Stepping Stones

2 BANGKOK HOSPITAL-3

“Yes, I may curl up on the couch for a while. What about you?” She surveyed the room – there wasn’t anywhere else. “Wake me in an hour and you can have the couch, we’ll take it in turns.”

“OK, don’t worry about me. I can sleep on a gravel drive if I’m tired, anyway, I’ve got my laptop, if there’s wireless here I’ll be well away.”

Lek kissed him on the forehead, lay on the couch and was asleep in seconds.

When Mike returned ten minutes later, he found the two women asleep and Craig setting up his computer. “If you want to get some sleep, Mike, find a space and go for it. I’m going to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot I can piggy-back, or I’ll do some writing for a while.”

“I don’t think I could sleep yet, Paw. Do you and Mae hate me now?” he asked in a worried voice kneeling on the floor next to Craig’s chair.

“No, son, don’t worry about that. You did do a very, no, incredibly stupid thing though and we are both very angry with you. You could have killed Lek’s only child, not to mention Soom – if you see what I mean. Look, I’m sure that Lek would say that nether you nor I know what it’s like to have a child – God knows, she’s said it to me often enough over the years – so, I take that on board, but it’s bad enough to lose anyone you love, apparently losing a child is a lot worse.

“That is the scare that you gave Lek a few hours ago, so don’t be surprised if she makes you pay for it for a while. I’m afraid you’ve got to expect that for a while, although I can’t tell you how long. She forgives some things very quickly, but she never forgets others… perhaps she never forgets anything really, just chooses to pretend to. Anyway, that’s the place you’re in now, but you are lucky, Lek knows that you and Soom love each other and she knows that hurting you will hurt her daughter, and she won’t want to do that, so just bite the bullet and take the pain while it lasts.”

“Thank you, Paw. Can I get you anything, I think I’ll walk around the car park for a while.”

“Oh, you just reminded me. Before Soom fell asleep, she said she’d like her favourite food when she woke up, but she forgot to tell us what it was…”

“Oh, I know,” he said brightening visibly. “She’s had a thing for pizzas with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni recently. I’ll go out and get her one. I’ll get us all one.”

“Good idea, you do that, son. Could you get me a chocolate ice cream in the foyer on the way back up too?”

“Sure.” Craig stood up at the same time as Mike and put his hand in his pocket. He pulled out some money, a few twenties and a couple of hundreds, nearly £6 in British money. “I’ve got money, Paw, don’t worry about that. I’ll be back in an hour or so, I’ll have to drive to her favourite pizza parlour.”

“OK, see you later. Er, I meant to ask you about that, I thought you wrote your car off and you got done for drinking and driving yesterday evening.”

“Yes, but the insurance company has lent me a little run-around, and I haven’t been convicted of anything yet, so I can still drive. See you soon.”

When he had left, it occurred to Craig that Mike and Soom’s combined household income was probably three or four times that of his and Lek’s.

Just over an hour later, Mike arrived back with four large boxes in a huge bag. The smells of the hospital were soon completely masked by the rich aromas of bread, cheese and pepperoni. Craig saw Soom open her eyes in the mirror he was facing, but it didn’t have any effect on Lek, who, like most Thais could take dairy or leave it and usually chose to leave it. The obsession with Western food was a fairly recent phenomenon and largely restricted to the trendy youth of the big cities.

Cheesy pizzas hadn’t hit Baan Suay yet, where the nearest equivalent from Phichai was a ‘pizza’ with a topping of local vegetables and salad cream. It was disgusting.

This one was the real thing though and it made Craig’s mouth water. “Did the smell of pizza just wake you up, Soom?”

“No,” she smiled, “I was already half-awake, but I saw you working and Mae sleeping, so I just dozed. Can I put the TV on quietly?”

“Sure,” Craig tossed the remote that was near him over to the bed within her reach, but Mike pounced on it and passed it to her. He was determined to earn as many Brownie points as possible as quickly as he could.

“Here’s your pizza and ice cream, Paw.”

“Pizza and ice cream? That sounds a strange combination,” joked Soom.

“Yes, all right, I wasn’t thinking when I ordered the ice cream, but I do miss them in the village. I’ll eat the ice cream first. Are you sure you should be eating that, Soom? I mean, it won’t conflict with hospital regulations or anything?”

“No, Paw. As I was walking past the nurses’ station, they could smell the pizzas. One of them asked who they were for. She made a phone call and said it was all right. Soom’s only dietary restriction is alcohol, but there is no alcohol allowed on hospital premises anyway.”

“Yes, well, I wouldn’t let Lek hear you talking about alcohol in any which way or form for a few weeks if I were you. It’s best if you erase the word from your vocabulary for now.”

Lek didn’t wake up until five o’clock to get her pizza, by which time Craig was ready for his shift on the couch.