Gemscentric

Written by Julian Robov

Four


Rudy returned to the Holiday Inn Hotel on Silom Road to meet James. It was eight in the evening. He waited for him at the Window-on-Silom restaurant. From the window seat, he observed a car crash, which shouldn’t have happened if the Ferrari driver drove normally. Instead, the occupant drove like a Formula One driver killing the Mercedes driver, which had crossed his path, and several scores of footpath vendors. It all happened in a split-second. This unnecessary blood bath stopped all traffic on both sides of Silom Road, causing the traffic police to flee. A common scenario in Bangkok.

Tea and a ham sandwich arrived, which Rudy ate to kill the time. James was late.
As he finished his tea, a familiar voice caught his attention. He looked back. It was her—Siriporn ‘Potch’ TukTukpai. At first he couldn’t believe his eyes. She was now walking toward his table. Rudy rose to greet her.
“Oh Rudy,” she said. “What happened? I’ve been asking everyone. And, look at you now. Alone?”
She sat opposite his table. He looked back to see if anyone was watching. She noticed that.
“It’s all right, Rudy. My friends can wait, it is good to see you here. What a surprise?” She looked at him closely. He looked a bit leaner, but handsome. Her brown eyes wanted to know a lot. The message was clear.
“Yeah. Alone. But I’m waiting for a friend. He is late. Looking at the car crash on Silom, I can only guess. So, how are you? Good to see you too,” he said.
Potch collected people like gems and preferred to view them in privacy. The enormous wealth accumulated from several real estate property deals, and government projects made her the most outstanding business woman of Thailand. She had several awards to her credit. Chaiwath—her husband, ran the telecommunication business separately outwitting his competitors. He too grabbed credits for the past several years in an obsessive pursuit of modernizing the Thai telecommunication industry.

But Potch was different. In her late fifties, she looked much younger than her age. Rudy was her choice when it came to blue sapphires. She liked the color blue, and him too. The soothing color always brought luck and fame, and she believed in its merits even though it seemed superstitious. She didn’t care. Contracts and building projects kept arriving uninterruptedly forcing her to open a private bank. The money was flowing like the Chao Phraya river. She had a good heart, and her contributions to several social projects, brought instant recognition. Incrementally, she became the first woman advisor to the Prime Minister.
“I heard a lot of rumors about you. But I didn’t believe them. Are you back in business?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m trying to.” He remembered something. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Get me one lemon juice. No sugar,” she said. The service was fast.
“Getting back to the trade after a six years absence is not that easy. The landscape has changed tremendously. It was a set up, I’m still alive while others perished in that God forbidden jungle of Cambodia. It was hell, but I survived,” he briefed.
She sat closely watching his movements and his grayish blue eyes. He used to have good blue sapphire eyes—like the PAILIN SAPPHIRES. Now a grayish tone had taken over the blue hue.
“You know something,” she remembered. “I’ve just finished a new house not too far from the Dhammakaya Temple in Pathumthani—Indonesian architecture. I want you to be at my new home tomorrow. By the way, where are you staying?”
“Holiday Inn!” he said.
“No wonder you are here. I don’t think it’s good for you to stay alone in a hotel—not so safe nowadays. O.K. We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Wait a minute,” she recalled.
“You don’t have a car, do you?” she inquired.
“Nope,” he said apologetically.
“O.K. I’ll send my driver to pick you up. The traffic will be bad in the evening. But, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you arrive in time. Don’t go out anywhere tomorrow. I’ve something for you. Now listen, I’ve got to go. I’ve a wedding to attend. That’s why I’m here. Rudy, take care.”
She smiled at him. Rudy rose to extend his hand. She took his extended hand and pressed gently. It was natural.
He saw James at the entrance sweating and walking toward his table.
“What a bloody traffic jam? Can’t you see the chaos outside?” he continued. “I had to take a motorcycle taxi to get here. Thank goodness, I didn’t take my car.” He was breathing heavily.
“I think I should get you something to drink—your choice,” Rudy said.
“Singha beer—large,” James replied. “Who is that woman you were talking to, uh? I’ve seen her before.”
“Potch. A good friend and a good customer too. We met quite by chance.” Rudy kept gazing at the crash site.
“Oh, I know her. She looks different today,” James commented. “So, how did it go with Seri?”
“Rough and tough. On Chantaburi’s scale, he should be a five out of ten,” Rudy said.
“That’s not hard,” James commented. The Singha beer arrived with some snacks. Rudy motioned to the waitress to come back later.
“Tomorrow I have to go to Pathumthani, an invitation from Potch,” Rudy said immediately. He continued, “I want to walk the streets tonight. I don’t know why, but I just feel that way.”
“I can join you if you want, and we can have dinner later,” James quipped.
Rudy paid the bills, and together they walked down the escalator to Silom Road. The pimps were already out with their bait. The traffic looked much better now moving slowly. Street vendors screamed at them for their attention to buy something.
James bought two fake Versace T-shirts. There were big hotels on Silom Road: Monarch Lee Gardens, Narai, and the Dusit Thani. They weren’t interested in strolling the back streets of the notorious Patpong. They had seen this several times before. Rudy felt sorry for them.

Both James and Rudy strolled the streets without talking much, till they reached Lumpini park. Joggers and exercise fanatics were slowly leaving the ground. The park closed at eight. It was the only greenery available for the people of the Bangkok metropolis to breath in some pure, pollution free air. Sky train project works kept going on relentlessly amidst the traffic chaos and pollution on Silom—one of the sleepless streets of Bangkok. James wondered how Silom would look like if a wicked earthquake hit the street in the middle of the night. Another one of his bloody thoughts. Tour buses were emptying several loud-talking Koreans and Chinese on to the street—like popcorns. Only they knew what they were saying. Rudy and James watched them from a distance haggling with one of the street vendors. He was deaf, but good in calculations. The haggling went on for several minutes with repeated calculator exercises. They both laughed at the persistence and style of the deaf street vendor finally closing the sale. He got his deal in the end.