“Perhaps,” Mister Pech said when Sophan was gone, “you’re right. I wish it hadn’t happened as it has. I wish he weren’t humiliating himself and disgracing all Khmers with his Communist babble. La sale guerre, eh?”
Teck did not respond. Mister Pech tried to control his irritation but the absence of reaction made him seethe. “He was like a father,” Pech Lim Song said, “but a father who, though he sees to their needs, keeps his children locked in separate rooms so they neither mature nor unite. Now that he’s gone the feudal system will pass. The children will be free.”
“Free?” Teck blurted. “To mature? Are they prepared for that?” He smiled to soften his words. “Is the army ready for Lon Nol’s ‘holy war’? Are they ready to drive out the ‘evil ones’? If the new father is also a child, can th
