Danny suddenly realised that he had been here once before, with Ying. It was her old room. It turned him cold.
“Jesus Christ Mother of God!” he said.
“What you say like that for?”
“I know this place. I have been here before. My friend used to live here.”
Ling just looked at Danny, smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
“This my apartment” she said. She unlocked the door and slipped off her shoes before going inside. Danny followed her lead. It was all getting a bit surreal. She looked like Ying, she sounded like Ying, her name was like Ying and she lived in her old room. Was all this just coincidence? The heat inside the room was oppressive and made Danny sweat instantly. Ling turned on a fan and they wandered through the apartment. Ling called it an apartment, but Danny would have called it a concrete box with a toilet.
The room was quite small. Just enough room for two straw mats laid out on the floor, a floor fan, a wardrobe with no doors on it, full of perfectly ironed clothes and piled high on top with boxes. There was a fridge with a microwave on top of it and an ironing board was folded and leaning up against the wall. There was a door that opened into a little bathroom with a toilet and shower. Another door on the far wall led outside to a cooking area, which was very basic. It consisted of a bench and sink and a portable one ring gas cooker. Pans and dishes were stored underneath the bench.
Danny sat outside on a low wall that marked the buildings boundary. The night air was warm and humid, but it was a lot cooler then inside. Danny lit up a cigarette. Ling fetched him an ice cold beer from the fridge and sat on the wall next to him.
“I have to tell you,” said Danny, “I think you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and you remind me of somebody I know.”
“Yes, I think same about you” she smiled back.
Danny laughed. He knew she didn’t realise what she had just said and, if he tried to explain it, then it wouldn’t be funny.
“I share apartment with a friend. She be back later. She a dancer, very good. You meet her later.” Ling was going to tell Danny that her friend was a ladyboy, but she thought it might be funny to see his reaction first hand as he realised for himself, if he ever did.
“Oh! Where will we all sleep?”
“We sleep on beds in room.”
“You mean the straw mats?”
“Yes, very comfortable. Good for back.”
Danny realised that she wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on the floor in a room that was so hot it felt like it could slow cook a casserole.
“Danny, I want ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“You want to sleep with me customer or boyfriend?”
“Oh! That reminds me.” Danny took out his wallet and handed Ling six thousand baht. Ling’s face dropped and she could not hide her disappointment.
“Oh!” she said.
“That’s the six thousand that I owe you for not sleeping with the ugly Aussie guy.”
“No! I don’t want.”
“Yes, that’s OK. Please take it. It’s not for me to sleep with you.”
Danny paused for a moment as he blew out cigarette smoke.
“Ling, I don’t know what to say. I really think yer grand. If you were not a bar girl I could even fall for you. I understand that we have to decide now if I’m a customer or your friend. My head is so mixed up. This is the last thing I wanted. I never planned to meet a bar girl.”
“Please don’t keep say ‘Bar Girl.’ Not nice. Many farang pretend to be boyfriend for girls and make many promise to get free sex and never come back to girl. Many girl have broken heart because dream of good future with husband. You different man. Very good man, good heart I think. Please do not tell me lies. I be good friend for you, but need to know customer or boyfriend. If you boyfriend me then can we make happy future?”
“Jesus!” he sighed deeply. “I need to think about this. If you did not do what you do, then I wouldn’t hesitate. You are every man’s dream. But, I just don’t know.”
“Okay. We have shower and talk in bed. Maybe we will understand each other better when we talk.”
“I’m going to have a shower with you now?” he asked hopefully.
“No, cannot together” she laughed.
Ling disappeared into the room and Danny saw her, a few moments later, walk into the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She had no Dragon tattoo on her back. He couldn’t stop a smile. Five minutes later she went back into the room and then came to Danny dressed in a tee shirt and shorts, almost boyish, but still amazingly beautiful. She handed Danny a clean towel.
“You want shower now?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Mai pen rai kha,” (Your welcome) she said softly.
Danny hadn’t got a clue what she said, but it sounded great.
After he showered he kept the towel wrapped around his waist. It was far too hot to dress again. Ling was sitting on the wall outside and eating some fruit.
“So, you want to talk Ling?” asked Danny.
“No, we talk in bed. Relax, is better.”
Ling jumped up and he followed her through into the room. She took a rolled up mattress from the bottom of the wardrobe and laid it out on one of the straw mats. It wasn’t really a mattress, more like a stuffed blanket. She then put a clean sheet over that and placed down a pillow. She scrambled between the sheet and the blanket and Danny joined her. Ling then got in a kneeling position and started praying to Buddha.
It surprised Danny. He never thought that she would be in the slightest way religious, but she looked very cute when she prayed. Once again she reminded him of Ying the first time he had seen her pray, like this, before bed in the hotel in Bangkok.
Chapter 13: Innocence lost
Ticky lost count of the men who had raped her. Each day was the same. Men came in and had sex with her and the other girls. They were punched sometimes but the beatings got less as they resisted less. Some days more new girls were brought into the building, which Ticky could see now was a large tin warehouse. Some of the girls who had been here when she arrived had been unchained and taken away. They all looked beaten and ill.
After a few more days Ticky and one of the girls, who had been kidnapped on the same day that she had been, were taken out of the building and into the sunlight. The light hurt her eyes. They were dragged to some benches and tables that were sheltered from the sunlight by large green canvases stretched between the trees. There were other women there, girls and older women. They looked better. Scared, but better than the girls in the warehouse. An older woman sat her at a table and gave her some food; chicken and rice. It tasted good, and she had water. The woman smiled. It was the first smile she had seen in days. The woman spoke in Thai, although Ticky could tell by her accent that she was not Thai.
“You will be OK now. You have to work while you are here. Do not make problem and you will get good food and water. They will also give you something to stop any pain. You work in factory and help the soldiers feel good after factory work. You do good and nobody hurt you and soon take you to better job. Do not make problem and you will be free soon.”
Ticky was put to work processing opium in another tin warehouse. After working all day in the factory she had to sexually service the men with the guns. But the beatings stopped, at least for her.
Chapter 14: Ling’s apartment
Ling felt very comfortable with Danny. She sensed that he had a good heart and she snuggled up to him under the sheet. He was happy to wrap his arm around her. They watched the gecko lizard on the ceiling as they lay in bed and talked.
“What you lose in Thailand, Danny?” she asked quietly.
“I didn’t lose anything. What do you mean?”
“You say you come to
look for something.”
“Oh! I’m not looking for something that I have lost. I’m searching for someone, a person.”
“Maybe I am person you looking for.”
“No, I’m looking for a person who is missing.”
“Where you go look for someone?”
“I don’t know really.”
“Well, how you know how to find them then?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Sound like you not make good plan.”
“Yes, you are right. I haven’t made a plan.”
“Tell me about your life Danny.”
“I can’t be bothered Ling. Sorry. There really isn’t much to tell.”
“Yes, I think very much to tell. No problem. We talk later.”
“What about you Ling? How does someone as beautiful as you end up working as a bar girl in Patong? To me, that’s the saddest thing I can imagine.”
“Can I get water first? Now I thirsty.”
“Sure” smiled Danny and he watched her as she went to the fridge and brought back a bottle of cold water.
“Holy Jesus Ling! You are beautiful.”
“No not beautiful, but I have good heart. Really, I say true.”
She got back into bed and shared some sips of water with Danny before snuggling back under his arm. The gecko lizard had moved to the top of the wall now and another one had appeared from the bottom of the same wall and moved to within a few feet of the first one.
“I just normal girl from Isaan. My mama and papa have three daughters, Ling the oldest. Two younger. Very beautiful girls, like mama. We have farm in Issan and grow rice, but not much money growing rice. Papa always very good man, never drink. A lot of men drink very much in Isaan. Very drunk and box wife, but my papa never do. He work very hard all his life to make good home for mama and daughters. We all help on farm and sell things to make money. Papa pay a lot of money for me to get good education. Isaan very poor, no good job. Papa say education make me have good job and I can help pay for school for my little sisters, so they too can get good jobs and have good life. Not poor family anymore. Then Papa get killed by drunk man driving a car and then we have a lot of problem with farm. Have to pay men to work farm, not always work good. I was 15 years old when Papa die, so I had to drop out of school and work on farm. For ten years we struggle to live on farm and now my sisters 12 and 14. I decide to come and work in bar to make money for them to have school and make Mama home better.”
“Jesus that’s shocking. It’s a big decision to turn to prostitution. I think you are selling more than just your body Ling. It’s so sad.”
“No not shocking. Many girls from Isaan do. Have no choice, have to keep family. Girl not like bar work but have to do.”
“Do people know what you do?”
“Yes Mama know. Every person can guess but nobody speak bad because every family same same. No work in Isaan and farm not make good money for family. No problem, only do for short time. Make money enough to make good business in
Isaan.”
Danny remembered Nok, the bar girl from Moon’s Bar in Bangla Road. She had told him the same story of poverty in the north and south rural areas, with daughters going into the sex trade to support the family.
“The government should do something.”
“No cannot. Government make many billions of baht from sex industry. Cannot afford to stop it. Very good for Thailand, much business.”
“Ling there is something about you that makes me want to change the world. I think it’s just too sad that you do what you do. You are too nice for this sort of life.”
“You cannot change the world Khun Danny. You can only change my world. Up to you. I not want to be bar girl. I want to be teacher, but money no good to school my sisters or keep Mama on farm. I have no choice. I not like, but I have to do.”
“I wish I would have met you before you started working in a bar.”
“Why?”
“Because…..” Danny didn’t know how to say it.
“Because what?”
“Nothing. It doesn‘t matter.”
“If I not work in bar, I not meet you.”
“Yes, I know.”
“I understand. You think I no good person.” Ling’s tears were running down her cheeks leaving trails on her warm dry skin.
“You would have to understand me and forgive me. I have to understand you too and forgive you too” she sobbed.
“Forgive me?” Danny was taken aback by her remark.
“Yes. You go to Patong bar and have sex with girl because you want to, because you like, because you can do, but you don’t have to do. I only work at bar because I have to do it. I hate bar and I sleep with many farang who are not nice people, but they have money to pay. Yes, I think we are both not good person, but I have reason and I can make merit with Buddha. Harder for you I think. What reason you have? You have to work hard to make merit with Buddha, but you can do if there is good in your heart. I think so and I think I can forgive you. But yes, we have to understand each other.”
Danny didn’t answer. He could not be bothered to explain to her that he was not in Thailand to have sex with bar girls. He was thinking about what she had just said. She was a lot more intelligent than he had first realised. He had noticed a change in her as soon as she was away from the bar, when they stopped her motorbike at the roadside to buy food from the vendor. At the bar she was sexy and alluring, every glance and every smile seemed practiced, directed and had a purpose. Away from the bar she was just happy, charming, funny and somehow innocent again. A very different person. He had not thought about himself as being a bad person and he hadn’t thought about his actions with any consequence before. Now Ling had opened it out in front of him for inspection.
“Ling, I had never thought about these things before. It seems strange that here we are, two people, having only just met tonight and we lie here in your bed talking about life. Asking each other to be forgiven for things we did before we ever met each other. Somehow it feels so important to me.”
“Yes, to me too. I think we are good people for each other, but for good future we have to decide now. That’s why I need to know are you customer or boyfriend?”
“Well I’m definitely not a customer. I will never be a customer, but I need time to think about the boyfriend thing.”
“Yes I understand you. No problem.”
The door to the room opened and Suzie, Ling’s flat mate walked in. She was tall and elegant and looked stunning in her evening gown, which pushed her breasts up high on display. She was very pretty and smiled when she saw that Ling had a man in bed with her. She was carrying a bag of food. She put it down on the floor.
“This is my friend Suzie. We share apartment” said Ling. Suzie wai’d Danny.
“Sawaddee kha.” She almost sang the words, the way Thai ladies can.
“Sawaddee khrap” Danny replied. It was the only Thai that he knew.
“Hi Suzie. My name is Danny.”
“Hello Danny, handsome man.”
Suzie and Ling spoke in Thai and Danny just watched them. Suzie wanted to know why there was a man in the room. They had both agreed never to bring customers back to the apartment. So Ling had to explain the whole story and the fact that she thought Danny was more than a customer. Suzie wasn’t angry. She was generally a happy, easy-going person. She loved it when Ling told her that she had not told Danny that she was a ladyboy and, it was obvious to both of them, Danny had no idea of their secret.
“Sanuck maak mai?”(A lot of fun isn’t it?) laughed Ling.
Suzie agreed and spoke to Danny.
“I have some food. Do you want some?” Suzie’s English grammar was better than Lings.
“What have you got?”
“Chicken and rice and pok pok.”
“I don’t know what pok pok is, but I’ll have some chicken and rice, if there is enough. Thank you.”
“There is always enough food to share” said Ling, opening up the bag.
She took a plastic bag of rice out, opened it up and laid the opened bag on the floor. There was another bag of pok pok. (papaya chili salad)
“This is very spicy” she warned Danny and then she handed him a chicken foot from the bag. Danny refused it, shaking his head.
“Is that the chicken?”
“Yes, very tasty. You try.”
“Have you got any more of its body in there?”
“Yes, more chicken feet.”
“I think I’ll give it a miss. I’m not really hungry anymore.”
Ling and Suzie both laughed. The look of shock and horror on his face was funny to them. They spoke in more Thai and laughed a lot. Danny knew that it was at his expense, but he didn’t mind and he laughed along with them.
When they finished eating, Ling went and washed her hands and came back into the room as Suzie was slipping out of her dress. They chatted away in Thai as she hung it up in the wardrobe, standing in front of Danny in only her bra and panties and tights. She took her bra off and Danny thought what great breasts she had and he was surprised that she was not at all shy about undressing in front of him. She slipped off her tights and then finally her knickers. Her small penis and testicles dropped down from between her legs. It made Danny jolt backwards.
“Jesus, yer fecker!”
Ling and Suzie squealed with delight and laughter as Suzie managed to wrap a towel around herself. They were talking excitedly in Thai. The only English words they kept repeating were ‘Jesus yer fecker.’ This kept them laughing for minutes, until they both had tears running down their cheeks. Danny did not think it was funny. He got up and went outside to sit on the wall again and smoke a cigarette. Danny knew a lot more about katoeys than either Ling or Suzie would ever imagine. To Danny it was not a laughing matter. He could have told them all about his friend Ying and the sad circumstances in which she died, but he could not be bothered to. When the laughter did quieten down he heard them talking in subdued tones, which became more serious, and, after several minutes, Ling came outside to him.
The Kiss of the Dragon Page 5