Never Fall Down

The children get a new black shirt and pants twice a year, and they are only allowed to wash in the pond every six weeks. At first, the boys are curious to peak at the girls but Arn soon realizes it’s not like he imagined: “[T]hese girl, they not like the apsara dancer with round breast carved on temple. They like old women. All bone. Skin like paper. Some with hair falling out. The boy see this, they don’t want to look anymore” (98).

Arn sees more infighting between the Khmer Rouge soldiers. A new leader takes Sombo away, but after that leader is deposed, another leader sets Sombo free. Sombo lets Arn listen to his radio; the voice of Angka says the country is preparing for a great harvest, but Arn knows that both the rice crop and the child laborers are sick and dying. The Voice of America reports that Vietnamese soldiers are entering the country and Arn is excited because he thinks these “devil soldier” might be able to rescue him (103).

Arn is given more duties by the Khmer Rouge. At night, when he buries the corpses, he is now made to urinate on them.