Chapter One - Richard Lewis

Nol braked a sudden stop. "Give that to me!" he barked, reaching around to snatch
the handgun. He chucked it into the glove box, which he locked. In the rearview, he saw
Putu kissing his girlfriend. Dian had her ears plugged with tiny earphones.
Tina asked Arini, "What games did you play when you were a girl?"
"Games? Who had time for games! I was a peasant girl. I woke up at four every
morning to get the kitchen fire started. After school there were always chores. But at
school we'd play hopscotch and jacks." Arini glanced over her shoulder "Dian, I don't
think you've ever played a game of hopscotch in your life."
Dian removed her earphones. "What?"
Arini repeated her comment.
"I have too," Dian said indignantly and then, a moment later, "Which one is that
exactly?"
The road climbed past Tampaksiring, where President Sukarno had built a
presidential palace. Tina asked Arini about Sukarno, and Arini replied that the man had
once pinched her cheek.
"He was like our father," Arini said. "We were all upset when he married that
Japanese bar girl but still we loved him. It was a shame how Soeharto put him under
house arrest, where he died like a criminal."
They came to Pertamina gas station, and Suti asked Nol to stop so she could use
the restroom.
In the men's toilet, Putu said to Nol, "I wish Tina would stop badgering
Grandmother."
Putu was pissing prodigiously and without effort, sparking a little flame of
jealousy in Nol, who was of an age where he had to concentrate to get the flow going.
"They're just talking."
"She's an anthropologist, Bapa. Do you know what anthropologists do? They
study people. She's here studying us. Our family."
"She's good friends with your Grandmother—"
"Tina is using her as an 'informant'. That's what they're called. She's trying to suck
Grandmother dry. I know how the academic system works. Professors like her are very
ambitious. They need to publish papers, and she's going to publish a paper on our family.
I don't like that. I don't trust her."
"Did you know her younger sister went missing when they were children? Just
disappeared one day?"
"She probably made that up."
"Enough. She's our guest."
"She's trouble. You should break her lease and kick her out."
Nol changed the subject. "I'd appreciate it if you don't kiss what's her name in the
car. We're not animals in a zoo where anything goes."
"Her name is Zoe. Zoh-ee. What's so hard about remembering that?"
"Just don't kiss in the car."
Putu splashed water on his hands, his jaw hard and tight.
The rest of the drive passed in silence. The air grew cooler with altitude. Nol
drifted away on the hum of tires, thinking of the money he would make from Product
Ziro, although he was having some funding difficulties, with Yanto harassing him for
payment on the web site design. What an annoying young man, smart with a computer
93