On Monday morning, they got up just in time not to miss breakfast, ate slowly and then checked out. They booked a taxi to the bridge but asked him to wait at the embassy first. The embassy opened for the collection of visas after lunch at one-thirty, so they had plenty of time to start their long-winded return trip home.
Sitting in the bus to Phitsanulok, both were analysing their holiday. Both thought that it had gone well considering and both felt better for having spent so much time alone away from Leks distractions in the village. As she felt the tablets kicking in again, Lek reached out under the blanket and took Craigs hand and he squeezed it back.
3 The Death of a Neighbour
Lek and Craig both benefited from their trip to Laos in that their relationship grew closer and they started spending some time with each other again. Craig still had to work all day, but Lek made a point of meeting him at Nongs for a couple of hours at five oclock every day, whereas these meetings had dropped to once of twice a week over the previous year and even then Lek had spent most of the time on the phone talking to her daughter in Bangkok or her cousin in Pattaya.
Craig had actually wished she would stop coming, because he found it distracting and unsettling to have her talking loudly in a language he couldnt understand to people he couldnt see when he was out for a relaxing break between two long sessions of work. More than once he had reminded her that it was a mobile phone, so why didnt she walk over there and chat to her family.
It hadnt helped their relationship any, but it had been at rock bottom anyway.
Now she was being nice to him again, but he couldnt help wondering how long it would last. Craig was sure that either she was menopausal or worried about something and the something could only be her daughter or money or both.
How are your web sites doing, my dear?
I have a hundred and fifty-two now, but the global recession is still hitting them badly, he replied somewhat shocked at the sudden interest. This was probably the second time she had asked about his work in eight years.
Im thinking of scaling back to a hundred web sites or less, because I cannot write enough articles every month to keep them all looking fresh. At one five-hundred-word article a week for each site that would mean writing twenty-two articles a day or eleven thousand words a day. That is unsustainable...
Craig looked up but he could see that he had lost her.
If I am going to be writing... Lek, Lek! If I am going to be writing eleven thousand words a day for web sites, I might as well write a book, mightnt I? he joked.
Yes, dear. You could write a book on Thailand. Write some stories. Maybe they sell better than web sites.
I was joking. Ive never written a book in my life... I wouldnt know where to start. Writing five-hundred-word articles on interesting topics is easy enough, when you get into the swing of it. I can do five a day for a few days, but I can write three a day for ever. However, three a day means twenty-one a week which will only support twenty-one web sites, but twenty-one average web sites wont provide enough income to support us.
Craig loved to talk about his work, but no-one else in the village shared his interest and he never met anyone else. Or rarely, so whenever anyone showed the slightest interest, he tended to go over the top, as he was now. Lek tried to maintain a level of interest, but she had no idea what he was talking about.
Darling, you know me. I care about people: my family and my friends, I know nothing about machines and computers. It just goes in this ear and out that one, but nothing sticks. I am stupid, I have no education. I never go high school and never go to university. My mother not have money to send me. That is why I want Soom to go. I dont want her stupid like me, I want her clever like you.
It always broke his heart to hear her talking about herself like that.
You went back to school a few years ago, didnt you? I thought that was for high school.
Yes, now, at the age of forty, I can prove that I am as clever as a sixteen-year-year old. Great! I am still twenty-four years behind. Do you think anyone wants to give a job to a forty year old woman with the brain of a sixteen-year-old? No, I am on the scrap heap. I am even not fit enough to work in the rice fields like women half my age again. My Mum is sixty-er, er... something and she can still work in the fields all day if she has to, but I would not last one hour and you would not last ten minutes.
She started laughing at the thought of him planting or cutting rice by hand. She found the mental image of Craig up to his ankles in mud hilarious. I am sorry, she said with a hand before her mouth, but when I think of you..., you standing in sloppy mud planting rice, complaining about your bad back and wanting a cold beer because there is no shade... Oh, my Buddha. You are very funny. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
You working with all the old ladies and they are working faster than you and you complaining and wanting a chair, a beer and an umbrella in the wet rice field... Oh, my Buddha.
It was nice to see her laugh again. She touched his hand, clinked glasses and put hers to her lips. At the last moment she had to put the glass down again as another mental image caused a laughing fit.
Oh, I must tell my Mum later! I will tell her that you want to help her in the field next time, but she must take a chair and some beer for you. And she was laughing again. Craig didnt mind in the slightest being the butt of her jokes anything to see her laugh again, He wished she would do it every day.
Oh, Lek, that money we borrowed from Billy in Barry. I had forgotten all about it. Had you? Anyway, I sent it back to him by PayPal today and thanked him very much. He pulled us out of the shit there big time, didnt he?
Yes. How stupid we were. I liked Billy the first time we met him in OBriens. And the other guys we used to sit with on market day when it was freezing cold outside... Look at the time, Soom will be thinking that I have forgotten her.
At six oclock Lek always phoned her daughter. It was their designated time; it was the time she should be arriving in her bedsit from university or school as Craig called it. Lek would never demean such a respected establishment of higher education with the word school, although she had respect for schools in their place. She realised that Craig could be so flippant about university because he had attended one and familiarity breeds contempt, as they say, but she didnt like him using that term when referring to Sooms university.
Lek looked forward to phoning Soom every day, so took up her mobile and rang her.
Hello, where are you now? - the standard greeting - Have you eaten yet? Good... Are you well? How did university go today? Good.... Good. Me? Im fine. Yes, hes all right too. Hes sitting here with me now, drinking beer. Soom says Hello. He says Hello to you too. What are you going to do tonight? Yes, thats right... Do your homework, read a bit, watch TV for a while and then early to bed
Tomorrow is another day. You want to be fit and bright for every day in university. You have worked hard to get there, now you have to work hard to stay there. You will do that, I know you will..
OK, yes, OK. Phone me if you need anything at any time of the night or day. We are well, dont worry about us. Gran is fine too. She sends her love. Yes, OK, thank you. We miss you too. Bye-bye for now. Bye...
OK, yes, OK. Phone me if you need anything at any time of the night or day. We are well, dont worry about us. Gran is fine too. She sends her love. Yes, OK, thank you. We miss you too. Bye-bye for now. Bye...
That was Soom. She says she misses us... and you. I mean including you. She is doing well though. I miss her too. I want to go down to see her. Maybe stay with her for a few days, what do you think?
If you stay with her in her bedsit, then I cant go. Thats what I think, but I dont mind, if you want to go on your own. I can survive here alone, on my own, with absolutely no-one to talk to for two days, if that is what you want.
I know how much you miss her. I dont mind, really! Im only joking with you. Look, its, er, Tuesday today, so why dont you go down on Friday morning, stay the weekend while shes off school and comeback on Monday morning?
University, dear. Soom finished school last year nearly eighteen months ago. She does go in on Saturday morning for private lessons, but that is a good suggestion of yours. OK, Ill book a seat in the minibus and leave on Friday. Thank you for understanding, darling. She cupped her mouth and whispered the words I love you. Choop, choop. You would only be bored in Bangkok anyway. Its no good you coming, is it?
It was true that Craig did not like big cities, but he said, Yeah, right! Id be bored rigid what with all those bars, girls, strip joints, A-Go-Go bars and everything. I mean... you get too much of that around here.... Enough to last a man a lifetime.
Lek thought he was joking, but even after eight years, she was rarely completely sure. They both had such different senses of humour and Thai humour was different from the British variety anyway. Probably Asian was different to European in general. So she put on a weak smile and studied his face.
Only joking. Im happy for you to go and Im happy to stay here. All alone, while youre out going everywhere in Bangkok. Boring old Bangkok. While I live in up in Baan Suay, the only place Ive ever lived without a pub.
Now she knew he was joking. Maybe speaking the truth in jest, but that was his way. He didnt mind her going and didnt mind staying at home.
OK, thank you my dear. Ill let Soom have a shower and then ring her with the good news. I am really looking forward to it. Isnt it exciting? We havent been separated for more than a few hours for eight years.
He had had his little joke, so he didnt push his luck. He just smiled back at her. He was wondering if he could get his friend Murray to come around and take him out in the car. He had never explored the local village bars if there were any.
Just as Lek was about to phone her daughter, Nong came running out.
Lek! Lek! There has been an accident. Mrs. Ng just told me that a petrol tanker has knocked two local ladies off their motorcycle in the lane. One is dead and the other has less than a ten percent chance of pulling through. Who is it?
Oh, how awful! But how would I know? Ive been sitting here for the last hour. She told Craig about the accident.
But no-one knows who they are?
I think some people know, but we dont know, she replied, wondering whom she could phone to find out who the victims were.
Nong spoke up after making a phone call. It never took her long to know the local gossip, it was why she was always busy, people called in for groceries and to find out what was going on. In the absence of a local paper or radio station, Nong was the repository of all local knowledge.
One was that young Mrs. Ma who lives... lived just round the corner. The one with two young children and another on the way. Shes the one that died outright and the other one was your next-door neighbour, Joy. Theyd been out shopping apparently and were coming back through the lane when BANG! Head on into a petrol tanker making deliveries around the villages.
He was actually due here, but was redirected down the lane by road-workers. The driver is beside himself with grief. The doctor had to sedate him. Joy is in hospital, but she was dragged a little way by the truck so shes in a very bad way. They think shell die. Just a ten percent chance of pulling through.
Craig couldnt follow much of the conversation, but he could see other women gathering at the shop to discuss it. When Lek started explaining to Craig, Nong darted off, anxious to tell the others what she knew and maybe learn a few more details.
When Lek got up to join the other women, Craig slipped into the shop and helped himself to another Chang. He knew that there would be no decent service for at least an hour and he didnt mind helping out. Eagle-eyed Nong spotted him in her peripheral vision and nodded him her consent.
Craig was roused from his daydreams, by a collective sharp intake of breath, but he could guess what had happened.
When she had all the information there was to be had, Lek rejoined Craig. Joy just died too. Isnt that just awful? Ma had two young children and was just pregnant with a third and Joy, well, she is or was a grandmother, but only fifty years old and looking after her daughters baby... and her husbands not well. I know you dont like him much, but you used to get on well with Joy, didnt you?
Yes..., we never actually spoke because we couldnt, but when she saw me sitting here she always used to shout go home. I used to like to think that she meant go home to your wife and not go back to Britain. She probably didnt know any other words in English. Yes, I liked her... she used to ask me to dance at parties, remember?
Yes, I liked her too. You realise what this means, eh? I wont be going to Bangkok this weekend. Not if they have the normal seven-day ceremony. Still, Bangkok will still be there next week, so no rush.
Perhaps, Soom ought to come back to pay her respects. She has known Joy all her life. I must phone her now. Are you all right for ten minutes? She inspected his bottle, OK, Ill get you a fresh one first. I think Ill have one too. Its no good waiting for Nong, Ill get them myself.
As soon as Lek had sat down, she was back on the phone to Soom.
Soom cant come back until Friday. She finishes early on Fridays and can cancel her..., what name did you say again? Her tutorial on Saturday morning, then, if she goes back on Sunday afternoon, she wont miss any classes, so thats all right, isnt it? Maybe I could go back with her. Couldnt I?
Well, obviously you could, but you wont see much of her during the week and if you only get to see her every few months, why use up your visit so soon after she has come home? Why not leave it a month and then go down? That way you see her twice in two months. Sounds better to me.
Yes, maybe you are right. Well see what happens.
Well, when Soom goes back, Joys funeral will not yet be over, so that is another reason to put it off for a while. Look, Im not trying to stop you going... I know that it is going to happen one day, but I want you to get the maximum effect from your visits. That is all. Think about it.
There was no longer a bristle of gossip among the twenty or so women gathered at the shop, they had become hushed. Talking in whispers out of respect for the double fatality. Two women, one in her twenties and one just turned fifty dead, killed not a hundred metres from the safety of their homes by a truck that shouldnt have been there, that had never travelled that route before. Two husbands and three children left behind and one baby dead with its mother, still unborn.