The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane

Daniel Fangs mid-thirties are marked by the birth of his daughter and the death of a childhood friend. His daughters birth and infancy reminds him of his own boyhood his friends death of the good times he had with back in their old neighbourhood.They were the kids from the wrong side of the temple kids who grew up in the night market and next to the red light district. Their parents didnt like them visiting the market by themselves and expressly forbade them from taking a single step into Carnation Lane. But the appearance of a chained orangutan in a night market spectacle the year the three friends turned twelve convinced them to defy the parental ban. While the adults were away at a protest against Taiwans endless Martial Law they stole into the banned zone released the beast from bondage and led it upstream on a quest to find the fabled zoo.The memory of this all-but-forgotten childhood experience comes back after news of his friends suicide. It seems to Daniel Fang that the two events must somehow be connected. A cryptologist by training he decides to investigate hoping to solve the mystery of his friends death and decode the message contained within the memory that has shaped even warped their later lives.