by J. F. Gump
She was deciding what she would wear when the phone rang. She jumped at the unexpected sound. It was the first time it had rung while she was in the condo alone. She wasn't sure whether to answer it or not. It wasn't her phone and she had no idea who might be calling. For all she knew it might be Jon's ex-fiancée. The ringing persisted. Finally, she picked up the receiver.
"Hello," she said hesitantly.
"Hello, Nuang. This is Jon. I have a surprise for you. It's a good surprise. I will tell you about it at dinner. Put on that new dress I bought for you last week. Tonight we are going to a fancy restaurant. Okay?"
Nuang was excited by Jon's excitement. "Do you mean the German restaurant?"
"No, I mean a really fancy restaurant. This surprise is so good that it calls for a special dinner."
"What surprise could be that good?"
"I will tell you later. I'll be home by six."
Nuang spent the rest of the day primping and preening. The butterflies in her stomach made her feel giddy. A surprise! She wondered what it was. A good surprise! She loved and hated surprises at the same time. A surprise so good it calls for a special dinner. Her heart fluttered in anticipation. By the time Jon arrived, she was dressed and ready to go.
"Wow!" he said, when he entered the condo. "You look absolutely beautiful."
"Khop khun mahk, ka," she smiled coyly. "What is your surprise?"
Jon laughed, "Later, after dinner. I’ll get cleaned up now."
At seven o'clock they arrived at the new upscale restaurant at the Royal Garden Plaza. An hour later, they finished dinner.
"What's your surprise?" Nuang asked. "Can you tell me now?"
"Okay, but I need to explain something first. Before I met you, I tried to learn Thai but couldn't. For some reason, the little games we play while you teach have made it easier for me to learn. Some of the men at work are surprised at how much Thai I've learned so fast. When they asked how I did it, I told them I had the best teacher in Thailand.
"Guess what happened? They want you to teach them Thai, too. But that's not the surprise. The surprise is that our company is going to pay for everything, forty thousand baht per month. It will only be for six months but it's a start. If the men learn, there are other companies that will do the same thing. In fact, tomorrow I'm calling a friend, an American who works at the oil refinery near Rayong. He might be interested in private lessons. Maybe he will say no, but it never hurts to ask. Nuang, you are now the owner of Chalamsee's Thai Language Academy. What do you think?"
Nuang wasn't sure what to think. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but she hadn't expected to get a job making forty thousand baht per month. With that much money she could afford a nice apartment here in Pattaya for her baby and Somjit. They could come as soon as she received her first check. Her excitement soared. "Do you think I can do it? I’m not a teacher. There's much I don't know about English."
"Yes, but there is much you know about Thai. And if you can teach me, you can teach anyone."
For a moment Nuang thought she would cry. She tried to speak, but no sound came out. "Thank you," she mouthed with her lips.
Jon saw her emotions. "Let's get out of here. I'll buy us a nightcap.”
Neither spoke as they rode north on Second Road. Nuang replayed the evening. She didn't understand why Jon was helping her so much, but she was glad he was doing it. Jon was one of the kindest men she had ever met. Truly, he was a gentleman. She felt a strong need to give him something in return, but she had nothing to give except herself, and they had both agreed not to do that again. But after what Jon had just done, her resolve faded like a wisp of incense in a monsoon wind.
As they passed the Pattaya Klang intersection, she turned to Jon, "Have you heard about that new medication for men?"
"What are you talking about? You mean the stuff that makes your hair grow?"
"It makes something grow, but not your hair." She felt herself blush. "It's called Viagra or something like that."
"Oh," Jon said. He had heard of it, but he had never tried it. He had always been too embarrassed to talk to his doctor about his problem. "I thought we agreed to just be friends."
"We did." Her blush deepened. "I was only making conversation."
Jon knew she was lying. He wondered if she was going to try to seduce him again. He wished she would. Tonight he felt closer to her than he had felt toward any woman in a very long time. What he had felt for Julie didn't compare. As much as he had been pretending it wasn't happening, he was falling in love with Nuang. Memories of the night they’d made love drifted through his head and left a comforting glow in its wake. Maybe Nuang would be the magic that would make him whole again.
"When I find the right woman," he said, "I will see a doctor. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow."
Nuang squeezed his hand and smiled, "You're a good man, Jonathan Yeager."
They stopped at the Sandy Bar for their nightcap. Jon practiced his newest Thai phrases with the bar-girls and their earlier conversation was forgotten.
Jon had just ordered their second round of drinks when Nuang felt eyes at her back. It was an eerie feeling that made her shiver. She hadn't felt anything like it since her baby was born. She turned to see who or what was staring at her. It took but an instant to recognize her brother's face. Immediately, she looked away, wondering if he had seen her.
"Do you see the Thai man behind me?" she asked Jon, as calmly as she could.
He glanced over his shoulder then back to Nuang. "I don't see any Thai men anywhere."
Nuang turned around and looked—the man was gone. She stood from her seat, ran to the sidewalk, and searched up and down the street. No one! She wondered if she had been hallucinating. Maybe her sickness was returning. She put her hand to her head; it felt normal. She sensed Jon standing beside of her. She looked up at him.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "You seem scared or something. Who do you think you saw?"
"A man from my nightmares," she replied. "I'm ready to go home. Suddenly I don't feel so good."
Back at the condo,. he asked if she wanted him to hold her for a while and she said yes. They spooned together in bed, but Jon didn't make any advances and she was happy for that. Tonight she only wanted to feel safe. She waited for the voices to return but they didn't. Her dreams were nightmares of imminent doom.
Chapter 39
At eight o'clock that same evening, Peebanlat "Anan" Bongkot finished his last sales call. The hotel manager had made him wait until he was sure the Friday evening dinner guests were being properly served before taking time to meet with him.
Anan's wait was a complete waste of time. The manager declined to renew his advertising. It was the third customer he had lost this month. Anan barely kept his anger hidden behind a professional posture.
The last few months had been disastrous for his business. After struggling for four years to make his business grow, he was practically back to where he had started. The upswing he had experienced when his sister Math had been selling for him had eroded completely during the last year. He would be lucky if he could cover next month's costs. If he lost another major account, he would probably lose his business. The time and money he had spent traveling to Phitsanulok to talk to his mother about Nuang's disappearance hadn't helped anything, either.
That thought reminded him of his promise to his family. They had some notion that Nuang might come to Pattaya but Anan doubted it. If she wanted to hide, she would go to Bangkok or Phuket or some other city where no one knew her. Nuang wasn't so stupid that she would come to Pattaya, but he had promised to look for her and he would keep his word.
During the day, while taking care of business, Anan had looked at every woman he passed. In the evenings he had cruised the bars along the main streets of Pattaya City searching for Nuang. He'd never seen his sister but he did see a lot of young Thai women laughing and kissing farangs in public. It was not polite and he hated it.
For the last week he had stopped at a different
cluster of bars each night and wandered from one to another, never ordering anything and never staying more than a few seconds at any one place. He knew he would never find Nuang, even if she were in Pattaya. There were too many places for one woman to be, and too many places for one man to search. He felt stupid for even trying.
Tonight, he had already decided, would be the last night he would waste his time looking for his sister. He started his motorcycle and drove from the hotel parking lot.
He rode south on Beach Road wondering where he should stop. At Pattaya Klang he turned left for one block then joined the flow of traffic heading north on Second. He had already stopped at the most popular places from Central Road to South Pattaya, but he hadn't yet stopped at the cluster of beer bars on Soi 2. That was where he would go tonight. It would only take a few minutes to search the area and he would be home by nine.
Three blocks south of Soi 2 he neared the condominium complex where his sister Math had once lived with her farang lover. A few beer bars lined Second Road directly in front. They weren't crowded tonight, but then they never were. He had never bothered to stop at these bars because he could see everyone clearly from the street.
As he drove past, he scanned the faces of the bar-girls and their customers. That's when he saw her sitting beside a farang at the bar farthest from the sidewalk.
At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but after a second look he knew it was Nuang. He pulled to the side of the road and pretended to adjust his motorcycle helmet.
He wasn't sure what to do. If Nuang had been alone it would have been an easy decision, but the farang complicated things. Who was the man and why was she with him? His conclusion left him cold. She had moved to Pattaya and become a bar-girl. The farang was her customer for the night. Nuang, his ever wise sister, had lowered herself to peddling her body for money.
For a moment Anan thought he would be sick. Then he wondered about her baby. Most bar-girls who had children left them at home with relatives while they plied their trade. At least those were the rumors he had heard. He didn't know any bar-girls personally, only their faces from passing them on the street. Nuang hadn't left her baby with relatives—that was a fact—and it wasn't with her now. That narrowed things down. Either the baby was alone in some cockroach-infested dump or she had given it away or worse. His last thought made him flinch.
Surat had mentioned that Nuang had been acting strange during her last months of pregnancy. Extreme paranoia, hearing voices, and other things that weren't normal. If she was capable of walking away from everything she had ever known, maybe she was capable of destroying every link to her past, including her baby.
Anan drove up the street far enough to be out of sight and then parked his motorcycle. He propped his helmet on the seat, padlocked the rear wheel, and walked back toward where Nuang sat at the bar. He stopped at the building next to the bar area and peeked around the corner.
They were still there, less than twenty meters away. They talked and smiled but they didn't touch each other. Neither seemed drunk, though the man was drinking a beer.
Anan's mind raced, rehearsing what to say when he confronted her. He wished she wasn't with the farang. He took a step toward Nuang.
At that moment she turned and looked directly at him. The shock in her eyes stopped him in mid stride. He fought down a powerful urge to run. He stood frozen for what seemed like hours but less than a second passed. When Nuang looked away, he ran.
He bypassed his motorcycle and ducked up a dirt lane at the end of the block. His heart pounded from the unaccustomed exertion. Suddenly he felt foolish for running away. He felt even more foolish for trying to approach Nuang in the first place.
He had reacted on impulse, a stupid thing to do. He should have called his mother and his sisters in Phitsanulok immediately to let them know he had found Nuang and then waited for them to arrive.
But he hadn't really found her; he had only seen her. He didn't know where she lived or even if she was with the farang. He needed to find out where she went when she left the bar. Then he would call everyone and tell them about Nuang.
A street vendor with her cart of food and hot charcoal passed down Second Road. Anan followed the smells of cooking chicken and pork to the mouth of the dirt alley. He spied around the corner; neither Nuang nor the farang were among the people on the sidewalk. He hurried to the street and fell in behind the food vendor. They arrived at the bar in less than a minute. Nuang and the farang were gone.
Anan stepped from behind the cart for a better view. He glimpsed their backs as they entered the condo parking lot. When they were out of sight, he rushed toward the building. He stopped when he saw the security guard. He smiled at the guard then turned and walked away. From the corner of his eye he saw Nuang and the farang entering the elevator. All doubts about his sister became facts.
He knew Nuang had seen him just minutes earlier, and figured she would disappear again as soon as she left the farang's condo. It was up to him to make sure she didn't. First, he would call his mother in Phitsanulok. Then, he would find a hiding place where he could keep an eye on anyone who entered or left the condo.
He went to the bar where Nuang and her farang had been sitting. He took a seat and ordered a Lipo. He would need all of the power he could get to stay awake for the night. While he waited for the girl to bring his drink, he called his mother's house in Phitsanulok.
"I have found Nuang," he said very plainly, very matter-of-fact. "She is living with a farang. Call my cell phone, when you arrive in Pattaya." He hung up without waiting for her response. He knew she would be on the next bus south. The thought made him smile.
Next he called Nuang's husband. He had never liked Surat much, but he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because his mother had never liked Surat. He had even picked up his mother's despicable habit of taunting Surat. He knew it made his sister angry, but he did it anyway.
"I have found your wife," he said when Surat answered. "She is in Pattaya and she is with a farang. A big, ugly, hairy, farang. I bet his cock would make two of yours. Come to Pattaya and I'll show you. Nuang is at the condo on Second Road, just south of The Alcazar Show. Call me when you arrive."
Anan hung up before Surat had a chance to respond. He could almost see Surat going crazy with jealousy while deciding whether to steal his company's taxi again or not. He couldn't help but laugh.
He turned off his cell phone. He couldn't remember when he had last charged the batteries and he needed to conserve power. After finishing his drink, he found a place where he could keep an eye on the entrance to the condo without being seen.
He wondered which floor Nuang and her farang lover were on. Thoughts of his sister having sex with a bird shit farang made his skin crawl. It was after midnight when he fell asleep in his hiding place.
Chapter 40
Nui had just drifted off to sleep when she was awakened by Anan's call. It took a second for her to understand what he had said. He switched off before she could respond. She called Anan’s cell number but got a busy signal. She waited a minute and then called again. This time she got a message saying that the phone was either turned off or out of range.
Anan's cryptic message puzzled her. He said he had found Nuang, but he didn't mention talking to her or how she was or anything about her baby. He also said something about Nuang being with a farang but he must be mistaken; Nuang would never go with a farang. Something wasn't right, but she wasn't sure what.
She dialed Anan's number every few minutes for the next half hour. Finally she decided she was wasting time. Anan had told her to call him when she arrived in Pattaya. She didn't know anything about Pattaya but her daughter Itta did. She would take Itta with her.
Itta had gone to her sister's house earlier and hadn't returned. Neet didn't have a phone so there was no way to reach either of them. She stepped outside, slipped on her sandals, and hurried to Neet's house.
"Anan has found Nuang in Pattaya," she announced breathless as
she burst through the door. "We must go there right away."
She repeated what Anan had said, even the part about Nuang being with a farang.
Itta knew Pattaya best, so she laid out their plans.
Surat had fallen into an angry depression after confronting the woman with Nuang's baby. For the last three days he had gone to work but hardly worked at all. He spent more time drinking than he did working. Today he had his first beer at two o'clock and was staggering drunk by eight. By luck more than skill, he had maneuvered his taxi home. His cell phone rang as he unlocked his door.
"Hello," he slurred.
"I have found your wife." It was Nuang's brother Anan. "She is in Pattaya and she is with a farang."
The words stung at Surat's ears. "Arai na?” What?
"A big, ugly, hairy, farang. I bet his cock would make two of yours." Anan sounded almost happy. "Come to Pattaya and I'll show you. Nuang is at the condo on Second Road, just south of The Alcazar Show. Call me when you arrive." The phone clicked dead.
Surat's head spun. Everything he had suspected now rang with undeniable truth—Nuang had a farang lover. In a jealous, drunken frenzy he turned his house into shambles. By the time his rage ebbed, clothes were scattered everywhere, and Nuang's sewing machine, her most prized possession, lay busted on the floor.
He stepped back and stared, amazed at the damage he had done. He barely remembered doing any of it. A strip of aluminum foil swung from the ceiling. He snatched it down, wadded it into a tight ball, and threw it across the room. On impulse, he gathered up the clothes that belonged to Nuang and loaded them into the taxi. He didn't want anything that belonged to her near him anymore. He didn't want to be reminded every day of her lies and infidelities.
He shut and locked his house, and then drove south toward Phitsanulok, Pattaya, and Nuang. He knew his boss would fire him, but he didn't care.
Surat was halfway to Phitsanulok before his anger-induced high slipped away and exhaustive depression filled the void. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open. Twice he had awakened just in time to steer his car back onto the highway. He stopped at a gas station to fill his tank and to get a few minutes rest.