First They Killed My Father

Six months after the reunion in the infirmary, Loung’s world falls apart. She wakes up with a sensation of fear and dread. She feels that something happened to her mother. She decides to leave the camp without permission and makes her way to Ro Leap. Along her journey, she remembers the day Pa told her that she had extrasensory perception. She remembers the few times that her dreams became a reality. Upon her arrival to Ro Leap, Loung runs straight to her mother’s hut. Her mother and sister are not there, and a neighbor informs her that they are dead.

Devastated, Loung describes her feelings: “My wall crumbles and collapses on top of me. Tears run uncontrollably down my face. My chest compresses, my insides gnaw at me, eating away at my sanity” (160). Thoughts of her young sister’s sad life race before her eyes as she imagines what happened to her mother and sister during their last moments with the soldiers. She leaves Ro Leap and doesn’t remember how she got back to her camp. Her supervisor wakes her up by slapping her and asking where she has been for three days. Loung is unable to answer because she truly does not know what happened during that time.