The Dream

2 THE UNINVITED PARTY GUEST-2

“She thought we were going to kill it, but I told her that the international police had outlawed it punishable by a big fine and a jail sentence. She wasn’t very impressed with ‘falang police’ and said it’s none of their business”.

By twelve o’clock they still hadn’t found Lizzie, so they called in the hotel for a drink and a bite to eat.

“Hot, isn’t it?” said Nong when she came out to take their order and wipe the inevitable film of dust from the table. “What have you two been doing?”

Craig interrupted, “Sorry, Soom, but Nong, can we have a cold beer and a cold orange juice first, please?”

She hurried off. “Sorry about that, Soom, but she’d talk all day otherwise. Tell her when she comes back”.

Soom told her story.

“Yes, I saw it this morning! I chased it with my six-foot snake stick, but it was too fast for me. It went down the back there behind the hotel and over the wall”.

She translated for Craig.

“Did you tell her about the ‘falang police’?”

“No, not yet, but I will now”.

“What did she say?”

“Pretty much the same as everyone else I told; that it’s Thai business not falang”.

“It’s like bashing your head against a brick wall, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“I mean, telling everyone it’s a rare animal… no-one cares… you don’t make any progress by bashing your head against a brick wall”.

“Oh, I see. No, you don’t, not with old people, but if you told the young, they would probably listen. That’s what I was saying earlier. That’s given me an idea. Do you want to start looking again this afternoon?”

“No, it’s too hot now, I’ll just sit here and do some writing on my tablet”.

“That’s what I thought you’d say. It is very hot, we can try again later or tomorrow, if you like”.

“Yes, I’d like that”.

When she had finished her orange juice and a piece of Kurt’s Apfelstrudel and Custard, she took her leave of Craig and left him to his thoughts.

She returned at five with her mother.

“Hello, ladies, where’s Shell?”

“At my mother’s; call us up two orange juices on your tablet, will you, please. It’s so hot today”.

“Sure, what have you both been up to this afternoon?”

“We were sitting in the shop. I was going over the books, and Soom was updating our company website”.

“I put a warning about Lizzie on the site with a photo, saying that if anyone killed it, or one like it, the International and Thai police wanted to be informed so they could take the person to court for sentencing.

“I also said that it was rare and protected and that we were offering a five hundred Baht reward for its safe capture. I thought we could take it out of the village and release it”.

“Good idea”, said Craig.

“Good idea… If it was such a good idea, you wouldn’t have to bribe people to help you. I nearly burst out laughing when you told Mum what that thing eats last night. Do you think that she and the people around here don’t know what they eat? Do you think that she is that stupid that she doesn’t know?

“Beetles, bugs, snails and geckos! Right!”

“That’s what it says in the book and on the Internet”, interjected Craig and Soom nodded in agreement.

“Well, that is what hatchlings might eat, but four-footers and their parents would soon eat all the beetles in Thailand if that was their only food. These big ones eat chickens! A small one like your Lizzie eats chicks and the big ones eat fully-grown chickens, and most farmers have got chickens running around the garden or yard, haven’t they? That’s the real reason they hate dua heer.

“They eat dead dogs and other dead animals too. That’s why people call them dirty. Sometimes, they’ll bite a toddler and the bite goes septic and swells up and they have to go back and forth to hospital for a week or more. I do wish you’d give us farmers some credit once and a while, I really do”.

“I’m only repeating what I’ve read. I don’t know…”

“No, you don’t, and nor does the writer of your book or the web pages, but we do. They should come up here and ask people who really know, not someone who keeps one in a glass case…”

“Vivarium. Why didn’t you or your Mum tell us this last night?”

“My mother is far too polite to argue with you, especially in public, and I didn’t think the time was right – it was a party. Anyway, what’s a wiwarium?”

“Vivarium, a glass tank for keeping reptiles, er, animals in, but not fish that’s an aquarium”.

“I don’t care about big names for glass tanks!”

“No, sorry, I thought that Soom might like to know”, he said trying to get out of the hole. Soom helped by repeating the words under her breath as if trying to remember them.

“Thanks”, she said. “I’ll try to remember that”. He winked at her and smiled.

“I’ve told you before that the government issued a warning on TV to tell all Thais not to put too much faith in what they see on the Internet, because it’s full of lies, liars, cheats and thieves”.

“There are good and bad, Mae, just as in all walks of life…”

“Perhaps, but in life you meet someone face to face and you form an opinion about him, but on the Internet, it’s just words on a screen and you don’t know who wrote them or why, or whether they are true or not. I agree with the government on this one”.

“The government only said that to stop people trying to find out what other countries thought about the coup!” said Craig.

Lek just glared at him and Soom looked down at her hands. He had broken a cardinal rule: never to discuss anything political in a public place.

“What do you want to do for my birthday?” he asked trying to change the subject as Nong put the drinks on the table.

“Discuss it with Soom, I’ve got to go and see my mother”, she said and walked off.

“Oops, I forgot”.

Soom raised her eyebrows and gave a false grimace, but did not say anything.

“So, what do you want to do for my birthday?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Well, we’ve had a party for it every year since I’ve been here, but I don’t really enjoy parties… or I don’t enjoy them if they are held in my honour anyway”.

“No, I know that, but Mum likes to show you off”, she said giggling behind her hand.

“Yes, all right, it’s not that funny. It’s very nice of your mother… it’s just that I don’t like it. I usually go for a pub crawl around the village on my own and then go back to the party in the house”.

“I could join you on your pub crawl, if you like and then we could all go for a meal”.

“Yes, that sounds good, but early, eh? It’ll take five hours to get around the village and I would like to go for a meal at six”.

“Yes, OK, suits me… Oh! Excuse me that’s my phone…”

She turned away to take the call, so Craig returned to watching the people on the road before him. He wasn’t listening to Soom, but he became aware of a change in her voice and looked at her profile. A tear ran from her nearside eye, then she clicked the phone off and looked at him.

“What’s the matter, Soom, not bad news, I hope?” He could see that she was struggling with her emotions, but only because he knew her so well. She was good at it, like her mother.

“I’m not sure, could be, but nothing for you to worry about. I’d better go and see how Shell is doing – give gran and Mum a hand. Will you be lonely here on your own?”

“No, girl, you run along”. She put a hand on his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks, Dad. See you later”.

Later that evening, after dinner, when Soom was in the shower, Lek approached Craig in his office.

“Look, the three of us are going to bed now… we’ve got something to discuss. Are you sleeping with us tonight, or in the office?”

“Well, I had intended sleeping on the living room floor with you and the baby as I always do, with Soom now that she’s staying… like last night. Why?”

“No, nothing, that’s all right, but what time are you going to bed?”

“I don’t know… same as usual, I suppose, about midnight”.

“Three hours”, she said looking at the wall clock, “yes, that’s fine. It’s just that it’s a private chat. A mother and daughter thing in Thai, and I don’t want to have to be translating for you. You understand, don’t you, darling?”

“Yeah, sure, I saw Soom crying this afternoon after she’d had a phone call. I had worked out that someone had upset her and that it was probably about Mike since she didn’t use his name or an endearment. What’s the sod done now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Soom will tell you tomorrow. Anyway, thanks. Don’t come in before twelve unless either of us calls you. Good night, dear, sorry about all this, but thanks”, and she kissed him.

“Good night, dear”, she said when she heard the bathroom door open.

“Yes, good night, Dad”, said Soom coming into the office in a towel. “Don’t work too late, will you? Tomorrow is another day”.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her and felt a little guilty.

“What is it, Dad?”

“Nothing, it’s just that you look so much like your mother when I first met her… it’s uncanny, but I’ve never noticed the resemblance before”.

She smiled leant down and kissed him on the cheek and so did Lek, then they were gone, laughing to each other about something that he hadn’t caught. A few minutes later, there was the swoosh of the living room door and Soom appeared at his desk in her pyjamas.

“Here, Dad, I brought you this, a big glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Mum and I are going to have one before go to sleep, so I thought you might like one as well. It’s better than beer at this time of night.

“Speak to you in the morning”.

“Yes, dear, thanks for the Bailey’s and the thought. Good night”. He watched her reflection leave the room in the smoked glass window in front of him, and wondered how they would cope without their Thai family in frosty Wales, where no-one had spoken to him for several years. It was going to be harder than he had imagined, now that he had seen Soom again, and it would be harder still for Lek as her real mother. He foresaw quick tempers, frustration and arguments in a town where neither of them knew anyone, leading to Lek soon returning to Thailand alone; because he wanted to give his books a chance, sort out his pensions and make sure that he was as fit as he should be.

‘Was it all worth it, or was it a just lot of hassle for nothing?” he wondered. Only time would tell, but it was looking grim, and he knew of plenty of other couples who had not survived the tribulations of moving to Britain and leaving their Thai families behind only to be seen on video links for eleven months of the year.