the market when I heard. A round faced woman in civil service khakis was bargaining for a 150
dozen kue lapis. I told her take them, take them, take them all, free Gerwani cakes for you, and I raced as fast as I could to the beach. I knew, oh yes, I knew." "Who were they?" "My interrogators said I was lucky I wasn't in Batu Gede that night. It was a very efficient action, my interrogators said. I was lucky I was in Singaradja, they said, otherwise I'd be just as dead as them. I spat at them and said my comrades were the lucky ones." "Can you give me their names?" Men Djawa snapped away, pressing into the back of her wheelchair. "Who are you? You're not Red Cross." Tina once more took her hands and gently rubbed the twisted knuckles with her thumb. "We cannot forget them. The world needs to know their names." "We were betrayed. All of us." "Who betrayed you?" She hawked up phlegm and spat into the flowers. "Luhde Srikandi." "And who was this Luhde Srikandi?" Men Djawa spat again and told her. 151
- Page 99 and 100: At the Gerwani house, the late afte
- Page 101 and 102: The railroads were heavily PKI. "Wh
- Page 103 and 104: uilding's lobby, two men intercepte
- Page 105 and 106: Reed leaned back against the cushio
- Page 107 and 108: "Yes," she said. "I am." She studie
- Page 109 and 110: Arini murmured, "Lieutenant Colonel
- Page 111 and 112: "At the Batu Gede rally I asked peo
- Page 113 and 114: egrets to the family that an emerge
- Page 115 and 116: Chapter 21 An hour after sunrise, T
- Page 117 and 118: Down the beach, Mantera buried his
- Page 119 and 120: "It was a day of low clouds and wes
- Page 121 and 122: Taking a deep breath, he said to Ti
- Page 123 and 124: treacherous Communists, the Army qu
- Page 125 and 126: Chapter 22 Nol's cell phone blasted
- Page 127 and 128: He hurried out to the lane and was
- Page 129 and 130: Chapter 23 Tina rushed along a wide
- Page 131 and 132: Chapter 24 On the night of the full
- Page 133 and 134: fingernails into this crack, then t
- Page 135 and 136: strolling through Merdeka square wi
- Page 137 and 138: "You won't be able to protect her f
- Page 139 and 140: Chapter 25 It was now five minutes
- Page 141 and 142: "What happened here in 1965, Mother
- Page 143 and 144: Chapter 26 1965 A heavy rain fell f
- Page 145 and 146: This time Wendell was less guarded,
- Page 147 and 148: "The secret to selling to tourists,
- Page 149: "My ancestors came from China, but
- Page 153 and 154: "I understand," Reed said cheerfull
- Page 155 and 156: denounced the cruel and sadistic mu
- Page 157 and 158: 157
- Page 159 and 160: edroom. When I entered the room, it
- Page 161 and 162: "I'm not having my ceremony if he c
- Page 163 and 164: "We're not going to drop this," she
- Page 165 and 166: "You speak Bahasa," he said. It was
- Page 167 and 168: "It is common for Westerners to ana
- Page 169 and 170: addition to her other duties this L
- Page 171 and 172: The editorial thundered that the my
- Page 173 and 174: warung, packaged in banana-leaf. Re
- Page 175 and 176: Chapter 31 In the hospital garden,
- Page 177 and 178: and decided to send her into exile.
- Page 179 and 180: This was the first she knew of the
- Page 181 and 182: Chapter 32 1965 Rusty, revealing re
- Page 183 and 184: the merchant refused. "No, no, no.
- Page 185 and 186: "Have her here at seven tomorrow mo
- Page 187 and 188: "No!" Reed shouted, resuming his sp
- Page 189 and 190: Chapter 33 "They found their Luhde
- Page 191 and 192: "He would blame Mantera, wouldn't h
- Page 193 and 194: Then he heard his brother Dharma, b
- Page 195 and 196: Chapter 34 Nol stood with Dharma at
- Page 197 and 198: He went on, delivering a litany of
- Page 199 and 200: Chapter 35 The front runners of the
dozen kue lapis. I told her take them, take them, take them all, free Gerwani cakes for<br />
you, and I raced as fast as I could to the beach. I knew, oh yes, I knew."<br />
"Who were they?"<br />
"My interrogators said I was lucky I wasn't in Batu Gede that night. It was a very<br />
efficient action, my interrogators said. I was lucky I was in Singaradja, they said,<br />
otherwise I'd be just as dead as them. I spat at them and said my comrades were the lucky<br />
ones."<br />
"Can you give me their names?"<br />
Men Djawa snapped away, pressing into the back of her wheelchair. "Who are<br />
you? You're not Red Cross."<br />
Tina once more took her hands and gently rubbed the twisted knuckles with her<br />
thumb. "We cannot forget them. The world needs to know their names."<br />
"We were betrayed. All of us."<br />
"Who betrayed you?"<br />
She hawked up phlegm and spat into the flowers. "Luhde Srikandi."<br />
"And who was this Luhde Srikandi?"<br />
Men Djawa spat again and told her.<br />
151
Change language