The feelings and sceneries are etched like a drawing on a plain canvas, complete with all your memories of walking barefoot over dikes of rice fields, hearing the rasping sound of a broom brushing against the gravel under the sweltering heat of the sun, and walking down the road along the high cliffs on java's coast, far below, the raging surf of the Indian Ocean. There were stories about gods, demons, lost souls and wandering in the night. This story depicts the history of the family of a Dutch Indian Government officer, one of the many law-abiding, hard-working officials in the last decades of colonial grandeur, seen through the eyes of a carefree child. How a child sees the story would surely shock adults living in a rapidly-changing world, during and after the war. Lies Brunsveld was born in 1924 in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. Her family used to transfer to other islands. Her childhood ended with the Japanese internment of white Dutch. Many died, including her mother. After the war, she moved to the Netherlands as a refugee. She married her husband in Jogjakarta. They returned to India, where the Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed. In the early sixties, her family stayed for good in the Netherlands.