One night Tukataa was caught in the guardhouse at the orphanage entrance. She’d been sneaking out to give blowjobs to tuktuk drivers to make money for the smartphone she wanted. The security guard had seen what she was doing and also demanded a blowjob in return for free passage in and out of the orphanage. The guard was fired instantly once the orphanage management found out, while Tukataa was locked up in the office basement.
The following morning all the orphans were woken early and instructed to stand to attention in the school yard. They stood confused, wondering why they’d been woken so early. Then Tukataa was paraded in front of them. The bible-class teacher came forward holding a bamboo stick. The teacher bent Tukataa over and she was given sixteen strokes. She refused to scream or cry, but tears began to stream down her cheeks nonetheless. Soon after Tukataa had started to cry, a blond Canadian volunteer arrived at the orphanage a little earlier than expected. The volunteer’s innocent vision of orphanage life was shattered as she witnessed the scene. The young woman cried foul while attempting to intervene and stop the disgusting act. She scolded the staff standing by who then moved to physically stop her from taking Tukataa away from the violent bible teacher. The staff pulled her hair and scratched her arms and face as they tried to stop the fair-skinned woman, but she managed to grab Tukataa and get her away, shouting that the orphanage would pay dearly for this. The pair ran through the now unguarded gate where both Tukataa and the Canadian girl were hit by a motorbike.
They were taken to a hospital and despite a broken arm, the Canadian girl continued to loudly broadcast what had happened to Tukataa. It was apparent to the triage nurse that the swollen marks on Tukataa’s bottom were unrelated to the traffic accident, but it wasn’t until the Canadian girl posted photos of Tukataa’s bruises on social media that the hospital management called the authorities. Later that morning, the police moved into the orphanage, and child-welfare authorities were instructed to take over the institution. The pictures of Tukataa’s scars were widely shared on Facebook and Instagram by concerned westerners and Thais alike.
In the chaos, a handful of orphans managed to sneak out of the place unnoticed, and Nid was among them. Having no other clothes, she was wearing her orphanage uniform. When she got on a free red bus she was relieved to feel there was some distance between her and the orphanage. Nid wasn’t sure where she was going and jumped off the bus when she spotted a Buddhist temple. Walking into the temple felt like entering a warm shower; the aroma of incense and the monk’s chanting prayers floated around, and she was overcome by a sense of safety she hadn’t felt for a long time. She hadn’t recited any Buddhist prayers for years, but once she knelt down she suddenly remembered the words.
After leaving the temple she wandered down the pavement alongside a busy road until she arrived at a weekend market. A fat middle-aged woman was unloading a pickup truck. She looked like a farmer who’d travelled from one of the provinces to sell her produce in Bangkok. Nid could hear her puffing away, and noticed her sweat-soaked shirt. As she walked past the truck, she saw a sack of chillies had burst open, with the contents spilled over the pavement. Without thinking, Nid bent down and began helping the chubby woman collect the chillies. Soon they’d put them all in a rattan basket.
“You’re such a good girl,” puffed the chubby woman, “will you stay with me a little longer? I could really do with a hand!” The pickup was loaded with durian, mangosteen, bamboo shoots, rambutan, dragon fruit and longan berries, as well as sacks of chillies. Nid helped carry the produce to a market stall about a dozen yards away. It took her almost an hour to unload everything, by which time her uniform was dirty and wrinkled. Seeing the state of her clothes, Nid flinched for a moment before she remembered that she’d left the orphanage and wouldn’t be disciplined for it. The chubby woman noticed Nid’s distress and smiled as she went over to her pickup, returning with a bundle of clothes.
“Here darling, I’ll take your clothes to the laundry shop but you can wear these for now; they’re my daughter’s.” Nid quickly changed into a pair of farmer’s denim pants and a blouse, out of sight from the market traders and shoppers. She blended in immediately and got to work serving customers and dividing the chillies into small plastic bags. After the chubby lady got her some sticky rice with pork from one of the other stalls, Nid asked her for a job. The woman’s face became sad. “I’m so sorry, I only sell in Bangkok at the weekend markets and my daughter usually comes with me, so I can’t offer you a job. If you don’t mind waiting a bit, I’ll ask around as I know a lot of the vendors here.” She returned almost an hour later, by which time it was evening. The laundry shop had already closed and Nid still had to find somewhere to sleep. “Stay with me until Sunday evening,” said the woman. “You can work here this weekend and I’ll give you 500 baht. Who knows what might turn up?” Nid slept with her in the cab of the pickup that Friday night and the rest of the weekend. She showered each morning and night at the back of the market where there were some basic showers and toilets. On the Sunday morning a vendor handed her a piece of paper ripped from a notice board that read:
JUNIOR ASSISTANT NEEDED TO RESTOCK SHELVES AND KEEP THE STORE CLEAN AND ORGANIZED. APPLY IN PERSON AT 7-ELEVEN STORE.
Nid politely asked the chubby woman if she could leave the market stall and then went to visit the 7-Eleven store a hundred yards away. “The manager isn’t in,” the girl at the cash register told her, “come back later just before the evening shift.”
“What is the job exactly?” asked Nid.
The cashier pointed at the shelves and large fridges. “Just keeping them stocked and mopping the floors. It’s easy – anyone can do it.” The girl smiled, showing the metal wire of her braces. Nid returned to the market, but no longer felt interested in helping. The afternoon seemed to pass very slowly as she waited to go to the interview at the end of the day.
When Nid returned to the store, the cashier showed her braces through her smile again. “Just sit down here. The manager should be here any moment.” As Nid waited she could see the store was understaffed – the floor was a little dirty and there were some empty spaces on the shelves.
“My name is Lek,” said the cashier as Nid waited. Lek asked where Nid lived, and without thinking she mentioned the area beside the orphanage. “Oh, that is far – you’ll spend hours in traffic. If you want, you can be my flatmate. I’m struggling with my rent and looking for someone to share,” said Lek.
“But I don’t have any money; I’ll get 500 baht tonight but that’s it,” Nid replied.
Lek smiled again. “You’ll get paid 1500 baht a week, and the rent isn’t due until the end of the month. There’s plenty of time to save up your half of the rent,” she said reassuringly.
“Do you think I’ll get the job?” asked Nid.
“I’ll talk to the manager. I really need someone to help me with the rent.”
While waiting patiently for the manager Nid suddenly had an urgent need to pee and asked were the toilet was. When she returned, a bald middle-aged Chinese man was operating the cash register. He had an expressionless face, and without saying a word he motioned for Nid to sit down. After he’d finished serving a customer he said, “This is a full-time job, but you’ll also be asked to do overtime if needed. You’ll keep this place spotless and stock the fridges and shelves. I want you to start tomorrow morning, but you need to pay for your own uniform.”
“She can borrow one of mine,” shouted Lek from behind a shelf. The manager returned to the cash register and Lek told Nid she’d meet her at the market after her shift. By the time Lek turned up at the market stall, most of the cabbages and other vegetables had been sold and Nid was loading the rest into the pickup. The chubby woman handed Nid a big plastic bag with unsold fruit and the promised 500 baht. Lek had been waiting and tried to kill the time by swiping on her smartphone. After Nid said her thanks and goodbyes to the chubby woman, they boarded a songthaew and left for Lek’s apartment.
10
Chapt
er 10
Nid
“What do you think?” Lek asked me as she showed me the basic studio room with a bed, a closet, a bathroom and a small sink out on the balcony. “Do you want to move in with me?”
I realized how Lek needed this arrangement as much as I did. “Yes, I like it,” I said. And with that, the deal was done.
Only three days after leaving the orphanage I had 500 baht in my pocket, a roof over my head and a job. All my recent misfortunes now seemed like a distant memory after the events of the last few days. I settled into my new life with ease. I again wore a uniform, this time consisting of a green-lined blouse with a 7-Eleven logo on the top-left pocket, and black trousers. I still wore the black shoes from the orphanage. I didn’t feel comfortable going outdoors either in my 7-Eleven uniform or my old orphanage clothes so I stayed in my room for the first week when not at work to avoid spending money until I could buy a long T-shirt style dress and flip flops.
My first wage seemed like a lot of money and it was certainly more than I’d ever had before. I tried saving as much as I could until my money filled an empty cigarette carton. When that was full I used my old student ID-card to open a bank account. I couldn’t put in much to begin with as I still had to buy a uniform and needed to set aside five hundred baht each week to cover my half of the rent and utilities. My savings steadily increased, helped along by accepting all the overtime hours offered at the store. After a few months stocking shelves I was promoted to a sales clerk. I liked night shifts the most because in the small hours there were very few customers, and those that came into the store late at night were different from the daytime customers. Apart from party animals leaving clubs or bars, there were also taxi drivers coming in for energy drinks to stay awake and prostitutes buying condoms or K-Y Jelly and some snacks or liquor on their way home after finishing for the night. My new friend Lek spent the quiet hours chatting away on her smartphone, thinking that one day she would find a husband through it. She talked to a lot of foreigners through several chat apps and was always talking to foreigners in Europe and the US during their evenings. That seemed like a good idea to me, but I didn’t have a smartphone. Lek helped me buy one at an electronics market for four thousand baht – almost a month’s salary. She also put some popular chat apps on the phone for me. The night shifts were different after that, and I played on my smartphone during the quiet hours of the night shifts. I found a translation app to help with my English and I chatted a lot with men, most of them twice my age. Nothing came of it, but it started me on what was to become a steep learning curve.
One night, I overheard a call girl talking on her mobile. The English-language lessons from the orphanage volunteers helped me to understand some of the conversation. The girl agreed to go to a foreigner’s room, for which she demanded three thousand baht. She wore high heels and a skirt so short that it barely covered her backside, together with a blouse that exposed a lot of cleavage. I handed over her change and the girl smiled and left the shop, wiggling her curvy bum. The girl returned a few nights later to buy more condoms and K-Y Jelly. She laughed when I told her I’d never had a date.
“I’ve never had a boyfriend,” I confessed. “I’m a bit scared.”
“You’re so lucky!” the call girl said. “I gave my virginity away for nothing because I was so stupid. Do you know that Japanese men pay a lot of money for a beautiful virgin girl? Why give it away for free for someone just to say ‘thanks’? I have a Japanese customer who would love to pay twenty thousand baht to pop your cherry.”
I hesitated.
“Don’t worry, the Japanese are like this,” the call girl continued as she waved a little finger. “You won’t feel a thing and it’ll be over in five minutes, believe me I know. I’ll come with you – you’ll be fine.”
I agreed and the girl promised to organize a double date with the Japanese guy. She said her name was Som, meaning orange, and we added each other on LINE, a chat app. I became restless thinking about the twenty thousand baht I was going to earn, and also about what I might have to do for it. I didn’t have time to worry about it for long though as Som texted me the following day. The meet-up was going to be at midnight. Lek supportively offered to do my night shift at the store. Although her own search for a husband hadn’t worked out, Lek watched my developments with great interest. I smiled gratefully but was too nervous to talk much.
Som called me that evening, and asked me to come down from my apartment as she was coming in a taxi.
“You don’t need to dress up or wear any makeup. Our customer will take care of that,” Som told me over the phone.
I got into the taxi in a T-shirt and flip flops. It took about an hour of sitting in heavy traffic to get to Thonglor district, a part of Bangkok I had never seen before. The area was full of huge condominium blocks, Japanese bars, restaurants and supermarkets.
Thonglor District, Bangkok
Bangkok’s Thonglor district is home to about half of Thailand’s Japanese residents. Bangkok has the fourth largest Japanese expatriate population of any city in the world outside Japan, behind only Los Angeles, New York City and Shanghai. The Japanese make up the largest expatriate group in Thailand and their purchasing power is huge, even for western standards as their expatriate salaries are based on the Japanese cost of living, one of the highest in the world.
Nid
Som directed the driver to a tall building that housed luxury high-end condos. The entrance was guarded by uniformed security staff who only granted access to the complex after confirmation from a resident. The two of us stood in silence as the lift took us up to the twentieth floor. Som calmly checked her messages on the way up, while I felt a knot in my stomach.
A door opened as we approached the condo entrance. The Japanese man standing in the doorway was bald with a face that looked exactly like a toad. He bowed and said, “Konbanwa.” Despite his foreboding appearance, his submissive attitude allayed my fears somewhat. He led both of us into a dimly lit living room that offered an astonishing view of the Bangkok skyline. A teapot and wooden cups were neatly arranged on a low table at the centre of the room. The man ushered Som and me over to a sofa consisting of soft cushions before pouring hot sake from a teapot into wooden cups. He spoke with Som in English with a heavy accent that I couldn’t understand. Som took me by the arm and guided me to a bedroom where a short black skirt, knee socks and a white blouse were laid out on the bed. On closer inspection I realized there was no underwear. Som instructed me to get into the somewhat childish costume while she changed into red lingerie that left her buttocks, vagina and nipples
exposed.
When we returned to the living room we found the man drinking sake naked on the sofa. He beckoned us over and gestured for us to sit beside him while he stroked his erect penis. It was so small that Som was able to take both his penis and scrotum in her mouth. Her cheeks moved inwards while she sucked. After a while, the man pushed Som away as he didn’t want to have an orgasm with her. He motioned for me to sit on the table. He kneeled in front of me and spread my legs open. He opened the lips of my vagina with two silver teaspoons.
He mumbled something admiringly as he tried to look inside my vagina, and then he inserted his tongue. I wanted to push him away, but the warning in Som’s eyes stopped me just in time. I felt nothing but disgust as the Japanese guy ate me down there. He was so utterly unattractive and didn’t even appear human. It was nothing like when Tukataa once kissed me down there in the orphanage. Som got on the floor to give the man another blowjob, but he spoke quickly in his accented English and she moved back to the sofa. Som told me to stand up while she got on her knees and inserted her tongue into my vagina, using the same teaspoons to open me. This time it was more pleasurable, but not so much that I would orgasm, especially not with such an ugly creature looking at me with his bulging eyes. It wasn’t until later that I realized the man had instructed Som to prepare me for
his entry.
The pleasant feeling of Som
licking me was only temporary, and it disappeared entirely when the Japanese man kneeled behind me and started licking my anus. It felt weird and uncomfortable, and I disliked the fact that the creep was now behind me. As he licked, he reached up and squeezed my breasts. I knew he wanted to penetrate me soon. Som told me to lie on my back on the sofa and keep my legs wide open. The Japanese man mounted and penetrated me, but after just a minute he pulled out and orgasmed on my tummy. I didn’t feel the penetration though, and only realized I’d lost my virginity when I saw drops of blood on the cushion. I expected it to be over at that point, but it wasn’t. The Japanese man went down on me again, licking and swallowing the mixture of my blood and his semen.
The experience was gross, but the end was nearing. The Japanese man suggested Som and I shower, and after we’d finished and returned to the living room, he’d gone. We waited in silence until he returned wearing a bathrobe and carrying a silver-plated tray with two bundles of banknotes and two bottles of perfume. He bowed and said, “Arigatogozaimashita, please accept my gifts.” It was clear that it was time for us to leave.
The following day I worked a double-shift to make up for the one Lek had covered the night before. I was on autopilot during both shifts, while the events of the previous night replayed over and over in my mind.
11
Chapter 11
Tony
We walked to Nid’s Toyota in the hotel parking lot and joined the heavy traffic. It took more than an hour to reach the highway leading out of Bangkok. The Impact Arena stadium is in Pak Kret district in Nonthaburi province, not far from Don Muang, Bangkok’s old airport, which was visible from the elevated road. The stadium was huge, with thousands of spectators already seated when we arrived. Several matches were scheduled that evening but they seemed a bit too lame to watch. The main fight between a Thai and a Nigerian was unimpressive. The Thai was muscular but small, and he’d clearly received a lot of punches in the face during his career. His nose had been battered completely flat and resembled that of a boxer dog. The Nigerian he was facing off against was huge, so I put my money on him.
The Second Poison Page 6