The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

U Ba resumes the story. Tin wakes in his bedroom at his uncle’s house, an unfamiliar place. He longs for Mi Mi and Su Kyi. He eats some breakfast and explores his room on his hands and knees. His uncle, U Saw, is a wealthy merchant who decided to bring him to Rangoon on the advice of an astrologer, who warned him that he would face financial misfortune should he not do good by a relative. U Saw expected Tin to be immobile and is astonished at his height, confidence, and manners. He tells Tin that he will visit an eye doctor. Tin considers the possibility of returning to the village and seeing Mi Mi for the first time. It is clear that U Saw wants to spend as little time as possible with Tin, which is fine by both men.

Tin suffers intestinal problems. Though attributed to his sudden change in diet, he recognizes the pain as that of his mother and Mi Mi’s disappearances (temporary in the latter’s case). Tin toys with the idea of dying, realizing he can will himself to die. However, he abandons this desire as he wants to see Mi Mi again.

He lies awake, listening to the sounds around him. A snake crawls through the window onto his bed, remains beside him for a time, and then crawls out. He hears the rain. Listening to it enables him to determine the format of his uncle’s compound, so he can go outside and run. After running several laps, U Saw calls his name and asks if he is truly blind.

U Saw says the eye doctor will see Tin today. The examination is quick, with the doctor linking Tin’s blindness to congenital cataracts. The doctor performs surgery the next day. With bandaged eyes, Tin waits for several days. As the medical team removes his bandages, they express how fortunate he is. However, the light overwhelms Tin. Throughout this ordeal, he perceives the emotions of the people in the room by listening to their heartbeats. He finds comfort in knowing he retains this ability.

When Tin’s glasses arrive, his uncle wants to know how well he can see. Tin’s vision almost feels like an intrusion, as he has oriented himself to hearing, smelling, and feeling his way around.

Tin walks through Rangoon, systematically looking at everything. When he comes across a new neighborhood, he closes his eyes and listens to the heartbeats of those around him, which project whether or not there is potential danger. As he travels from one community to another, he realizes that he cannot tell individuals’ nationalities by their heartbeats. In this respect, they are universal for all people.

Tin’s uncle eats with him every night after his cataract surgery. Though they speak, Tin realizes U Saw is not paying attention to what he says. One night, there is a visitor from a school. U Saw informs Tin that he will attend a prep school to catch up on reading and writing. He intends to retain him in Rangoon for at least two more years as Tin has brought good fortune.

During Tin’s time in Rangoon, he has continually written to Mi Mi, expressing his desire to see her again; Mi Mi has also sent letters. Neither receives these letters as U Saw intercepts them, believing infatuation to be an illness from which one gradually recovers:

“He was happy that love was not a contagious disease. Otherwise he would have had to fire all his servants and thoroughly sanitize the villa and the garden. He might even have already contracted it himself, might have fallen for one of his female servants—a notion that he refused to entertain further.” (279)

U Saw has plans for Tin after he finishes prep school. He intends to send him to England for further education. Since World War II is raging, he believes the Germans will conquer England. U Saw’s plan is to learn to deal with the Nazis.

Tin stands on the deck of a steamer about to sail for England. Having put him through prep school, U Saw has now enrolled Tin in college in New York. He tells him to graduate with honors and return to Rangoon; U Saw will then make him a partner in his business. U Ba notes that this is the last time Tin and U Saw see each other. Though Tin’s love for Mi Mi is undiminished, his longing is less severe. He realizes that he no longer fears anything in life.

Julia resumes the story. U Ba shares a letter from U Saw to Mi Mi, saying that Tin left for the U.S. and advising her not to write any more letters. He gives another letter to Julia, Mi Mi’s reply to U Saw, thanking him for the good news and promising not to write any more letters. Julia realizes how smart Mi Mi was, that she didn’t truly believe U Saw.

U Ba informs Julia that Mi Mi never married. Mi Mi was a rare beauty whom many men wished to marry, but she refused them all. U Ba credits her beauty to her being in love: “Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is loved unconditionally and who, at the same time, is ugly? […] There is no such person” (290). Mi Mi’s parents died soon after Tin sailed to the U.S. Mi Mi supported herself by rolling cheroots—small cigars—that became particularly flavorful by her hands.

Julia asks where the letters came from and why U Ba has them. He explains that Su Kyi retrieved them from the house behind Tin’s shack, which U Saw owned, after U Saw’s death. Having consorted with the Japanese during World War II, U Saw fell out of favor with other businessmen. He was struck by lightning—and killed—while playing golf.

Julia quizzes U Ba about his own past, learning that he left for Rangoon and attended the same prep school as Tin. U Ba informs her that he left school, despite having a scholarship to study physics in England, and spent 30 years in the village taking care of his mother. To Julia, this makes no sense. For U Ba, it makes no sense that Julia would think things didn’t work out well for him.

Julia recalls standing with her father on the Brooklyn Bridge, looking down at the East River. She remembers her father enjoying tourist spots, realizing that he never felt like he belonged to the city and that her parents never truly belonged to each other. She feels sorry for them.

U Ba needs to resume the story in another location. He leads Julia through the village to a well-kept house with a railing that a child could climb. Julia suddenly realizes this is where Mi Mi lived. Suddenly, she “heard my father’s breath in the house. I heard Mi Mi crawling across the floor. I heard them whispering. Their voices. I had caught up to them” (302).

U Ba describes sitting in the tearoom where he met Julia. He recalls listening to Tin share his story—a story he wished to relay to Julia someday. Once Tin finishes telling his story, he exits the tearoom and makes his way to Mi Mi’s house. As he enters, the residents exit—leaving only Mi Mi behind, lying in bed. He recognizes everything about her and joins her in bed. Tin knows her heartbeat is old and ready to stop: “He had come in time. Just” (307).

The next morning, a relative finds Mi Mi and Tin dead in bed. Mi Mi’s physician expected she was close to death but has no idea why her healthy companion died as well. The news spreads throughout the region, and people gather at Mi Mi’s house that night. The next day, a funeral procession moves from her house across town to the cemetery where bodies are cremated. The celebration lasts three hours with singing, dancing, weeping, and laughing along the way.

Julia spends the next two days at U Ba’s house. She attempts to make him a meal, despite not knowing how to cook over an open flame. She scorches the rice and messes up boiling the vegetables, but U Ba says the meal is good. Julia asks about his family and learns his parents are dead, both having lived long lives.

Julia and U Ba walk to the cemetery after their meal. Along the way, Julia reflects on her and her father’s life in New York City. As she and U Ba stand at the cemetery, the latter tells the former that the two funeral pyres were separated by 20 yards, yet as the smoke rose, animals began to sing and the two columns of smoke came together—just as they did in her favorite fairytale, “The Tale of the Prince, the Princess, and the Crocodile”

Back in her hotel the next morning, Julia receives an envelope from U Ba containing several photographs, each taken a decade apart. She looks at the photographs of a beautiful woman who must be Mi Mi. She observes, “U Ba had not been exaggerating. She commanded a grace and beauty that impressed me deeply” (322).

In each photograph, there is a boy, perhaps eight or nine years old in the first picture. Julia realizes the boy is in each photo and wonders if he might be Mi Mi’s nephew—however, the final photo reveals the boy to be U Ba. She realizes U Ba is the child of her father and Mi Mi. When U Ba said he’d taken care of his mother for 30 years, he spoke of Mi Mi.

Shaken, Julia goes to find U Ba. As she searches, she discovers that, on the 15th of every month, there is a celebration at Mi Mi’s house. The entire community arrives with candles, filling the house and yard. Julia hears the singing of children as she approaches. She enters the house and sees the bed where Mi Mi and Tin lay together. She realizes U Ba is beside her. She turns to say something, and he raises his finger to his lips as if to tell her to be quiet.