The Storm We Made: A Novel

Cecily gives birth to her third child. Lina’s baby comes soon after, but during the delivery, Lina sends for Cecily in a brief message. When Cecily arrives, the midwife hands her the baby, a girl who is born with scars on one side of her face. The midwife explains that Lina had held back giving birth, wanting to wait for Fujiwara to return. Cecily realizes that Lina will soon die. Before she passes, Lina helps Cecily to name her daughter after the Jasmine flower. Afterward, the midwife asks Cecily what to do with Lina’s baby. Cecily decides to abandon the baby.

During the Japanese invasion in 1941, Gordon is appalled to learn Fujiwara’s true identity. As the years go by, Cecily and Gordon’s relationship becomes strained, owing to Cecily’s rage and Gordon’s disillusionment with the British. Gordon becomes fully despondent when Jasmin leaves home. He develops a critical respiratory illness and then eventually falls into a coma. The doctor urges Cecily and Jujube to keep him comfortable until he dies. Jujube laments their fate, and Cecily considers explaining the background of these events. In the end, though, she stays quiet. It is revealed that Gordon will die several days later.

In this chapter, the narrative continuously cycles through each of the four major characters’ perspectives over the course of a single day—August 30, 1945.

Abel’s love for his family overcomes his desire for death. On the morning the boys decide to leave the camp, he sees planes in the sky, prompting him to run. Meanwhile, Jujube holds vigil by her comatose father, listening to her mother ramble about another man who owes her. Jujube faces the threat of losing her job at the teahouse, but she still leaves for lunch to check on her parents.

That day, Cecily blames herself for everything that has happened, claiming to have once extended help to a bad man. She tells Jujube that she knows someone who can help them to locate Jasmin. Jujube tries to bring her to bed, but Cecily pushes her away, knocking her out.

Cecily goes over to Fujiwara’s house and tells the houseboy that she needs to see his employer. She enters despite the houseboy’s protests and hears the voices of two girls somewhere in the house. Cecily assumes that Fujiwara is keeping comfort girls in the house, so she runs over to investigate. She is surprised to find Jasmin there.

Jujube wakes up and goes to the shop. The storekeepers look after her head injury and offer to take her to the doctor. Jujube returns to the teahouse instead to continue working, hopeless for the future. Meanwhile, Cecily, filled with questions over Jasmin’s presence at Fujiwara’s house, decides to take her home. Jasmin is shocked by her mother’s dirty appearance. When Fujiwara arrives, Cecily demands to take Jasmin back. Fujiwara points out that Jasmin has chosen to stay of her own free will. Cecily attacks Fujiwara, prompting Yuki to emerge.

Jujube’s resentment toward Mr. Takahashi and Ichika grows, pushing her to thoughts of murder. Jasmin introduces Yuki to Fujiwara and pleads that he shelter her. Owing to the girl’s scar, Cecily identifies Yuki as Fujiwara and Lina’s daughter. Meanwhile, Abel warns Freddie and the other boys of the British planes, which start bombing the camp. They try to signal the planes, but it is no use. Abel finds Freddie trying to rescue his stash of drawings. He notices that Freddie is severely wounded, so Abel resolves to drag him away from the bombing site.

As evening falls, Fujiwara and Cecily blame each other for Yuki’s abandonment at the comfort station. Fujiwara admits that with the approach of the Americans, he has begun to rethink his hopes for the world, shifting his focus toward family. He asserts that Jasmin wants to live with him, but Cecily protests this as her mother. Yuki indicates that she would like to stay with Fujiwara. Jasmin protests this, and Fujiwara slaps Yuki away. Jasmin and Yuki retreat from the house. Abel struggles to carry Freddie, so they take shelter outside the chicken coop. Freddie apologizes for forcing him to kill Akiro. Abel tries to console Freddie as he dies.

Jujube decides to poison Takahashi’s tea with the cyanide in raw tapioca root. She serves him the tea, but he invites her to listen as he reads Ichika’s letters to her. Jujube is moved by them. Takahashi expresses his dissatisfaction with the unfairness of the war, as well as his wish to start a printing business with his daughter once the conflict has ended. Jujube stops him from drinking his tea, accidentally spilling it over Ichika’s letters. Takahashi is upset with her, so Jujube repeatedly apologizes, saying that things are “better this way” (318).

The British planes land, allowing the pilots to capture the railway work camp. They berate the boys when they fail to express joy for being liberated. Abel takes Freddie’s drawings and runs away before the pilots discover him.

Jasmin and Yuki are hiding in the wheelbarrow when Yuki expresses her envy of Jasmin’s family. This upsets Jasmin. They fall asleep, and Jasmin finds that Yuki has left when she wakes up. Jasmin looks for Yuki in each of the shacks, and Yuki eventually finds her, having gone to Aunty Woon’s shack to retrieve them a warm bun. Yuki affirms her sisterhood with Jasmin, and once they finish eating, they return to the wheelbarrow. They are still there when a fire breaks out nearby.

Fujiwara discusses his impulse to have a family with Cecily. He indicates that Jasmin is a good girl but stops short of saying the same for Yuki. When they realize that the girls are missing, Cecily and Fujiwara go to look for them at the comfort station. They hurry once they notice that the comfort station is on fire. Jujube is on her way home when she sees her mother with Fujiwara. They all search for Jasmin among the flaming shacks.

The narrative jumps forward to December 1945. Abel finally returns home, three months after the end of the war. Jujube and Cecily emerge to welcome him, and Abel spends several days recovering. He learns that Gordon died of illness and Jasmin, along with Yuki, died in the fire. He asks for the drawings he brought and looks at the sketch of Jasmin, which causes him to realize that he has forgotten what his sister looks like. Abel tries to look for Freddie’s family but is unsuccessful.

At the start of 1946, Cecily, Jujube, and Abel hold a memorial for Jasmin and Yuki, burying some of the bones they recover from the fire with Jasmin’s congkak board. They keep the rest in an emptied Horlicks can. Malaya is restored as a British colony. During the turnover ceremony, Cecily sees Fujiwara for the last time. He is later executed for committing wartime atrocities. Abel reports the outcome of the general’s arrest to Jasmin’s bones. When they return home, they see that Takahashi has sent Jujube a flower calendar, produced by the new printing company that he and his daughter have founded.