5
Salt
It cascaded from the sack in a thin white line salt. Baby Lim saw it gathering into a mound on the dusty ground. She watched it for a long
time, time she lost track of, hiding in the trees. Sacks and sacks of precious rice and salt, all just beyond her reach.
Japanese soldiers guarded their booty. They must have joked, because they laughed and kicked the dirt. Baby could smell them from where she was, at least a hundred meters away. They were sour
and… something else her nose could not interpret, that made her shudder. She steadied herself, so fear and nausea would not make her lose courage. She wanted that white mineral. Beriberi
sickness was affecting all of the mountain refugees. Most of the old people had goiter. It had been many months since Baby had felt the joy of a ful
