The Rent Collector

With help from the real Sopeap Sin’s family, Sang is able to locate her beloved teacher. Sopeap has returned to the home in which the Khmer Rouge brutally murdered her husband, her child, and her brave housekeeper. The current homeowner, Heng Rangsey, has allowed Sopeap to stay with him because the Khmer Rouge murdered his own father, also a teacher.

Sopeap is still alive, but barely. Sang then introduces her to the real Sopeap Sin’s family, who tell her of all the good that they were able to do with the money she sent them. They also assure her that they do not blame her for Sopeap’s death. As they leave, Sang tells Sopeap that their stories are the real lesson, “and there is no other that is more important” (256).

Sang stays with Sopeap, just as the old woman in the story stayed with the elephant. She reads to her from Hans Christian Andersen’s story, “The Phoenix Bird,” her favorite, and Sopeap “lets go of her final breath, flies away with [the] words that drift distant in the night to the glorious place where family waits—and it is over” (259). She leaves Mr. Rangsey’s house and finds Ki waiting for her and together they return home to the dump.