Chapter One - Richard Lewis

Nol tried to grab it, but Gong tossed the tube to Raka, who uncapped it and peered
inside. "Why, it's a Communist cricket," he said.
"Give that to me!" Nol said, but Gong threw out a fat arm and held him back.
Raka shook out the cricket to the ground, and stomped on it. "That's what we do to
Communists."
Nol lunged at for Raka. Gong intercepted and slapped him down. He turned his
fury on the bigger boy. They grabbled and fell, throwing punches as they rolled in the
dirt. The teacher rushed over and grabbed both boys by an ear and marched them to the
toilets. She shoved Nol into one and Gong into another. Tossing them brushes, she
snapped, "Scrub them clean."
Nol fought back tears. Everyone knew his father had been arrested by mistake.
He wasn't a Communist. The Red Berets had put him on a truck and driven off and then
killed him before anyone could explain. It had all been a terrible mistake. In those bloody
days of upheaval, a single lie could send an innocent man to his doom.
That afternoon, Nol didn't go to this uncle's compound to play but headed straight
home, where he found his mother sweeping the kitchen floor. She eyed the rash on his
cheek from Gong's fist but said nothing.
Munching on a snack of cold banana fritter, Nol asked, "What was my father
like?"
"Don't talk when you're eating."
Nol swallowed hard. "My father. What was he like? What did he do in the
evening? Did he read books? Listen to the radio?"
"Do you have homework?"
"Mother. Tell me."
"And last night you kept the porch light on all night. Turn it off. It all helps save
money."
"Tell me."
"Be quiet."
"Tell me!"
Without warning she whirled on him and beat him with the broom handle. Her
instant rage terrified him. He raised his arms over his head and tried to run away but she
grabbed him by his shoulders and swung him around to hold him before her. Oh, that
look she gave him! No longer angry, not stern, not puzzled, not anything. It was
bewildering and not at all reassuring. Then she gently cupped his face with her palm and
smiled.
"Go do your homework," she said.
He never dared asked her again about his father.
The following week, the school announced the preparations for the Independence
Day parades, and the teacher told the class that Nol had been selected to carry the flag.
Sure enough, Nol got into a fight with Gong, who said Raka should have that honor. This
time, suffused with the patriotic spirit of All Things Are Possible, Nol won.
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