The Rent Collector: Chapter Ten Summary & Analysis

While Sang Ly is kneeling on the floor of their hut, sweeping ashes from the stove, Lucky Fat bursts in with a panicked look in his eye. He frantically tells Sang Ly that his friend is bleeding, and that Sang Ly must come with him right away. Lucky Fat is insistent that she come alone. Taking Nisay with her, Sang Ly follows Lucky Fat back to his hut and finds a young girl inside, 11 or 12 years old. Her pants around her pelvis and thighs are soaked with blood.

At first, Sang Ly thinks she must have been assaulted, but the girl, Maly, says that nobody touched her. Lucky Fat explains that while they were picking trash, she suddenly started bleeding and was so scared that he brought her back to his hut. Sang Ly is relieved, realizing that Maly is not injured—she is menstruating for the first time. Being an orphan like Lucky Fat, Maly does not have a mother to explain the process to her. Sang Ly sends Lucky Fat away so she and Maly can speak, and finding some rags and water, helps Maly to clean herself.

However, Maly is still nervous, and mentions that she does not want to be “sent away.” Sang Ly does not understand, and when she suggests that Maly tell her older brother about this, Lucky Fat charges back into the hut protesting. He exclaims that Maly’s brother is in a gang, and now that Maly is a woman, they will sell her to a brothel to be a prostitute. The narration states, “The notion is unthinkable to anyone civilized—but in Cambodia, it happens all the time.” Often when poor families cannot support all their children, daughters will be “sold” for a couple hundred dollars to a man who claims the girl will be employed as a waitress, but the man will instead sell the girl to a brothel where she will be kept as a slave. Lucky Fat tearfully insists that they have to protect Maly.

Gangs have been in Stung Meanchey for as long as Sang Ly can remember. Most often, gang members are children or teenagers with no one to look after them, and used to stick mostly to minor harassment and mischief. Lately, however, they have become more aggressive, but the general Cambodian way is to mind one’s own business—after the Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s genocide slaughtered 1 million people in the 1970s, an entire generation of Cambodian survivors have learned to keep their heads down.

However, Ki feels this refusal to engage with the problem is cowardly, though Sang Ly fears his sudden urge to fight back is motivated in part by revenge. When she tells him about Maly, he agrees they should help, but is not sure how yet, since not even the police are trustworthy. He thinks they will have to keep her hidden until they can arrange a way for her to escape Stung Meanchey.

During her next lesson with Sopeap, Sang Ly practices reading aloud while Sopeap writes notes from books. Although she previously said they must proceed quickly, she seems to be taking her time, which frustrates Sang Ly. However, Sopeap warns that it won’t do to rush into things before Sang Ly is ready. She gives Sang Ly one of Aesop’s fables to read, explaining that the story comes from Greece. In the short story, trained monkeys dance skillfully upon a stage, dressed and masked like courtiers. However, as soon as someone throws a handful of nuts onto the stage, the monkeys forget their training and scrabble for the food like mere animals.

Sang Ly thinks it is an amusing story, but Sopeap is frustrated that her student does not understand its purpose. Sopeap explains that the first lesson of literature is that each story has life lessons woven into them, even short ones such as this. Stories are layered with meaning. However, Sang Ly still does not understand the fable’s moral. When she presses Sopeap to explain what the story means to her, Sopeap whispers that it reminds her that sometimes, “I pretend to be something I’m not.” Sang Ly wishes she could understand what Sopeap keeps so tightly hidden about herself, but instead of offering any clues, Sopeap apologizes for teaching the material poorly, and says they will try again tomorrow, after she has spent more time preparing.

Rumor spreads around Stung Meanchey that a young girl has been kidnapped. During the night, Lucky Fat and Maly think they hear someone sneaking around his hut, so they bring Maly to Sang Ly and Ki’s hut to spend the night there instead. After Ki leaves in the morning, Sopeap arrives, but Sang Ly is so tired from staying awake with Maly that she asks if they can skip today. Sang Ly tries to keep sleeping Maly hidden from view when Sopeap is present. As Sopeap leaves, she remarks that people can only “go to the places they have first visited in their minds,” and surmises that perhaps that is how literature will help Sang Ly, so that someday she might be able to leave the dump. However, as she walks away, all Sang Ly can think of is what they will do about Maly.