The Man in the Box by Marylois Dunn

Author:Marylois Dunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vietnam, war, boy, coming of age, award winner
ISBN: 9781479402328
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2015-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

The question now was, would he get back? Chau Li had been frightened coming down the mountain in full daylight knowing that no Cong had seen him leave the cave. Today, in the early morning darkness, he was terrified. He was unsure of the route, and he worried about the old woman. She could easily betray him to the priest or to her son. She had no real reason to help him. It would be best, he thought, to leave the river as soon as it was light and he could see his way. He could hardly get lost if he kept climbing and kept the river in hearing, if not in sight. His real fear was of being found by those he did not wish to see.

He moved as quickly as he could, always keeping the sound of water on his right side. Although there had been none of the monsoon downpours for the past few days and the worst of the rainy season was over, the ground was still marshy underfoot, the weeds and leaves sodden and silent. The only sounds he heard for a long time were the soft rustle of the stick as he swung it in the grass before him as the old woman had showed him and the sound of his own harsh breathing.

With first light, jungle sounds began all around. Monkeys of many kinds chattered in the trees, parrots and cockatoos and mynas shrieked over the twitters of countless smaller birds, none of whom paid the slightest attention to the small boy struggling through the tall grass beneath their trees. Everywhere there were flashes of color. Chau Li had no leisure to enjoy the beauty to­day. Instead he kept his head down and concentrated on climbing.

The tall grass became tangled with vines and fi­nally gave way altogether to the deep undergrowth of the forest. With his burden, Chau Li found it more and more difficult to push through, and finally, he knew he would have to leave the river to find the path he had followed down the mountain. He climbed at an angle to the river, knowing that he would intersect the path even­tually. He worried some about places he had passed on the way down which were so deeply overgrown that the path was faint to one who did not know it. Should he cross the path now at one of those places, he might pass over and wander aimlessly around on the mountain. He did not have a chance to miss it.

The birds suddenly became silent. Chau Li stopped and squatted down in a thick clump of bushes, pulling leaves around to cover himself and his pack. The voices he heard were muffled at first, only soft murmurs ac­cented by the scuffling of heavy boots. He could tell the men were arguing as they made their way up the moun­tain, and he strained to hear as they drew nearer, thank­ful that they spoke in the tongue of the mountain people.

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