Stepping Stones

1 LIFE’S LITTLE SURPRISES-3

Nic returned to the email, of which the video was an attachment. The metadata just said ‘From: candidcamera@canadaproxy.ca Subject: ☺’. Nic knew about proxy servers, but he had to have Lek translate the English, which she did with great pleasure.

“All right, I withdraw. You win this time Lek. Come on, let’s get off home.” He stormed off stage with his men in his wake.

“Where did that come from, Lek?”

“I have no more idea than you do. You can see when it arrived, a few minutes ago.”

“You two do seem to have had a lot of help from ‘dei ex machina’ today, don’t you. Anonymous tip-offs, anonymous emails and videos. It really is most strange. Anyway, you deserved to win Lek, so I’d better announce that before everybody goes home with the wrong idea.” He switched the PA system back on and told how there had been an ‘unfortunate mistake’ and that Khun Lek had in fact won reasonably comfortably, after Khun Tatsanai had magnanimously conceded the error in addition and withdrawn any objections. Those that were left, about half of those there at the first announcement roared, for Lek was the preferred candidate in Baan Suay by far.

Nic turned the PA off again. “Come on, I need a drink after that. What a bastard, eh? Intimidating a young girl like that, she couldn’t have been more than sixteen.”

“What will happen to her, Nic?”

“I’ll let her stew tonight. I hope she doesn’t sleep a wink, but I’ll go and see her parents tomorrow and let her off. I won’t report this and I doubt that anyone else will either.”

“I won’t,” offered Lek, “I’d like to see you phone her parents and tell them what you’re doing, in case they get too heavy with her.”

“I agree,” said Jan, “she looked awfully upset and we wouldn’t want her to do anything stupid, would we now?”

“OK.” He phoned his Number Two, the Chuai Baan. “Tom, do us a favour will you. That girl who falsified the figures today, could you get me her parents’ phone number, please? I’d like to speak to them right away.

“Right, do you want a drink here or on that gorgeous rooftop of yours?”

“Up to you, Nic,” replied Lek.

“Oh, I love it up there, the view is so much better and it’s more breezy than our living room.” So, they retired to the roof garden of Lek and Ayr’s small hotel. They bought a bottle of 100 Pipers from Nong on their way up and invited her and Kurt to join them later if they wanted, but the loving couple rarely socialised after working hours, and it was one of the reasons why the invitation was extended anyway. They had been expected to decline. Craig and Ross kept a dozen beers in the fridge as a matter of course, or at least the girl running The Cloud Café had a standing order to keep at least a dozen bottles in her fridge.

They sat on the roof in the cool breeze which didn’t exist at street level. It transformed a sweltering, muggy, mosquito-infested evening into a very enjoyable experience especially as Baan Suay was relatively pollution-free and so the stars and even some planets were usually on display.

As they were talking about the local events of the day and Thai politics in general, as they usually ended up doing, Nic’s phone rang. “Hello, speaking. I see, I’m actually sitting with her now… I’ll put her on… For you, Lek. It’s Phichai police, It appears that your phone is dead and someone has been trying to reach you for a while…” Nic handed her his phone, “Daap Prasit…”

“Hello, Daap Prasit, what can I do for you?… I see…” she rummaged in her handbag, pulled out her phone and tried to switch it on, but it was dead. “No, that is correct, I am trying it now, but the battery is dead, it has been a very busy day. What exactly is the problem? I see, my son-in-law… yes, I have his number… all right, I’ll phone him right away. Thank you for your perseverance and diligence, officer. Good night.

“It seems that Soom’s husband has been trying to phone me for the last two hours or so, but my battery was dead and so was yours, Ayr. I need to phone him ‘immediately’ apparently…” Ayr took out her phone, pulled the back off it and inserted a battery,

“Here, use mine,” she handed it over and Lek dialled.

“You told me that your battery was empty.”

“No, is that what I said? Sorry, I meant ‘had fallen out’. I dropped it and the battery fell out.” She apologised with her expression and a shrug, but was listening intently to Lek. Nic didn’t believe her, but believed that the ends justified the means and they had ousted that scoundrel Tatsanai. He sat there shaking his head in disbelief that he had fallen for one of Ayr’s ruses, while listening to Lek, as were they all.

She waited anxiously for her call to be answered, not knowing what the problem was, but fearing the worst under the circumstances. “Ah, Mike, I understand you’ve been try…”

“I’m so sorry, Mae, so, so sorry. I love Soom more than my own life, I would never have wanted this to happen.”

“Calm down, Mike… good. What has happened?”

“We went to a party, and, and er, I drank too much. Soom told me to leave the car there, but I said I was all right…”

“Get to the point, Mike, quickly!”

“It’s Soom… we had an accident, and she’s in hospital… intensive care… she’s in there now. I’m so sorry, I, I…”

“Is there a doctor I can speak too, or a nurse?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well, find out, and bloody quickly!”

“Yes, Mae.”

“Craig, put this number in your phone, it’s that bloody i***t’s my daughter’s married to. Send him a text so he can keep in touch. I’ll kill him if Soom, if she… Hello, nurse, my name is Mrs Williams. Yes, Soom’s mother… can you give me any news please?”

“I’m terribly sorry, Mrs. Williams, Khun Soomsomai is in surgery as we speak. She was unconscious on arrival with a suspected fractured skull as a result of an RTA, I believe. We won’t know any more until she comes out of the operating room… No, I don’t know when that is likely to be, I’m sorry.”

“OK, thank you, please put me back onto her husband.”

“Mike, we will be there as soon as we can, but it is awkward at this time of night. Craig has sent you his phone number. Ring it as soon as you have any news.”

“Yes, Mae, thank you…” Lek hung up. She didn’t want to hear his excuses and she certainly wasn’t making the journey for his sake.

“Right, did you all get the gist of that?” She was looking at Craig and said in English, “Soom is in an operation room after a car accident,” her mastery of the English language deteriorating quickly as other things filled her mind. “We have to get down there now, Craig! Anybody any ideas? Little Soom is in intensive care, Craig, Oh!” He jumped up and held her shoulders, resting his head on hers.

“It is too late to fly, the next flight is in twelve hours. We could drive you, but we’ve all been drinking… there’s a bus from Phitsanulok, that would get you there at about five o’clock, or a taxi all the way,” said Ross, summing up what everybody already knew.

“Ayr, could you get us a taxi for as soon as possible, please? Make sure you tell them the circumstances and offer a bonus if they get us there sooner than they would normally be able to. Make it a nice car too.”

Ayr made a few phone calls. “It will be here in half an hour. It’s got to come from Uttaradit. They’ve promised the boss’ Mercedes, but they’re not sure. Do you want to get any clothes to take, Craig?”

“No, I don’t think so, we can buy whatever we need when we’re there, but it’s four or five hours to Bangkok, even if they hurry, so I need to take a couple of travel sickness tablets for Lek, a couple of cans for me and maybe a ‘ben’ of whiskey to put in my pocket for Lek in case she wants it. Oh, Ayr, and mints, a toothbrush, a comb or brush, whatever Lek uses and some toothpaste. Here’s a thousand, we’ll follow you down in a minute.”