The Clay Marble

Dara is still rocking Jantu’s hammock when her mother, Sarun, and Nea return from the flag-raising ceremony. Sarun “stridently” announces that he is going to enlist in the Khmer Serei, which is the only “patriotic” thing to do. Bellicosely, he jerks at the rope of the hammock, waking Nebut—but not Jantu, who is dead.

The family is plunged into shock and grief, and Nea, sobbing, demands that Sarun take them “home” to Siem Reap right away. Sarun refuses, saying he is going to enlist as a regular in the army: “You wouldn’t understand,” he says. “It has to do with a man’s courage” (150). Enraged, Dara asks her brother what “courage” has to do with shooting a girl like Jantu. Doesn’t it take more courage, she asks, to raise a family and to live in peace in a time of war? Then, almost by themselves, her hands begin to mold a ball of clay. As the ball becomes round and smooth, she finds the strength she needs to save her family.

If he refuses to come, she tells her brother, she will do everything herself: drive the oxcarts back to Siem Reap with the