Asian Heat

by Leather, Stephen

  Dave gave Lek the money to pay the driver and told her to make sure that the guy knew he was to come back on Saturday morning to take them to Bangkok.

  A middle-aged woman walked carefully down the steps, gathering up her long skirt with one hand and holding on to a handrail with the other.

  “My mother,” said Zed. She waied her mother, putting her hands together as if in prayer and touching them against her chin.

  Dave immediately waied the woman as well and she smiled and returned the wai. She wasn’t what Dave had expected at all – she was tall and very pretty, with waist-length hair and cheekbones that could have cut glass. Part of him wondered why the mother hadn’t gone to work in Bangkok because she would have had no shortage of customers. Zed’s mother spoke no English so Lek came over to translate. Another woman came down the wooden stairs from the house carrying a baby and Zed waied her. “My sister,” she said. “Ay.”

  Ay was in her late twenties. She was a bit chunky but Dave figured that was probably because she had only given birth a few months earlier. Ay had a tattoo of a dragon down her right arm and he reckoned she had probably been a bargirl in the past. Obviously she had fallen pregnant and returned home which was why Zed had been sent to Bangkok.

  Zed’s mother said something in Thai and Lek nodded. “She say that she’s made the small house ready for you,” said Lek. “You can sleep there. She’s put a fan there for you to keep you cool.”

  “Great,” said Dave, beaming. The fact that he was sleeping away from the main house gave him more of a chance of linking up with Zed. That was what he hoped, anyway.

  Lek and Zed took him to show where he’d be sleeping. It was little more than a teak shed with a corrugated iron roof and a wooden bed around which was gathered a mosquito net. There was no bathroom and the floor-mounted fan got its power from a flex that ran out of the door and up the side of the main house.

  ‘There’s no light but there are candles,” said Lek. “Just be careful you don’t set your mosquito net on fire.”

  She drew back the mosquito net and showed him the bed. It was a grubby mattress lying on the floor. No sheet. No cover. Just the mattress. “Perfect,” said Dave, lying through his teeth,

  “If you want we can take you to a resort,” said Lek. “The rooms there have air.”

  “This is fine,” said Dave.

  “Not five-star,” said Lek.

  Dave smiled at Zed. “It’s your home and I’m happy to see your home,” he said.

  Zed nodded enthusiastically. As they walked back to the main house, Dave noticed three young men, all dressed in dirty jeans and faded t-shirts and lounging on rush mats. “Dave, can you buy them beer?” asked Lek.

  “Beer?”

  “They know Zed has come back and they want beer,” said Lek. Zed nodded in agreement.

  “Who are they?”

  “Cousins,” said Lek. “Just two hundred baht enough.”

  The two girls were looking at him expectantly so Dave took out his wallet and gave the money to Zed. She smiled and gave him a wai and then went over to the group. She handed the money to the oldest boy and he grinned and the group walked off down the road.

  There was a concrete structure under the stairs and Dave realised it was a bathroom. Through the open door he could see a squat toilet and a large barrel that was obviously what passed for a shower. There was a table next to the bathroom and a single gas burner connected to a waist-high propane gas cylinder. The kitchen.

  As Zed and Lek helped Zed’s mother prepare food, the teenagers came back with a case of Chang Beer and a bag of ice. The group had now swelled to six. Lek pulled out some more mats and the men sat down and started opening bottles of beer. One of them waved Dave over and Dave sat down with them. He was handed a beer and an ice-filled glass and although he doesn’t speak much Thai he was made welcome. There was an old dirt-encrusted television on a wooden table and Lek connected it to one of the many extension leads snaking around the floor and handed the remote to Dave. He managed to find a channel showing Italian football and the Thais seemed to appreciate it so he settled back and drank beer and watched the game. The Thais drank quickly and within half an hour the beer had gone and the guys were looking at Dave. Dave realised that they expected him to buy more beer and when he saw them looking over at him he grinned, took out his wallet, and gave them five hundred baht.

  Dave figured the more beer he drank, the less he’d think about the food that he was about to be served, all of which seemed to be being cooked in one large wok. Once a dish was prepared it was placed on a mat on the floor where flies would swarm around it. Large moths were fluttering around the two light bulbs that illuminated the kitchen and bathroom area, and mosquitoes were constantly settling on his exposed skin. A couple of cats were wandering around the cooking area and no one seemed concerned at the way they kept sniffing at the plates of food.

  Dave was on his third beer when the food arrived and it didn’t taste bad at all. There was barbecued fish that was really tasty and they had made a spicy prawn soup that was as good as anything he’d eaten in a Thai restaurant. Dave wasn’t a big fan of rice but he was hungry and wolfed it down.

  After the food, he drank another couple of beers and he ended up being carried to his bed by two of the teenagers. The last thing he remembered was handing over another five hundred baht for beer and then he groped his way through the mosquito net and passed out.

  It was late morning when he woke, with a fierce hangover and a raging thirst. He wrapped a towel around his waist, picked up his wash bag and headed for the bathroom. The young men were still sitting under the main house, drinking beer and watching TV. They grinned and cheered as Dave went into the bathroom. The concrete walls were covered in cobwebs and the smell from the squat toilet made his stomach lurch. He cleaned his teeth and used a blue plastic bowl to throw water over himself. When he left the bathroom, Lek and Zed were sitting on a mat eating what appeared to be the leftovers from the previous evening. “Are you hungry, Dave?” asked Lek.

  Dave hadn’t seen a fridge so he figured that the food had been left out all night. “I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

  He went back to his shack and changed into a clean shirt and jeans and pulled a Singha Beer baseball cap out of his bag. The sun was fierce and he didn’t want to burn his scalp.

  Dave’s plan was to show Zed what a good guy he was, and he figured that the best way to do that was to spread a little money around. He went back outside and asked Lek to show him the inside of her house. In fact there was very little to see – there was just one large room that ran the whole length of the house, criss-crossed with heavy beams. There were two windows at one end but the rest of the windows were boarded up with sheets of corrugated iron. In fact there weren’t windows at all – just holes in the walls where windows had yet to be fitted. He asked Lek why the windows hadn’t been installed. “No money,” she said.

  Dave told her to ask Zed’s mother how much it would cost to install the windows. While Lek went outside to talk to Zed’s mother, Dave had a look around. Not that there was much to see, just three double mattresses surrounded by mosquito nets, and two racks with clothes on hangers, and cardboard boxes full of clothes. There was dust everywhere and stains from where the rain had come in through the roof and the boarded up windows. There was a single electric socket into which were plugged two extension leads, one to a fan and the other to a light bulb on the wall. There was no furniture. No tables, no cupboards, no chairs. Zed’s family slept on bare mattresses and sat and ate on the floor. It was worse than a prison, though truth be told everyone seemed happy enough.

  He went downstairs where Lek was waiting for him. “The builder says he can do for fifteen thousand baht,” she said.

  Dave thought about it for a few seconds and then decided, what the hell, it was less than he earned in a couple of days driving his minicab. And he was starting to feel genuinely sorry for Zed and her family. He told Lek that he
needed to get to an ATM and she said the nearest was in the town but she had a friend who had a pick-up truck who could drive them. Zed came over and asked what was happening. “We’re going shopping,” said Dave.

  And that’s how he spent the rest of the day. Lek’s friend turned out to be an uncle who had a rusting Toyota pick-up. He and Zed squashed into the front seat while Lek and two of the young men sat in the back. They drove to the town and Dave withdrew money on two of his credit cards. He gave Zed fifteen thousand baht and told her that was to put the windows in and she yelped and hugged him.

  Then he took her to the one department store in town and bought a Chinese-made LCD TV for six thousand baht and a fridge for four thousand baht. There was a small furniture department and Dave bought a small table and four chairs and then he took Zed shopping for clothes and bought her half a dozen dresses, a couple of pair of jeans and some Nike trainers. Each time he bought her something she would squeal and hug him.

  There was a small supermarket and Dave bought a loaf of bread, some slices of cheese and a can of corned beef, figuring that would get him through the day.

  They drove back to Zed’s house and Zed rushed up the stairs and returned with her mother. Zed excitedly showed her mother the things they’d bought and then took out the money that Dave had given her. At first she didn’t understand about the money but Zed and Lek explained again and she solemnly thanked Dave with tears in her eyes.

  Dave helped tune the TV and spent the rest of the day drinking beer with the local men. Zed arranged a couple of fans but even with them playing it was still almost unbearably hot under the house. The group had now swollen to eight and while they were nice enough guys they were clearly bone idle and expected to be waited on hand and foot by the women. They must have known that the girls were working as hookers in Bangkok but didn’t care so long as the beer kept flowing. Dave was starting to realise just how tough – and unfair - Zed’s life was.

  Each time Zed walked by she flashed Dave a beaming smile, and she kept checking that he was all right and didn’t need anything. In the afternoon she borrowed a motorcycle and drove him to the family’s farmland. There were a few acres growing some crop or other but her English wasn’t good enough to explain to him what it was.

  He spent the evening watching television with her and swatting the mosquitoes that seemed to prefer his Western skin to the Thais.

  Dave decided to have a shower before he turned in. He grabbed his towel and headed for the bathroom. He was thinking about Zed and how he could get her into his bed that night so he didn’t realise that the bathroom was occupied. It was Zed’s mother, and she was bathing herself. She had her back to him and it took a second or two to realise that it wasn’t Lek because she had a fit body and her skin was beautifully smooth and unblemished. She hadn’t heard the door open and he stood transfixed as she threw a bowl of water down her back. Her skin glistened under the light from the single bare bulb and the water cascaded down her back and legs. Dave gasped. She was quite stunning. She bent down, scooped another bowlful of water and poured it over her back. Dave caught a glimpse of soft, perfect breasts and his heart raced. She straightened up and shook her long black hair and it snaked across her back like a silk curtain.

  Dave realised that she was about to turn towards him so he slipped out, just in time to see Zed walking down the steps. She was carrying a candle and a box of matches. “For you,” she said.

  He thanked her. “I’m so glad you brought me to your home,” he said.

  She nodded and smiled.

  “I’m happy to help you and your family,” he added.

  “Thank you so much,” said Zed.

  “You know I’m a good man, right?”

  “A very good man,” said Zed. “You make me very happy.”

  “I want to ask you something, Zed.”

  Zed nodded. “Okay.”

  ‘Tonight, can you stay with me?” She frowned, not understanding him. He nodded at the shack. “I’m not happy to sleep alone.”

  “If I stay with you, my mother not happy,” said Zed.

  “Please,” said Dave.

  “Okay, maybe,” said Zed, but Dave could tell from the uncertainty in her voice that she really meant to say “no”.

  “It would really make me happy,” he said.

  Before Zed could say anything else, the bathroom door opened and Zed’s mother came out, dressed in a long nightgown and carrying her towel. She smiled at Dave and said something in Thai.

  “She said good night,” said Zed. Zed’s mother headed up the steps.

  Dave went into the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and threw a few bowlfuls of water over himself but he didn’t feel much cleaner. He wrapped himself in his towel. When he went back outside, Zed had gone. There were two young men sitting on a mat watching the new LCD TV and they waved bottles of beer at him but Dave had learned his lesson from the previous evening and he went straight to bed.

  It was a hot night and even with the fan Dave was bathed in sweat. He took off his t-shirt and tossed and turned wearing only his boxer shorts.

  He drifted in and out of sleep. He tried sleeping on his back, on his side and on his front, but nothing made the lumpy mattress bearable. He was half asleep when he heard the wooden door scrape open. He was lying face down and he twisted his head around as the door grated shut. He wondered if it was just the wind but then he heard a soft footfall and a slight swishing sound as the mosquito net was moved aside.

  The room was in almost total darkness. “Zed, is that you?” he asked, but there was no reply. He felt the mattress move as his visitor knelt down and then soft, warm hands caressed his left calf.

  He started to roll over but a hand pushed him in the small of the back. “You want me to lie down?” he said. “Okay, I can do that.” He settled back down, resting his chin on his hands. The hand moved from his back and returned to his leg. The fingers moved around his ankle and then slowly worked their way up to his right knee. “That’s good,” he sighed, and then he caught his breath as the hands slid up his thigh. “Oh my God,” he whispered.

  The hands slid up and down, easing their way inside his boxer shorts and then back down, up and down, with a slow, hypnotic rhythm. Each time the fingers moved inside his shorts they went higher and higher until he was sure that the next stroke would touch his dick. He felt himself grow harder and harder but then suddenly the hands were gone.

  “What?” he said. “What’s happening?” He twisted around and was about to push himself up off the mattress but a hand pressed him back down.

  The massage continued, this time on his right leg. This time he knew that the hands were going to end up inside his boxer shorts, and the anticipation as they gradually moved slowly up his leg was almost unbearable. He opened his legs as he felt himself grow harder and he moaned, hoping that if she knew how turned on he was she’d move faster. She didn’t. The hands continued to move slowly, up to his knee, massaging the joint and then up further, to his thigh.

  He moaned softly as he felt himself grow even harder. The fingers nudged his boxer shorts, then returned all the way down to his knee and he grunted in frustration.

  The hands were strong, and she clearly knew what she was doing. He realised that it probably wasn’t Zed, she was far too inexperienced. It might have been Lek, or Zed’s sister, but the massage was so good and so thorough that he wondered if perhaps Zed’s mother had decided to pay him a nocturnal visit. The hands moved up into his boxers and he gasped, but just as quickly they retreated down his thigh.

  “You’re driving me crazy,” sighed Dave. There was no reply. He was no nearer working out who was giving him the massage but frankly he didn’t care because it felt so good. His erection was throbbing and he shifted his weight to allow his dick to move and as he did the hands slid right up into his boxers and fingernails scraped his balls. He almost came but almost immediately the hands were gone.

  He felt the mattress move and realised that she was now sitting ne
xt to him. Her hands reached for his shoulders and began a firm, rhythmic massage. Her fingers probed between his muscles, sometimes painfully hard, sometimes soft, small circular movements that within minutes had him in a state of almost total relaxation. His erection subsided but he didn’t care.

  “That is so good,” he sighed. “So, so good.”

  The fingers continued to work their magic, moving down his spine. There were loud clicks as the fingers manipulated the bones, aligning them perfectly.

  “Please, tell me who you are.” said Dave.

  There was no reply. The hands began to move up and down his back, soft and smooth, and with each caress he felt as if he was sinking deeper into the mattress. They moved up to his neck, and then down to his waist, then back up, then they gently brushed his sides as they moved down to his boxers. He felt a tug at his waist and realised that she was removing his boxers so he wriggled around and she slipped them off. He felt suddenly exposed, lying there totally naked.

  He began to pant, wondering where she was going to touch him next. He rested his head on his hands, trying to steady his breathing. He flinched as something brushed his left thigh, a tickling sensation, he couldn’t tell if it was a finger or a nipple or her tongue. The tickling continued, then it was joined by a second sensation, something soft and wet. Dave shivered in anticipation. “God that’s amazing,” he sighed. The sensation stopped almost immediately.

  Hands reached between his legs, stroking his thighs, softly but insistent, and Dave raised up his hips, trying to encourage her to hold his dick but each time he did the hands moved away. It was frustrating, but very erotic – the more he showed that he enjoyed it, the quicker it stopped. Only when he lay still did the hands move closer and closer to his dick.

  The massage continued, slow and deliberate, and his erection got harder and harder. Dave didn’t care who was touching him, he just wanted to come. He began to pant and then it stopped and he sighed in frustration, Then he felt hands gripping his ankles and he realised that she wanted him to turn over. He grunted as he rolled over, then lay on his back staring into the dark. He couldn’t see anything other than a vague dark shape in the blackness.