Gemscentric

Written by Julian Robov


Eighteen


Rasami went to bed early, but couldn’t sleep. Instead, she switched on channel five TV to watch a soap. She was alone. The maid who used to stay during the weekend had gone to Ubon Rachathani to visit her parents. It was already eleven. She walked to the kitchen for drinking water. As she opened the fridge, she felt someone standing behind her.
“Ssshhhhhh!” he whispered. Rasami froze in horror. Meechai Fonhlaeng!
He walked to her bedroom without saying a word. She was still gasping for breath. Her surprise was how on earth he managed to get into her house. Meechai waited. He allowed her to stay in bed, while searching the room. The soap on the tele was still on. He searched every nook and corner of her house. It remained the same. Meechai returned to her bedroom. She sat on her bed staring at him like never before. He didn’t care much.
She asked him why he hadn’t called her before. His concentration was elsewhere instead of answering her questions. Several thoughts surged to the tip of his tongue but she couldn’t utter a word.
She looked extremely puzzled by the strange behavioral pattern of Meechai. He never had such a trait before. Meechai sat beside her bed gazing at her intently. Beads of sweat kept forming on her face. This was her natural face. She switched off the tele and sat closer to him stroking his hair.
“What happened?” she sighed. Instead, he rested his head on her shoulder.
“I’m in trouble again. They want to kill me,” he responded quietly in Thai.
“Who?” she asked.
“Seri,” he said.
“Isn’t he your brother?” she asked. He was breathing heavily.
“How did you get here? I mean....” she asked curiously.
“The key. Remember? You gave me a duplicate one the last time I saw you. It was with me. Did you get my envelope?” he asked. She replied with a juicy kiss, and that triggered his inactive brain to do something quickly. He needed an instant fix of sex desperately. She knew it instantly, and within minutes he was on top of her and rolling over the bed. After a while he lost interest and sat up gazing through the window. It was pitch dark outside. Dogs and cats were having their parliamentary debate in style.
“What happened?” she asked again. “If you don’t like me then why are you here, uh?”
“I don’t know,” Meechai replied aimlessly.
“Are you afraid of dying?” Rasami asked purposely.
“I don’t want to die,” he shouted at her angrily. He couldn’t concentrate on anything. It took her a while to grasp that he was wounded. She saw the blood stains on his left leg. Rasami rushed to the kitchen and returned with a first-aid kit.
“You need a hot shower. Come,” she said. “I’ll bathe you. Is someone following you?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he followed her to the bathroom. He had no spare clothes. After the shower, she gave him her night gown, and put his clothes in the washing machine. She understood now that he must have been traveling from Chantaburi. How? She was too scared to ask. Meechai needed a good sleep. She dressed his wounds without asking anything. He went off to sleep in her bed. Rasami couldn’t sleep the whole night.

Next morning, Meechai woke up refreshed. He went to the kitchen and made breakfast for both, and then thought of the next step.
“What happened?” she asked again, expecting a believable answer.
“Did the farang(foreigner) tell you anything more, when he came to see you?” Meechai asked. But first he awaited her response in Thai.
“Which farang (foreigner)?”
“Did anyone else come before Rudy?” he queried.
“Oh him. The American? Nothing much. He gave me his telephone number in case I needed any help. That’s all. No business, nothing.”
“Telephone number? Where is it?” At last it had happened. He was in an ecstatic mood. He began dancing around the table.
“What’s wrong with you?” She couldn’t understand why he was dancing—like a whirling dervish.
“Give me the number,” Meechai urged. She returned from her dressing room with a piece of paper.
Meechai looked up at the phone number several times and mumbled something in Khmer. Only he understood the meaning.

It was already eleven fifteen. Rasami had no special plans for the day except that Jeffrey should be calling her anytime next week. She was too scared to ask how long Meechai would be staying at her house. Most important of all he needed a good change of clothes. And going to a hospital at this stage seemed too dangerous. Meechai was not telling the whole truth.
“I am going to Robinsons to buy some food and clothes for you. How can you go out with these old clothes?” she said reluctantly.
Meechai stopped her, and said, “Come back quick.” She nodded.
After she had left on a motorcycle taxi, he slumped in her bed plotting his next move. It seemed like accumulated luck that he had traveled in a fruit van all the way from Chantaburi to Bangkok. No one asked anything except that he gave them a bottle of champagne stolen from Seri’s villa in Chantaburi. He thanked all the revered Buddhist monks for keeping him alive, despite the bad deeds, he had done in the past.

He had no one to blame except himself. But the situation now seemed too difficult to grasp. Now his brother Seri had turned against him. Meechai wanted to know what Rudy had said to Seri. He trusted Rudy a lot after they became friends during their captivity in Pailin and Anglong Veng. Now Seri and Jeffrey were after Rudy’s life.
As if in the middle of a minefield, he became vigilant. At least in Khmer Rouge captivity those brilliant buffaloes were with him as guides. Now in his own country, Meechai couldn’t trust anyone. Even though he believed Rasami wouldn’t betray him at this stage, he remained watchful.

It was a pleasant day outside. Children got ready for school, as the school bus arrived. Retired citizens had all the time in the world chit-chatting, as they stopped their friends on a back street continuing their conversation. Street kids were busy playing football, while dogs and cats kept barking at each other for trespassing into their territory.

Meechai stood on the first floor of the house and watched in awe the simple and colorful lives of the people around him. Now that circumstances had changed drastically by the sudden events, he wanted to get back to the normal life. Money, women, and miscalculation in business had ruined his life, but he believed given another chance he was willing to go the extra mile for a genuine comeback without Seri. With that thought, he quietly returned to her bedroom.