by J. F. Gump
If Math had thought the motorcycle-taxis were dangerous, it was only because she had never rode in a truck with Toy. The lady was the master of bad driving. She cut off more cars, motorcycles, and baht-buses in less than three kilometers, than Math thought possible. Somehow, she managed to miss every one. The rear seat of Toy’s truck was very small. With two people in the back, it was overcrowded. The ride to South Pattaya was both scary and uncomfortable.
As Mike had predicted, there was no place to park in downtown Pattaya. Toy spent more time finding a place to park than it had taken for them to drive there. Then she had to pay 200 baht for the privilege.
Mike smiled at Math, but said nothing. Instead, he spoke to Eduardo, “Happy-A-Go-Go is this way.” He led the way down a narrow street lined with shops, bars and restaurants. The others followed.
The closer they came to Pattaya’s famous ‘Walking Street’, the more crowded the sidewalks and streets became. Mike grabbed Math’s hand and pulled her towards him. “In South Pattaya,” he said, “it’s better if the men and the bar-girls think you are with someone already. But if you are not comfortable, I will let go of your hand.”
Math didn’t answer. Instead, she smiled and squeezed his hand tighter into hers. Instinctively, she knew he was right. She allowed herself be pulled closer. “Thank you,” she said.
Her eyes shined as she watched the endless procession of neon lights, sexy ladies, and drunken farangs. Loud music spilled out from the bars and filled the streets with a confusing mix of songs, one indistinguishable from the other. Street vendors hawked their wares, while the bar-girls and the katoeys (the transvestites), touted their own special wares.
“So, this is South Pattaya?” she thought to herself. Her sister, Itta, had never brought her here. And neither had her family when they came to Pattaya last year to visit Anan. “Isn’t this exciting?” she said to no one in particular.
Mike gave her a questioning glance. “Uh, yeah,” he shrugged. “I suppose it is.”
Toy and Eduardo either didn’t hear or just didn’t answer.
Within a minute, they were entering Happy-A-Go-Go. The place was crowded with brown-skinned Thai ladies and drunken farangs. There were a few vacant seats scattered around the room, but none where four people could sit. The hostess asked them to wait for a moment while she found them a table.
In the center of the bar was a raised platform with brass poles, pulsating lights, and dancers in various stages of undress. Math saw the dancers, but pretended she didn’t. Instead, she looked around the room at the customers and the girls who weren’t dancing.
In less than a minute, the hostess returned to show them to their seats. She had rearranged chairs and moved a few people to fit everyone at two small, high-topped tables. The original customers had first choice, so Math’s party had to sit with their backs to the dance stage. That was fine with her. Now she wouldn’t have to look at the naked girls dancing. On the other hand, Mike and Eduardo sat with their backs to the table and their faces toward the stage. Men! she thought.
The music was loud and their conversation minimal. It was not a good place to talk. Besides, the men seemed more interested in the dancers than either Math or Toy. After about ten minutes, the stage lights dimmed and music changed. Two ladies replaced the dancers who had been on stage.
“Watch this,” Mike said to Eduardo. “Tell me what you think. Is it real or is it an act?”
Math had no idea what Mike was talking about. She really didn’t want to look at naked women, but her curiosity got the best of her. She swiveled her seat toward the stage. The two ladies were dancing sensuously with each other, touching lightly, caressing softly. Math was entranced by what she was seeing. Her imagination ran wild. She had never done that before, but she had fantasized about it often enough. She couldn’t take her eyes away.
As the songs continued to play, the ladies on stage proceeded to make lesbian love to each other. It was not polite, but it was exciting. When the show ended, the women left the stage and the other dancers returned.
Mike took her hand. “Sorry you had to see that,” he said. “I told you there might be things you didn’t want to see.”
Her face was flushed from excitement and embarrassment. She hoped it was too dark for anyone to notice. “Never mind,” she said. “I told you I want to see everything in Pattaya.”
A few minutes later they had finished their drinks. Mike paid for everyone and they left. Outside, the streets were more crowded than before. It seemed that every person in Pattaya was in this part of town.
“Let’s go to the Bamboo Bar,” Mike suggested to no one in particular. Everyone followed his lead. After a moment he dropped back, pulling Eduardo with him, so they could talk about the show at Happy-A-Go-Go. Math walked ahead, beside of Toy.
“So, why are you in Pattaya?” Toy asked. “Are you here on holiday?”
“No. I am here to work with my brother. If he has something for me to do, that is. I lost my job in Bangkok and need money to pay for food, rent, insurance, and everything. I don’t know how much my brother can pay me. Maybe nothing. If he has no work for me, I will find something else to do.”
“Darling,” Toy said, “You are a very good looking young lady and your English is excellent. If you ever need a job, you can work at my bar. The pay is not good, but you can make extra money by going with my customers. With your looks and your English, you would make a lot of money from the farangs. You just have to be careful and use a condom to protect yourself from diseases and pregnancy.”
“Hey,” Mike shouted. “What are you telling her? She’s a nice girl. She doesn’t want to work in your bar or any other bar.” He hadn’t really heard much of their conversation but he had heard Toy say condom and guessed at the rest. The look on their faces told him his guess was correct.
Math was surprised. Mike must understand Thai better than she thought. Also, she was surprised that he would care where she worked.
Mike hurried to catch up with the women. He took Math by the hand. “You can walk with me. Toy is my good friend, but working in a bar is not for you. You are too smart for that.”
Math stopped walking. She barely knew this farang and now he was telling her what she should do. “You are not my boyfriend or my husband or my father. Where I work is up to me,” she said, lifting her face and jutting out her chin. She was not smiling.
Mike stared at her for a long moment before replying, his face was as serious as hers. “Yes, it is up to you, if you want to be a whore or not. I think it would be best if you just shut up and come with me.” He let his lips form an apologetic smile. He squeezed Math’s hand firmly but gently and started up the street again.
She let herself be led rather than make a scene. Her pursed lips made it clear she was annoyed with his bossiness.
Two blocks later, they stopped at a large, open-air bar with a live band and a dance floor. A mixture of Thais and farangs filled about half of the tables. The band played loud. A few people danced. A young lady showed them to their table.
The way the seats were arranged inside the Bamboo Bar, two people sat on one side of the table and two sat on the other, but no one sat at the ends. You either sat beside your partner or you sat opposite of them. Math made it a point to sit on the same side of the table as Toy and not beside Mike. She sat facing him, but she didn’t look at him.
The waitress took their orders, and Mike paid when the drinks arrived. The band started a new song, a slow song.
“Do you want to dance?” Mike asked across the table.
Either Math didn’t hear him, didn’t understand him, or was just plain ignoring him.
“I said, do you want to dance?” he repeated louder, almost shouting.
Still she did not answer, or even acknowledge he had spoken. Instead, she turned and talked to Toy, laughing.
The music was loud and the women were talkin
g low. Mike couldn’t hear anything they were saying. He figured they were talking about him, and laughing at him too. “Little bitch,” he muttered under his breath. He turned so he could watch the band and the couples who were dancing.
Three songs later, he had finished his beer and Math had ignored him the whole time. He was bored and ready to leave. Also, he was anxious to get back to Lek. He felt a little guilty for coming to South Pattaya in the first place. Lek would probably be pissed at him if he were gone too long. He didn’t want that, not tonight. He had special plans for later.
“Well,” Mike said to no one in particular, “I am going back to Toy’s bar.” He stood and walked to the street. The others followed, leaving their half-finished drinks behind.
Mike waited on the sidewalk for them to join him. “I am taking a baht-bus back,” he announced. “I don’t feel like walking back to Toy’s truck. Sorry Toy, I hope you are not angry with me too.” He frowned in Math’s direction.
“Never mind,” Toy responded, noticing his gesture. “I will see you later, at my bar.”
As Mike crossed the street, he heard Math shouting, “Please, wait. Can I go with you? I don’t want to walk back to the truck either.” Actually, she did not want to ride with Toy again, but out of politeness she didn’t say that.
Grimacing, he waited for the girl to catch up with him, then flagged down an empty baht-bus. The ride up Second Road to Soi 2 would take about ten minutes unless they ran into traffic, or unless the driver was trolling for new passengers.
Mike was surprised when she sat beside him. Considering the way she had been acting for the last half hour or so, he was surprised she was even sitting in the same vehicle with him. It was his turn to ignore her and he did it completely.
At Central Pattaya Road, they just missed making it through the green light. Within seconds, the baht-bus was surrounded by cars, buses, and motorcycles, spewing out enough carbon monoxide to kill all but the hardiest.
Second Road is blocked from the sea breezes by a continuous row of hotels, bars, and shops. Tonight, the exhaust fumes at the intersection of Central and Second hung squalid in the damp air. Mike breathed only when necessary. In a moment, Math spoke. “Why do you care where I work?”
“I don’t care where you work,” he answered, turning to look at her. “You can do what you want. I am not your father or your husband or your boyfriend or anything else. Remember? What you do is up to you. I just don’t like the idea of a nice and smart girl getting into that business. That’s all I care about.”
“Oh,” she said, then smiled for the first time since the subject had come up earlier. “I was just wondering. Are we almost to Soi 2?”
“Almost,” he answered.
The light changed and the baht-bus continued up Second Road. Five minutes later, they arrived. Mike pushed the buzzer to let the driver know they wanted to stop. They exited the bed of the truck and Mike handed the man a fifty baht note. It was more than the normal fare, but the driver hadn’t stopped for any other passengers and that made the ride worth the extra.
When they entered Toy’s Bar together, Lek gave them a cold, suspicious glare.
“I will talk to Som Jai,” Math said, remembering Som Jai’s warning about Lek.
“Up to you,” Mike answered. He was glad to be rid of her. At the same time, he felt like he was being dumped. “I will talk to Lek,” he added in a smart-ass tone. “At least she will talk to me.”
“Up to you, too,” she responded, just as tartly.
They went their separate ways. Math went to where Som Jai was sitting. Mike went to his seat.
Chapter 6
Mike’s seat was a stool at the far end of the bar, behind where the two-man band played. To the rear of his seat, and not more than fifteen feet away, was another beer bar with another two-man band. When both bands played, he couldn’t hear what either was playing. He called it the music mix zone. Inside the music mix zone, it was actually quieter than most of the other seats at the bar. There, a person could have a conversation without having to shout over the noise of the bands. Mike liked the music mix zone.
Lek sauntered around the bar, casting an occasional biting glance at Mike. Finally, after about ten minutes, she walked to where he sat. “Who is the lady?” she asked, her head tilted back. There was no smile.
“What lady?” Mike responded.
“Don’t be a stupid man,” Lek said, nodding in the direction of where Math sat talking to Som Jai. “You know what lady I mean.”
“A friend of Som Jai’s, I think,” he answered. “At least that is what she told me. Why?”
“I think you went for a short time with her. Som Jai told me that girl is no good. She said the lady is a bar-girl who used to work in Pattaya. Why would you go with a bar-girl?”
“Oh, come on, Lek,” he protested. “I went with your sister and her boyfriend. That girl invited herself to go with us. We just went to a couple of places downtown. Why are you so concerned anyway? Lately, it seems like you don’t want me anymore, so why should you care if I do go with another girl?”
Lek gave him a long stare. He was wrong. She still wanted Mike, but he was the one who had been pulling away from their relationship during the past few weeks. He still came to see her every day, but he never stayed long anymore. He had even stopped taking her home with him on Saturday nights. Tonight was the first he had asked her to dinner together in over three weeks. He was the one who had been pulling away, and his withdrawal hurt and angered her. Just when she had finally let her defenses down and decided to love him, he had distanced himself from her.
“I think you are mixed up. It seems you don’t know what I want.” She paused briefly to gauge his reaction, then continued. “If you went with my sister, then where is she? I think you did not go with my sister. I think you went only with that lady.”
Mike sighed aloud. “I took the baht-bus back because I wanted to get away from that lady, but she decided to come with me. What could I do? Your sister will be back in a few minutes. You will see I am telling the truth.” He fell silent, frowning.
Lek recognized the look on his face. She had pissed him off. “Paw,” she shouted to one of the girls behind the bar, “Bring Mike a beer. I will pay.” With that, she gave him a cold, sideways glance, then walked away to visit other customers.
Always business, Mike thought, more irritated than angry. With Lek, business always came first. Well, fuck her. He tried to smile and laugh it off, but couldn’t. He could feel the sharp edge of depression rubbing against him. He recognized the symptoms, but he couldn’t stop them. The rest of the night was going to be shit.
He knew he should just go home, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t allow himself to leave just yet. Earlier in the evening, he had taken Lek to dinner. It was part of a plan he had cooked up three days ago. He had decided that tonight he would wait for Lek to finish work and then see if she would go home with him. He hadn’t done that in a while. He hoped things between them might be better if she went home with him tonight. Now, after the trip downtown with that girl, he was sure Lek was not going anywhere with him.
He proceeded to drink one beer after another at a fairly steady pace. He couldn’t think of any reasons why he shouldn’t.
By the time Toy and Eduardo returned from downtown, he had finished three beers and was working on his fourth. But today was Saturday and he didn’t have to work the next day, and the chances of Lek going with him were slim, so what difference did it make if he got drunk? With luck, he mused wryly to himself, he would be shit-faced within the hour.
Mike watched the ladies of the night talking and flirting with the farangs at the bar. Most of the men looked as drunk as he felt. They probably were. Som Jai sat with a customer who seemed more than a little interested in her. Mike figured she had a man for the night. Toy talked steady with that girl, Math. He knew she was trying to recruit the girl to work
at her bar and that annoyed him.
None of the bar-girls came to talk to him, like they usually did. They probably saw the conversation between him and Lek. He didn’t care. He was not in the mood for a broken English conversation anyway. He was doing just fine watching the bar activities, listening to the undecipherable music, and drinking his beer. As he sat there, he thought back to the first time he met Lek.
It had been eight months ago, and he had been to the Classroom Bar just across the street. He had left there early because one of the waitresses had pissed him off. It had been barely ten o’clock and it had been a Saturday night. It had been way too early to go home.
After leaving the Classroom that night, he had wandered up the street, checking out the open-air beer bars that lined Soi 2. He had stopped in a couple of them before and had drank a beer or two, but he had never been to the bar on the corner. He decided to go there.
The front area of the bar was crowded and the seats were all taken. He sat at the back of the bar, behind the band. Since it was his first visit to Toy’s Fun Bar, he wanted everyone to know he was not a tourist. He ordered his beer in Thai instead of English. The tactic was effective.
He spent a minute checking out the bar. The customers were mostly German tourists. Few of the bar-girls spoke German, but most of them spoke nit noy - just a little - English. None of the Germans spoke Thai, but they, too, spoke nit noy English. Thus the Germans and bar-girls talked with each other in broken English. It worked surprisingly well.
When Lek walked in that night, he noticed her at once. She didn’t just walk in; she sort of floated in, with a slow, proud stroll. She acknowledged everyone at the bar, speaking to some, waving to others, smiling at everyone. Her smile was contagious. When she smiled, he couldn’t help but smile back. There was something about her that made him want to be close. He didn’t know exactly what it was, just something.