Daddy's Hobby

2 The Flatmates-3

She nonchalantly tossed over a smal bone hair grip and left.

“Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo,” the girls al ululated at once.

The story had got about already and Lek rubbed her bottom and pretended to be embarrassed.

The early afternoon session started very well - mostly middle-aged Brits, mostly drunk and mostly amazed that they were in a country where the bars were ful of young, friendly women wil ing to talk with them, and that they were open al day long, selling beer at reasonable prices. Lek played her rôle as hostess well; she had done it many times before. She might offer a cigarette to those that

sat there a while or introduce a girl or offer to find a partner for a bar game. She had volunteered to be the cashier as atonement and that meant sitting at the back of the bar, control ing the money and the girls, but not often coming to the bar itself.

In Daddy’s Hobby, like most bars, the girls pul ed the punters in by dancing, shouting or posing, took the orders and then delivered the drinks. They also sat with the drinkers, if they wanted, and tried to get Lady Drinks out of them. The order went to the cashier, who wrote a chit for it, she also noted it in a ledger or had a duplicate.

The customer got a copy in a beaker in front of him. When he wanted to cash up, a girl added the chits up and took his payment to the cashier, who checked that al was in order, marked his bil as paid and supplied his change, which the girl took back to him, hoping for a tip. So, the cashier was tied to the til , being the only person with access to the takings and consequently had smal chance of any action. For this reason, and the responsibility and trust necessary, a cashier usually earned twice a normal bar girl’s basic salary.

Mama San usual y worked as cashier.

Lek sat behind a medium sized desk, on which were arranged a duplicate chit book, a sales ledger, a desk diary, a tape deck, a CD

player and the remote control for the TV.

She was in charge of the audio visual entertainment as well as the nocturnal entertainment.

Work was rhythmic. Seven girls were bringing orders on a regular basis; chits had to be written; entries made in the ledger; tapes or CD’s changed; change given; TV channels changed; introductions made; pleasantries exchanged. It al made the time pass quickly.

The regular ‘boyfriends’ of two of the girls, Joy and Deou, Barry and Nick, arrived to take them out at nine o’clock. Lek considered it important to make a special fuss of regular boyfriends, as Mama San did too. ‘Regular boyfriends’ were the girls’ equivalent of a salesman’s hot lead. Every regular boyfriend was a potential ticket out of Pattaya.

A man was considered a regular boyfriend if he came back for the same girl several nights in succession. The best were men that had just arrived, in which case a girl had up to four weeks to get him

to fal for her, to say nothing of the 28 days regular salary.

Often, a regular would arrange to meet his lady in the home bar at eight or nine o’clock; they would have a few drinks (and Lady Drinks) and the bar fine would be discretely made along with his first order. Later, they might go off for a meal and or a show, although the girl would have been working there since four or five o’clock, as usual, just in case he was a ‘no show’. The house rule was to make these men feel special: all the girls chatted them up; al the girls offered to play bar games; al the girls treated them like part of the family.

Part of the family, but not part of the sorority!

Not only gender excluded them from that. Being foreign or falang (as Caucasians are called) excluded them too. It is important to realise the difference. None of the girls would try to steal a col eague’s boyfriend. Every girl wanted the same and every girl would do all she could to help a friend achieve her ambition. If a boyfriend called by when his lady was, say, shopping or something else, al the available girls would make a fuss of him, while Mama San discretely phoned her to tell her to get back to base at break-neck speed. Many girls would try to hedge their bets by going ‘short-time’, if they were not sure of their mark.

Lek took a couple of minutes off to go over; take their order personal y; shake them by the hand; ask them if they were going anywhere special later and offer them a cigarette; then she went back to her paperwork. The rest was up to them now and they were doing al right so far.

Lek looked the party of four over; noticed their body language and weighed them up: they had been seeing their boyfriends for about a week already and had seen them every day and night, which was a very good sign. They were staying in the Marriott and so were not short of money; they were about forty-five years of age, and so were probably not ‘butterflies’ like most younger men and could even be divorced. They dressed smartly. They both came from the same town in South Wales and had flown over together. It was their first time in Thailand and they were into the third week of a four-week stay.

Textbook stuff, she thought, the girls had every chance of success – the boys were as good as married.

She flicked through the TV channels to see if she could find

some footbal , perhaps then they would stay a little longer – after al , al Brits liked footbal , didn’t they?

Two of the other girls, Porn and Or, seemed to be doing well too, out the back, playing pool with two nice enough looking Englishmen. They had a good chance. The rest of the girls were out the front, cajoling passers-by to come to the bar. Mott was attempting to pole dance. She was not very good at it, but to be fair, the pole was not long enough either. Stil , she was having a go and it was funny, if not sexy.

Ayr and Goong pul ed in two drunks at about eleven thirty and seemed happy enough, although Lek thought they were beneath her friends. Stil ! Up to them – she didn’t always get it right either. They ordered a round and straight away they called for the Mama San.

They obviously had some experience in Thailand, although not in Daddy’s Hobby.

“What’s the bar fine on these two wee girls?” one of them slurred.

“And do they speak English?” the other chipped in.

Lek walked over. She could see that this needed delicate handling so she called Fa to take over the til .

“Why you not sit talk with Ayr and Goong first? Have drink.

Make friends,” she suggested, making herself comfortable opposite them.

“They lovely Ladies and speak English OK. My name Lek, I very good friend from them. What name from you?”

“Ach, this is Dougal and yous can call me Jock” one said.

“Hello Ayr, hello Goong, you beautiful young things. You want a drink? And you, Ayr? And you? Lek, did you say your name was?

You ready for another, Dougal?”

Dougal nodded and shook hands with Ayr.

The men’s Scots accents would be difficult for Ayr and Goong to fol ow, thought Lek. It was hard enough for her. Stil , the girls did speak English, so they could have a sort of one-way conversation, if that’s what they wanted. Lek took the gamble that the Scotsmen could not understand Thai, although they could well be residents of Thailand and spoke to her friends in their mother tongue:

“Are you sure you want to go through with this? They’re a bit drunk and they’re already man-handling you, in ful view too. Why

not have a few Lady Drinks; have a laugh; go for a tip and let them wander off later? There’s not long to go now and we can get off home together.”

Fa called for Lek’s attention to a similar matter in the back bar.

“Don’t go anywhere or promise anything until I get back. Tell them the bar fine is 500 each. Talk about anything, I won’t be long”

advised Lek.

“Sorry, boys, I come back in five minutes,” she apologised in English as she headed for the back bar.

The two Englishmen were waiting with Porn and Or, who, knowing the routine had delayed asking for the customers’ bil . Lek looked the girls in the eyes as she approached and silently asked them if they were happy with the situation. They said that they were equal y silently, and so Lek motioned for them al to sit around the nearby corner of the bar behind the cashier’s chair.

“Hello! My name Lek,” she said to the Englishmen, “You like ladies? What name from you?”

They introduced themselves as John and Bob and shook hands with Lek.

“What you want to do with ladies?” she asked cheekily, but without any hint of insinuation.

“Umm, well, we were thinking of going for something to eat and perhaps on to a club later” said Bob.

“Oh, no problem. Up to you. Porn and Or know Pattaya very well. Show you good restaurant, good club. They working here now; you know you must pay me for let them go early? Not big money.

Four hundred Baht each or they lose money. Understand? What ladies want to do after finish working up to them. You must talk to them what they want. You understand?” said Lek trying to make the circumstances crystal clear.

“Yes, I think I understand” said Bob “What do you reckon, John?”

“I’m OK with that,” he replied catching on a little more quickly than his friend.

“Yes, fine” he said to Lek and he smiled at each of the girls, who were beaming back at him. “Very happy.” Porn put her arm around his waist and hugged him.

“OK. Good. You al happy! You handsome men. You want one more drink here or you want check bin now? Drink cheap here,

but expensive in restaurant?”

Bob opted for another beer and offered drinks al round. Lek accepted and nodded to Fa to put the bar fine tab into their beaker.

She smiled graciously, took a sip from the glass and slipped into the conversation:

“Where you stay? You here long time already?” eyeing her col eagues.

“Oh, we’re staying at the ‘Pig’ up the road. We’ve been here three days. Three weeks to go” replied Bob.

Lek had the information she wanted and she excused herself to return to the Scotsmen. They had been sitting around the corner out of sight however her spirits fell as she turned the corner and saw that they were no longer where she had left them.

“Fa, where are Ayr and Goong?” she asked.

“Oh, they left with those men about ten minutes ago. They told me you said to write a bar fine chit out for 1,000, is that right? The men had two more rounds, putting two drinks in for you, paid the bil and said they couldn’t wait any longer, they had to get going. Is that OK? Have I done anything wrong, Big Sister? Oh, and Ayr told me to give you this.”

Fa handed Lek a piece of paper, on which was written the name of a hotel and a kiss sign.

“No, no, everything’s fine, Little Sister. You did well. I’m just a bit tired, that’s al . Go and keep Mott company and break open half a bottle of whisky for the three of us. It looks like everybody else has deserted us.”