Chapter One - Richard Lewis
Chapter One - Richard Lewis Chapter One - Richard Lewis
Reed waited for Naniek. She never appeared. But the mailman did deliver him a manila envelope with no return address. Within were his photographs, last pawed through by the BPI interrogator. He burned all except the one of Naniek looking over her shoulder. This he hid in the Ming cabinet's secret drawer. The newspapers and banners thundered. Find the traitorous Luhde Srikandi! Hang her, crucify her, cut off her head! And her camp followers of Gerwani! Some nights Reed woke to a noise with a sudden lurch of hope. But it was only the wind knocking at a screen. Other times he found himself gasping and sweaty with dread. On a rainy afternoon, Bambang showed up at Reed's bungalow without warning. He had only a few hours before he had to return to the airport. He was a different man than the sleek older brother who'd warned Reed off his sister. He paced and chainsmoked. The rivers in Java, he said, were filled with corpses. Thousand were buried deep inside teak plantations. Many of his family friends had disappeared. He hadn't heard from Naniek. Bambang said, "They came for my boss in the Singapore office. Indonesian military, in civilian clothes. They took him to the Embassy and killed him in the back garden with bayonets. They said to me, you are now boss. They told me, if you keep quiet and cooperate, all things are possible. My God, Reed, my last trade, I siphoned off half a million dollars. A hundred thousand was for me." He paused and stared at the swirling clouds. "A hundred thousand," he murmured, "and that's just the beginning. All things are possible." Reed drove him to the airport and on the way back stopped at the hotel in to see Arini. "What's happening in Java is going to happen here," he told her. "The army's blocked ferries, boats, planes. The PKI in Bali are bottled up. We have to stop it somehow before it starts." "But this is what you wanted," she said. Her eyes were harrowed. "This is what you planned for. Are you now getting a guilty conscience?" "My conscience isn't big enough," he said. "All I want to do is save Naniek. She was at Lubang Buaya and the military is hunting those people down with a special vengeance." "Then go pray for her, Mr. Davis," Arini said and left him. A howling midnight gale battered the house, shaking Reed awake. With his flashlight, he checked the shuddering thatched roof. A figure squatted on the verandah, arms huddled to his chest as he tried to stay out of the driving rain. It was Rusty. "My family kicked me out of my village," he said. "They don't want any PKI. I don't know where to go. Please help me, Pak Davis." "If you don't mind helping me first. Those leaves of thatch look like they might be coming loose." The two men climbed up to the roof and in the rain tied bamboo poles across the thatch eaves to keep them from flying loose. With that done, Reed gave Rusty a towel and dry sarong and told him to sleep in the garage. The rain continued most of the next day. The stream swelled to a raging flood, tearing at the ravine's banks. Rusty hid in the garage, eating a meal Reed bought at a 172
warung, packaged in banana-leaf. Reed didn't touch his, but sipped steadily at a bottle of arak. The rain finally stopped, leaving a sticky mist hanging in the air. Rusty crept out of the garage to mop up the puddles on the verandah and scoop out the water that had flooded into the kitchen. Reed feel into a sweaty, half-drunken nap. Rusty shook him awake, saying he had guests. On the side steps to the verandah, Catra held a woman swaddled in clothes. A sedan from the Bali Hotel was pulled up to the end of the driveway, nosed into the garden. Catra said, "She's sick. Malaria." For a moment Reed thought the woman was Arini, but then Arini came from around the corner, holding young papaya leaves she'd just plucked. Catra guided the swaddled woman across the verandah. Her hood fell back. It was Naniek, her eyes glazed, her body wracked with shivers. Reed's mild hangover vanished. "Here, in the bedroom," he said, opening the door. They laid her down on the bed. She moaned and trembled. Reed piled blankets on top of her. "I'm boiling up some of the papaya leaves," Arini said. "You can feed it to her when it's cool. It will help." Reed wrote a note for Father Louis. "Go to his clinic," he told Arini. "He should have some chloroquine to give you." Catra squeezed Naniek's hand, and Arini bent to kiss her forehead. "How did she get here?" Reed asked. "I got word she was at Banyuwangi," Arini said. "I went over and got on her on a fisherman's boat and smuggled her across." She tucked the note away. "I'll get the medicine and be back later." Reed spoon fed the papaya leaf juice to Naniek, who threw up most of it. She babbled incoherently in Javanese. She stopped shivering and began to burn with fever, rivulets of sweat running down her face. He stripped off her clothes and sponge bathed her. Her ribs showed like sticks. She was here. She was in his arms. If this was the blackwater fever form of malaria, then she was dying. As a heavy gray dusk coagulated, Arini returned on her scooter with the chloroquine and two changes of clothes and said she'd spend the night to nurse Naniek. Reed slept on the verandah and at dawn, with the cocks crowing and Naniek's fever still not broken, he drove to Father Louis's bamboo cathedral. The faithful and the fearful crowded the pews and the confessionals. Reed said Mass and argued with God. You're not a cosmic jokester. You will not do this to me. Heal her. No promises from me, that's not how this works, I'm not bargaining, I'm just reminding You of who You are. Driving back, at Sukawati the road was blocked by another demonstration, farmers now joining the students. Gerwani are whores! Kill the snake Ludhe Srikandi! As they paraded past the jeep, something fluttered into Reed's brain. Back at his house, Naniek's fever had at last broken and she was conscious, but Reed knew that malaria was cyclical, that the parasites would flood back into her bloodstream. God hadn't necessarily heard him. Or He had, and was toying with him. 173
- Page 121 and 122: Taking a deep breath, he said to Ti
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- 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 and 150: "My ancestors came from China, but
- Page 151 and 152: dozen kue lapis. I told her take th
- 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: The editorial thundered that the my
- 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
- Page 201 and 202: In the back of a shed, a tin pot st
- Page 203 and 204: "What do you know about it?" Tina s
- Page 205 and 206: "There were rattlesnakes around whe
- Page 207 and 208: Chapter 36 Nol trotted up the grana
- Page 209 and 210: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The bloody trauma
Reed waited for Naniek. She never appeared. But the mailman did deliver him a<br />
manila envelope with no return address. Within were his photographs, last pawed through<br />
by the BPI interrogator. He burned all except the one of Naniek looking over her<br />
shoulder. This he hid in the Ming cabinet's secret drawer.<br />
The newspapers and banners thundered. Find the traitorous Luhde Srikandi!<br />
Hang her, crucify her, cut off her head! And her camp followers of Gerwani!<br />
Some nights Reed woke to a noise with a sudden lurch of hope. But it was only<br />
the wind knocking at a screen. Other times he found himself gasping and sweaty with<br />
dread.<br />
On a rainy afternoon, Bambang showed up at Reed's bungalow without warning.<br />
He had only a few hours before he had to return to the airport. He was a different man<br />
than the sleek older brother who'd warned Reed off his sister. He paced and chainsmoked.<br />
The rivers in Java, he said, were filled with corpses. Thousand were buried deep<br />
inside teak plantations.<br />
Many of his family friends had disappeared. He hadn't heard from Naniek.<br />
Bambang said, "They came for my boss in the Singapore office. Indonesian<br />
military, in civilian clothes. They took him to the Embassy and killed him in the back<br />
garden with bayonets. They said to me, you are now boss. They told me, if you keep<br />
quiet and cooperate, all things are possible. My God, Reed, my last trade, I siphoned off<br />
half a million dollars. A hundred thousand was for me." He paused and stared at the<br />
swirling clouds. "A hundred thousand," he murmured, "and that's just the beginning. All<br />
things are possible."<br />
Reed drove him to the airport and on the way back stopped at the hotel in to see<br />
Arini. "What's happening in Java is going to happen here," he told her. "The army's<br />
blocked ferries, boats, planes. The PKI in Bali are bottled up. We have to stop it<br />
somehow before it starts."<br />
"But this is what you wanted," she said. Her eyes were harrowed. "This is what<br />
you planned for. Are you now getting a guilty conscience?"<br />
"My conscience isn't big enough," he said. "All I want to do is save Naniek. She<br />
was at Lubang Buaya and the military is hunting those people down with a special<br />
vengeance."<br />
"Then go pray for her, Mr. Davis," Arini said and left him.<br />
A howling midnight gale battered the house, shaking Reed awake. With his<br />
flashlight, he checked the shuddering thatched roof. A figure squatted on the verandah,<br />
arms huddled to his chest as he tried to stay out of the driving rain.<br />
It was Rusty.<br />
"My family kicked me out of my village," he said. "They don't want any PKI. I<br />
don't know where to go. Please help me, Pak Davis."<br />
"If you don't mind helping me first. Those leaves of thatch look like they might be<br />
coming loose."<br />
The two men climbed up to the roof and in the rain tied bamboo poles across the<br />
thatch eaves to keep them from flying loose. With that done, Reed gave Rusty a towel<br />
and dry sarong and told him to sleep in the garage.<br />
The rain continued most of the next day. The stream swelled to a raging flood,<br />
tearing at the ravine's banks. Rusty hid in the garage, eating a meal Reed bought at a<br />
172