Corpus of a Siam Mosquito | Page 2

thoughts were dark in a land of frivolous irresponsibility. To Thai's the word "serious" had a negative connotation and he was that. Unless one was a monk, being contemplative was a tacit violation of laws in the Land of Smiles. He had become the rescuer of whores humanizing their sorry plight. Their only sins were to be born poor and to be loyal enough to not pull out of the loose fetters of family obligations. They continued to remember shadowy figments of obscure rural relatives whom they needed to feed. Still being a hero was burdening him with a singular motif and he continually shot this thought through his neurological circuitry until the taxi driver spoke, parting his thoughts like Moses and the Red Sea or Buddha sabotaging a bit of the recycle factory of the human soul.
"My son flew into Changmai recently. I've been wondering about airplanes ever since-just thinking about how things get off the ground. Have you ever wondered that?"
"Ka," meaning yes, the woman in the backseat croaked like a crow. "I'm trying not to question it. Wondering such things would make me scared that they don't stay up in the sky," she laughed. Her name was Jarunee but her nickname was Porn. "This will be my first plane ride soaring off with the birds."
"Thais don't often fly," he said. His idea was tinged with a bitter undertone as if poverty turned one's bones to lead and he found that his idea put him back in the solitude of his thoughts for only silence ensued. He decided to sound happier. "You sound excited."
"It has been my dream." She leaned her head against Nawin's shoulder.
"Flew off to Changmai. He lost his job during the financial meltdown of 96. 3000 baht. That's what the family lived on each month for a good many years. Then she was pregnant and laid off from the restaurant and they stayed with us for five or six months. Of course they could have stayed longer. After all, they are family."
"Yes, of course. You sound like a good father. I'm sure it will get better for everyone soon," responded Porn as she looked up at the old face in the mirror hoping with softness to make the tenor of the conversation gayer.
"Krap," he said meaning yes although he wasn't in agreement. "No, he continually got more depressed and then no matter how many job interviews he went on, he came up empty handed. Then she took their children to her parents. He came up there a bit later. The in-laws had him but didn't want him. He hadn't been trained at anything but working in the factory. He didn't know how to plant rice or maybe he was too depressed to learn. It wouldn't seem there would be much to learn. You just put them into the ground. Anyhow, he was walking around in a daze all that time. That's what she claimed they said about him. Soon he returned with us but before we knew it off he went to Chaingmai. I don't know why. I got a post card from there. It didn't say much other than he had taken his first flight. Can you imagine just buying a ticket, leaving, and not saying a word."
"Ka, not really. I can't imagine anybody doing that...unless he just didn't want to worry you. Maybe he didn't want to worry you about if the idea was right or wrong financially. I bet he has friends there and they'll help him to locate work."
"Yes, it is the best thing. I've been going to the temple to give food to the monks and blessings will follow. I'm sure of that. I've never gone on a flight. Where are the two of you going?"
"To Montreal."
"Where's that?"
"To Canada. She smiled but the word, favorable as it was, didn't have the flavor of Paris or cities in America."
"What will you do there?"
Nawin wondered what she would be doing there. She had escorted him around galleries, parties, and auditoriums where he gave speeches. Bangkok gossip columnists had sometimes even mentioned her presence with him. What would she be doing in Montreal while he attended post-graduate classes? That was a fundamental question he had no answer for. He had granted unto her a new profession where she didn't have to spread her legs to anyone but him. He had rescued her from stripping and whoring in a bar in Patpong but perhaps that would not be enough. Nobody was content. Like any animal, a human always yearned for more. They were trying to build up on themselves so that they were free of all discomfort. A woman was more that way than even a man based on his judgments and to be left alone in an apartment in a foreign country would