Chapter One - Richard Lewis

ancient granary at the back of the banana grove, a genuine antique, not faked and aged in
a furniture factory.
A hibiscus hedge separated the main compound from the banana grove and Mak's
shack. Nol pushed through the bamboo gate. Mak kept her yard the old style, a patch of
pure groomed dirt, not a single growing blade upon it, and she was presently sprinkling
water upon it from a can to keep down the dust. Nol made his way through the banana
grove, full of cool green light. On a patch of weed and dirt loomed the granary. Four stout
hardwood posts rose from a flagstone base to support the elevated grain room, its thatch
roof badly rotting. A flight of steep wooden stairs still in excellent condition led up to the
granary's small doors, two carved panels bearing their original red and gilt paint. On the
flagstones under the grain room was piled a mound of junk, moldy bamboo and broken
earthenware jars and cracked plows, glued together by thick cobwebs.
To Nol as a boy, the granary, long disused even then, was the spookiest place in
the village. Its shimmering quiet held menace, as though the witch Luhde Srikandi herself
lurked behind the curtain of light and shadow. For the longest time, Nol believed that
when she was alive and stalking the lanes with her fatal beauty, she'd lived in the granary.
It made perfect sense to him: the village's evil witch in residence under the village's
spookiest roof. The only person he ever mentioned this to was his good friend Sudana,
who knew how to keep his mouth shut.
One day shortly after the start of fifth grade, Sudana stopped by as usual on his
way to school. Both boys wore their uniforms of red shorts and white shirts and had their
whisk brooms with them. It was Saturday, clean up day at Grade School Number Two.
On Saturdays after school, the boys gathered at the acacia tree by the irrigation canal,
where they gambled candy money on crickets, two of the insects put in a bamboo cage, to
see which cricket attacked first and thus win. Nol had woken up that morning with a
thrilling idea. Instead of dashing off to school with his friend, he grabbed Sudana's arm
and tugged him into the banana grove.
"I had an idea listening to crickets last night," Nol said. "We'll find a really
powerful cricket, but not to fight. We'll show everybody how big and ferocious it is, a
true champion, and we'll sell shares and take it to fight at the other schools."
"I don't know," Sudana said dubiously.
Nol pointed at the granary. The debris gathered underneath the grain room was a
perfect breeding ground for monster crickets. "We'll find it there."
Sudana halted in his tracks. "We better get to school. We don't want to be late."
The new school year was only a week old, and the new teacher had already rapped half
the knuckles of the fifth grade class with her metal ruler. Not Gdé Raka's knuckles,
though. In five days, he'd become her favorite student, who each morning made sure a
glass of sweet tea was on her desk.
"Even if the cricket loses," Nol said, "we'll still have money in our pockets from
selling the shares."
"Raka won't like that."
"He wants to buy a share, he'll have to pay double."
"Then he'll get twice as mad, and he'll send Gong to beat you up twice as bad."
Gong was a sixth year thug. Raka never got his hands dirty or risked his pretty
face. He ordered others like Gong to harass Nol and in return allowed them the pleasure
of his company and his money. From the very first day of first grade, Raka had picked on
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