A Wish in the Dark

Now 13, Pong accompanies Father Cham on an errand into the village of Tanaburi below the mountain; an orphaned baby was found there earlier that morning and is now waiting to be blessed. When Pong questions why someone would abandon their baby, Father Cham remains quiet, prompting him to answer his own question: The family was probably starving, and the parents did what they thought they had to do. Father Cham thanks Pong for teaching him that the desperate deserve their kindness, not their judgment. The abbot performs a blessing on the orphaned baby and gives her an exquisite red-and-gold-bound cord; as he ties it around her wrist, Pong notices a brilliant golden light emanating from Father Cham’s hands. Father Cham is evasive about it when Pong questions him later, speaking instead of Pong’s unique gift for observation, but Pong later realizes that Father Cham’s blessings really come true. Pong and Father Cham notice the villagers of Tanaburi crowded around a horse-drawn carriage: Warden Sivapan and his family have come to visit.

Nok’s father, now the Governor’s chief law commissioner, must convince the Tanaburi villagers to stop using fire and buy