Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"I knew her daughters. Catra taught them."
"What happened to them?" Nol asked tentatively, for he was on dangerous
territory that touched borders with the forbidden topic of his father.
His mother leaned forward, and now the odd light had strengthened into an
unsettling glow. "The rivers ran backwards and the mountains shook. Monsters clawed
the land and wicked women danced naked to seduce our heroes. Oh, who would come to
save us? Had the gods abandoned us? No! For there came a mighty hero, the General
who fought the monsters. The battle raged from earth to sun, the mighty dragon lashed its
tail, the turtle heaved its back. Of what importance the fate of two young girls? They
were like chaff, blown away in the storm and burned by the lightning."
On the hill, growing hungrier yet, Nol watched the kites for a while longer and
then drove on to a food stall where he bought dozen fried banana fritters. He took them to
the police station to share with the duty cops, including a desk sergeant, a friendly
Javanese. He chatted with the sergeant for awhile before asking, "Didn't you guys take
Men Djawa in? When those skeletons were found?"
"Sent her to a mental clinic," the sergeant said. "She's really gone round the bend
this time."
"Bangli?" Poor woman. A government clinic wasn't a place to be stuck without
family to help out.
"A private one out by Gianyar."
"Mbeh," Nol said, surprised. "A private one? Isn't that expensive?"
"I guess somebody's paying for it."
"And what's happened to the bones?"
"Funny you should ask. They were in the main evidence room at Police
Headquarters but they've been kicked back to us."
In the front courtyard, the flag whipped hard in the wind. The light was crisp
enough to bite. On the road beyond, trucks growled past, loaded with black river sand,
enough sand to bury a thousand bodies. "Can I see them?"
"The bones?" The sergeant's surprise turned into a shrug. "The private will take
you. Just don't touch anything."
The rookie showed Nol a back room with metal racks for shelves. Two barred
windows admitted dim light. The bones were in cardboard boxes, jumbled together, but
the skulls were in their own box. All showed fractures. Not a single one with a bullet
hole.
Leaving the police station, Nol drove to Gianyar on the new highway the
government had bulldozed through rice fields. He took it slow to save on fuel. Vehicles
swooshed by him, everybody impatient to get someplace. East bound trucks were loaded
with limestone, and westbound trucks with volcanic sand. The whole island was getting
all mixed up and turned around.
The mental clinic occupied a former colonial building with wide porches. A new
wing was graced by a fenced by pleasant garden. As Nol parked the car in the visitor's
lot, he noticed in the garden several patients sitting on tree shaded benches or strolling on
the path, with nurses in attendance. You didn't get that kind of attention without paying a
lot of money.
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