Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"You know," Sudana said, "I have a cousin whose nephew makes very good
money on the Internet. On e-Bay."
Nol's interest pricked. "What's that?"
"An Internet auction site. You know what he sells? Old lontars. He goes up
buying them all around the island and sells them online. Amazing how much money he
makes."
"E-bay," Nol said.
"Now the kid's found somebody to make fake lontars—oh, it’s real palm leaf and
inscribing and rubbing in carbon and all that, but they aren't antiques. He ages them in
tea. Provides an English translation. The Kama Sutra is his top seller."
Stopping at Dharma's front gate, Nol intended to step inside and announce his
arrival, but there erupted over the walls a terrific shouting match between Dharma's two
wives. A moment later, Dharma marched out the gate, chin tucked down to his chest and
eyes narrowed as the screaming and weeping continued. He flung open the passenger
door and barked, "Go."
Nol sped off. Dharma ran his palms along his hair. On his finger was the plain
silver ring with the black agate stone, a powerful amulet that he wore to temples and
other spiritually charged places. But to the Empress Gardens? A restaurant for tour
groups? "A word of advice, gentlemen. If you marry a second wife, do not put her in the
same compound."
"And one's mistresses?" Sudana asked slyly. "How far apart should they be kept?"
"The trick," Dharma said, "is to keep your cell phone clean as a priest's bell. Erase
at once all text messages and phone logs."
"I get home," Timon said, "and the first thing my wife does is scroll through my
cell phone."
"Suti never checks mine," Nol said.
Sudana chuckled. "Maybe you should be checking hers."
"Enough," Dharma said. "Now, this meeting. Nol, don't say anything about your
father. Is that clear?"
"Is this meeting about the bones?" He added, after a brief silence, "Who were
they?"
"That's another thing you do not say."
"It's only natural to wonder," Nol said, a bit put out.
Dharma was silent, his thumb caressing the black agate. "All our deaths are
inevitable," he finally said, "but they had the rare grace of knowing when theirs was at
hand. They were given a chance to repent."
A gloomy cavern with fake cement waterfall, the Empress Gardens catered
lunches and dinners to tour groups. This evening, the dining tables in the main hall were
pushed together in a large square. Nol was astounded to see present the island's Chief of
Police and the Governor's representative, dressed in civilian clothes, holding somber
conference together. Just how important were these bones?
Then he realized that the bones were important mainly by the timing of their
discovery. Soeharto was presently between the living and the dead, his doctors making
guarded statements, and once the wily puppet master was gone, who knew would
happen?
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