Never Fall Down

The Khmer Rouge leaders will arrive in two weeks for a camp inspection and a concert. A new teacher, Mek, has arrived to teach the children the Revolutionary song they must perform. The Khmer Rouge have outlawed all other music and at first, Mek, whose family has been killed by the Khmer Rouge, refuses to teach the propaganda song that proclaims the children’s love for Angka.

Arn befriends Kha, a skinny kid who also plays the khim, and Siv, a dancer with the performance troupe. Although he hates the Khmer Rouge too, Arn shows the other band members how to smile big and sing loudly about their love for the Revolution. A few days before the concert, he sneaks into the men’s building and reminds Mek that even though his own family is gone, he has a chance to save the children in the band by teaching them the Revolutionary music. Mek agrees.

The day of the concert arrives. The Khmer Rouge leaders are pleased with the children’s performance, but they impose even stricter rules on the camp. Arn realizes the Khmer Rouge guards are getting younger. The soldiers brutalizing children in the fields and executing prisoners are now “kid, like us” (66).