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those years, a terrible time. Poverty clenched this island like a fist. Our crops failed. We<br />
could only afford a single meal a day of rice, mixed with corn and coconut. We wore rags<br />
made from flour sacks. Boils pierced our skin.<br />
"And then, Honored Guest, the elephant. I know this elephant. I am one of those<br />
who has lost a close relative. He was my younger brother and the father of my nephew<br />
Madé Ziro, who sits there close to you. I gave my nephew his name, and I named him<br />
Ziro, for his life was starting from nothing. His father, Madé Catra, should have named<br />
him, and give him a name more than Ziro, but Madé Catra was killed. What was Catra's<br />
sin, that the Red Berets should take him away and shoot him? This was his sin: Catra, a<br />
schoolteacher and a scholar, had written a letter published in the Harian Rakyat,<br />
Communist newspaper. That was all. And what did this letter say? Was it praise for<br />
Marxism-Leninism? Was it traitorous to the Republic and the Revolution? Why, no. This<br />
letter cautioned the Communist Party on land reform, it said that any social reform should<br />
be honest and transparent and not based on politics of greed. A single letter warning the<br />
Communist Party! And for this sin, Madé Catra was taken away and shot to death without<br />
trial."<br />
Dharma paused and let his words echo.<br />
"Honored guest, you speak of justice. If there is anyone here who deserves justice<br />
it is my nephew, Ziro, who never knew his father. Who was it who whispered to the Red<br />
Beret commander that Madé Catra had published a letter in a Communist paper? That<br />
was all it took. A single whispered word. Communist. Words can have a terrible power,<br />
and with just one word, my brother's name was put on a list to be killed. Justice, Ibu?<br />
What justice shall there be for Madé Catra or his son Madé Ziro?"<br />
Nol's fists clenched. Who indeed? Who doomed my father with a whisper and put<br />
his name on a list? Who was the bastard? Is he here tonight?<br />
A sudden light smile creased Dharma's face, and his tone grew lighter. "Ziro's son<br />
Putu is studying in America, at a fine school there—"<br />
A sudden stirring of pride cut into Nol's brooding thoughts. "Stanford University,"<br />
he interrupted loudly, for all to hear. "<strong>One</strong> of the best in the world."<br />
This Tina woman shot him a surprised look.<br />
"Putu is smart and handsome and diligent," Dharma said. "He could read before<br />
he could walk. He won the district math championships many times. He mixed powders<br />
and chemicals and once blew up the community hall kitchen. Oh, such smoke and chaos<br />
and screeching women and Putu saying aduh, aduh, I didn't know it was going to be that<br />
big."<br />
Nol laughed with the others. A famous village incident.<br />
"And he could be as naughty as any other boy," Dharma said. "Once he gave his<br />
classmate Anak Agung Wulandri a bar of Lux soap, still in its store wrapping, to wash<br />
her hands after Saturday clean-up, and her hands turned blue for a week. My, how furious<br />
she was!"<br />
Now why was Dharma mentioning this? Wulandri was Mantera's granddaughter,<br />
and the old man was laughing, but not her father Raka, whose pink lips twitched with<br />
forced humor.<br />
"In a few days, Putu will be home on school holidays, and he will have his tooth<br />
filing ceremony," Dharma said. "It is one of our essential rites. But you must know this,<br />
you know our culture, you know what a joyous time this will be. So, in my family we<br />
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