“Did anything significant happen leading up to that day?” Siri asked.

“We’d had an outbreak of diphtheria,” said the teacher. “As I’m sure you know, it’s a highly contagious condition. Some of our kids died. Many were sick. We’d take them into Thakhek but the little hospital was ill-equipped. What drugs they had were priced beyond our means.”

“And that was when Hiro disappeared,” said Daeng. “You know, there was a page in the diary written on October second, 1943?”

“I remember,” said Satsai. “I read it when he came back. He’d been gone eleven days. I don’t know how he got to Lang Son or what he did or how he got back. He wouldn’t tell me. But he had done something miraculous. A medical unit arrived in the village two days after his return. They treated all our children and left us medication. It was unbelievable.”

“Teacher Satsai,” said Daeng.

“Yes?”

“From my memory, the diary entry written in October began with the words ‘Hello, my darling. I miss you and the children.’ Or something like that. We thought Hiro was writing it to his wife, but he wasn’t, was he?”

Satsai looked at Daeng and gave his answer some thought.

“No,” said Satsai. “He wasn’t married.”

“The children were at your school and the darling . . .”

Again, he appeared to be weighing his reply.

“Was me,” said Satsai. “I’m sorry.”

“What on earth for?” said Daeng.

“I don’t want to tarnish your impression of Hiro.”

“Then you obviously haven’t had enough time to understand my husband and me. Everything you tell us about Hiro makes us like him more.”

“I suppose I’d loved him ever since our wonderful journey in the pony cart together,” said Satsai. The visitors’ reaction seemed to liberate him. His face became animated and he smiled as he spoke. “He was unique, inquisitive, intelligent. I was proud to be with him and I wanted him to feel the same about me. But our trip home had been innocent. I had no intention of taking advantage of a man with such a troubled mind. When I read his diary entry calling me his darling I thought it was just a joke, but still it filled me with joy. It hadn’t occurred to me he would know I was a homosexual. I thought I had disguised it so well.”

“Your trips to Thakhek before the war?” said Siri.

“The French were obliging and passionate in many ways,” said Satsai. “I wonder if Hiro could smell the desperation on me. I was so bent on keeping my evil identity a secret from my parents. Thakhek had been my outlet. There were cross-cultural gatherings at the old French colonial house at the foot of the hill for like-minded souls.”

“That was a busy place,” said Siri. “Was Beer one of your cross-cultural liaisons?”

Satsai looked at him with surprise.