‘Get up, Mei Lin. You will fall ill sitting in the sun like this,’ Lee Chang said softly.

Mei Lin looked up. After a few moments of silence, she asked slowly, ‘Now what will you do, Ameng?’

‘I’ll put in another application. You should do that too.’

‘Even my letters don’t go anywhere, how will the application help? I did apply once. I am a traitor. A Chinese spy. It is meaningless to apply again, Ameng.’

‘Ameng hasn’t received a single letter from his family. He hasn’t made any contact so far. But you have to keep on trying. Come, Mei Lin. Let’s sit inside and talk.’

Mei Lin stood up. She said, ‘Why did there have to be a war, Lee Chang?’

Before Lee Chang could reply, Babu came up running to them.

‘Yiu Yi has fallen down. She is not talking.’

The silence of the courtyard was shattered.

‘What happened? What has happened to Yiu Yi?’

‘She had gone to collect dry leaves. I was with her. Suddenly she fell down. She stopped talking.’ Babu ran back; the others followed him.

A fearful cry reverbrated through the wing.

In a corner of the compound, near a neem tree, lay Yiu Yi. Her eyes were closed and she was bleeding from the nose. Ho Wang’s wife was shaking her, trying to wake her up. Her rag doll lay nearby.

‘Let me pass! Let me see her!’ Yiu Yi’s father said, pushing through the crowd ‘Yiu Yi, Yiu Yi, what’s wrong with you? Wake up – please wake up –’

Yiu Yi did not open her eyes. Nor did she move. He lifted her in his arms and looked around in utter despair.

‘Call the doctor! Somebody call the doctor!’

Carrying the limp child on his shoulder, Yiu Yi’s father started running. A group of people ran with him through the gate that the guards had opened without any questions.

The hospital outside the camp was silent. Entering through the open door, Yiu Yi’s father gently laid her down on a bed, while the crowd called out for the doctor. Hearing the commotion, a nurse came out and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘She isn’t opening her eyes. She has fainted in the heat. Where is doctor sahab? Call doctor sahab –’

‘The doctor has gone away. He will return in the evening.’

The nurse felt Yiu Yi’s pulse, and suddenly her face darkened. Letting go of her hand, she lifted her eyelids and placing her ears on the child’s chest, listened for her heartbeat. Then, she shook her head, and said, ‘She is dead.’

There was absolute silence.

‘Her heart has collapsed.’

Her father stroked her still body and kept listening for a heartbeat. He tried to wake her up by shaking her body. No one tried to stop him. After a while, Yiu Yi’s grandfather came and stood beside him. Seeing him, Yiu Yui’s father broke down.