LEE HAKAKU BOYDEN anticipated the sea change long before Vinnie and Kai returned from the Moon Fest with news of unrest on the Central Highlands.
“Tension is rising between the highlanders and Hanoi,” Vinnie reported. “The people are planning a demonstration. We must act.”
“What should we do?” Kai asked.
“We do nothing,” Lee replied. “We observe the boundaries as we’ve been doing.”
“We infiltrate from the western border,” Vinnie proclaimed. “We overthrow the Communists and bring democracy to the people. Hanoi is preoccupied with the crisis on the highlands. Now is the time to strike. We can’t wait for directives from overseas.”
“It’s one jungle,” Kai said. “Where are the borders?”
Quietly, Kai considered the options: to remain uninvolved, inhabiting the in-between, or to stand up and fight for the oppressed. Was it a simple question of to fight or not to fight? Was there a third path?
He felt warmth stirring within, ignited the day they came upon the children by the lake. Vinnie teased him that it was love, that his true love’s kiss would break the curse of hellfire and wake Sleeping Beauty, and they’d all live happily ever after.
The strong pull Kai felt toward the children made him question his origin. He was named Kai for Lee’s yearning for the sea that surrounded his home in the Pacific, but he was found in the fire. His name was a contradiction. His beginning was lost.
How could such a life be legitimate?
“Who am I?” he asked. “What am I to do?”