Lek - The Beginning

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

LIFE GOES ONMaar soon got used to the fact that being pregnant wasn’t seeming to prevent his wife from working as hard as she always had done, and so he became less concerned. Pang noticed this, of course, and, while she had encouraged this reaction, she resented it too, although her pregnancy was not causing her any distress at all. She had been expecting morning sickness, but she seemed to be one of the lucky ones. It was funny, she thought, now that the pressure was off from Maar about telling people about her condition, she was keen to tell her friends and mother, even if she found the thought of telling her strict father a little daunting.

She glowed with happiness, she was aware of that, because people remarked on it.

“You look happy today, Pang, did you find five Baht in your husband’s trousers when you were doing the washing?” asked one old friend. As she walked down the village street, her happy face attracted smiles and greetings like she had not experienced since her wedding day.

‘That is because of you, my darling’, she would think to the child in her womb. ‘You are already spreading happiness and only your Mummy and your Daddy know you exist. You are such a clever baby’.

She liked to talk to her child and most of her unspoken words were directed to it. She would describe her day; what she was doing; the weather; people’s moods; and her favourite, what she was about to eat and share with her child.

Since they didn’t know the s*x of their baby, Maar and Pang had taken to calling it ‘Lek’, which means ‘Little One’ in Thai.

It was to be a nickname that would stick.

∞

The week passed without event, and so Pang and Maar made their preparations to tell their parents about the forthcoming happy event. Lek was to be the first child in the family for twenty years

“Mae, mother, may we invite Maar’s parents for dinner tonight?” she asked at their lunchtime break on the table in the na. “Don’t worry about the extra food or the cooking of it. It will be our treat”. Her mother tried to keep from smiling, but she had a good idea what her daughter had in mind.

“There is no need to go wasting your money, child. Take one of the chickens. Paw, which one of the chickens should Pang take to cook for dinner tonight, if Maar’s parents can make it?”.

“They only live next door but one, why can’t they come over after dinner?”

“Oh, my Buddha! Paw! Thrift is one thing, but miserliness is something else! How often is it that your daughter asks for family, not even friends, mark you, but her husband’s family, to be allowed to come to dinner? Don’t you think that she might have a good reason for wanting to do that?” Pang’s husband sat on the table staring forward. He knew when he was beaten.

“Take the c**k with the white flash on his head”.

“Pang, tell Maar he can take the c**k with the white flash on its head courtesy of your father and me”.

“Thanks, Paw, thank you, Mae. Maar! Maar!” He arrived a minute later, was told the good news and set about capturing the unlucky bird. He held it in his arms for a good fifteen minutes, stroking and talking to it, allaying its fears before swiftly breaking its neck. Meanwhile, Bang had boiled a pot of water to make the plucking all the easier, and Maar gutted the cockerel.

While the bird was resting, Maar and Pang went to invite his parents to dinner, which they accepted without a second’s hesitation; perhaps because Pang’s mother had already told Maar’s of her suspicions.

“Eight o’clock, do you say, Pang? That will be most convenient. Thank you both. We will be there on time. Don’t you worry about us”, said Bing, Maar’s mother.

∞

Pang’s family put on clean clothes for dinner, something which they only did under very special circumstances, since their custom was to shower and go to bed an hour after eating. It was normal practice in the village, even on the weekends. Maar’s parents recognised the import of the invite and changed too, despite Maar’s father’s reluctance. He put a bottle of Lao Deng, the middle-grade Thai whisky, in his pocket to take with them.

The four parents sat on the large garden table and allowed their children to cook for and serve them the first plate of curried chicken, as they drank the whisky out of a solitary shot glass, which they passed from one to the next in a clockwise direction.

Before the first dish had been consumed, Pang’s mother started cooking a second, and then Maar’s mother cooked something. Within an hour, there were six different dishes on the table and people were talking freely. When the pace started to slow, Pang took a deep breath and waited for a gap in the conversation.

“We have an announcement to make”, she said rather officiously, and then looked at her husband. He waved her on with his eyes and she blushed. “Well, it’s like this… We, er, think that I am pregnant”. There was a silence, during which the expectant couple looked at each other nervously.

“Really?” asked her mother. “Why, that is fantastic news! Isn’t it, Bing?”

“Yes, of course it is! Isn’t it, Yem?” Maar’s mother prompted her husband.

“Er, yes, of course, it is. When is the baby due?”

“We’re not sure”, answered Pang, “we haven’t been to the doctor yet, but I reckon that our baby is two months old”.

She smiled as she watched everyone counting out the months.

“August?” asked Maar’s father, Yem.

“Yes. I think so, Paw. Around about the middle of August”.

“That is good”, said Pang’s father. “A summer baby has the best chance…” His wife nudged him.

“What a thing to tell a young, first-time mother!”

“What? It’s as true now as ever it was! There is always plenty of food and especially fruit in the summer. What’s wrong with saying that?”

“It might be true, but it is not what a mother wants to hear. Keep your options to yourself for now!”

“That is wonderful news, my dear. Don’t let your father get you down. He doesn’t mean anything”.

“Have you any idea what it will be?” asked Bing, Maar’s mother.

“No, I am sorry, but I don’t have a feeling either way”.

“No problem”, said Bing, “show me your breasts”.

Pang looked around with a worried expression and then at her mother.

“I don’t want to. Why?”

“Well, one test is, if your right one is bigger than the left one, then you are carrying a girl, and vice-versa.

“What’s the matter, are you shy? Maar, which is the larger?”

“Er, I don’t know, Mum, they are both the same”, he said shyly, looking briefly at his wife, who was hating having her private anatomy discussed in public, even if it was only by her closest family.

“Perhaps, it’s too early to tell by tit size”, said her father-in-law”.

Pang looked down at her hands in her lap and wished that she could be anywhere else.

“All right”, continued Bing unperturbed, “if your breasts won’t tell us, lie down on the table and pull up your blouse”.

Pang gave her mother a ‘do-I-have-to’ look, and her mother nodded, much to Pang’s consternation, then Bing took off Pang’s wedding ring, tied it to a hair from her head and suspended it above her belly button.

“If round and round it goes, it is a girl, ‘cause the ring always knows! You will have a girl! The ring never lies”.

“There you are, my dear, Bing says that you will have a girl”.

Pang sat up quickly and readjusted her clothing. “Thank you, mother, but I am not concerned about the s*x of our child. Thank you for the trouble you have taken though, Bing. Do you want a boy or a girl, husband?”

“Me? I don’t mind,” said Maar taken aback, “but if it is a girl, I hope that she is as beautiful as the ladies on this table, and if it is a boy, I hope that he works as hard as any of us”. Pang beamed at him for his diplomacy and briefly touched his knee.

∞

The following morning, when Pang went to the corner shop at six o’clock for some sugar, Poon, the shopkeeper, congratulated her on her condition. “So, you’re expecting a baby girl in August, are you? I wish I was… I love children… I really envy you”.

Pang just smiled and nodded. She already knew how efficient the village telegraph system was and Poon was the most prolific gossip in the area. If she knew, then most people in the village would also know by then.

∞

When the four of them returned from work that evening, they barely had time to put the rice on before friends and family started coming round.

Pranom, one of Pang’s oldest school friends was one of the most welcome and least embarrassing.

“Oh, my darling best friend, I am so happy for you. I was worried about you, but I didn’t like to say anything”. Pang looked at her quizzically.

“Well, we were in school together. I got married as soon as I could, well, at eighteen but you waited, what, five or six years? You have been married for two years…? Well, I ask you, what are we to think? Perhaps, Maar was not, you know, er, up to the mark. Or perhaps, you were incapable… You know what I mean, don’t you? We were worried that you would not fulfil your potential as a woman.

“Still, that is all behind you now. You have been blessed and soon you will join the motherhood of the village”.

Pang grinned, but did not feel completely comfortable.

She was an independent woman, although most Thais were, but her mother had left home at seventeen and walked the countryside alone looking for work - an act of bravery unheard in women in those days. She had returned three years later with a husband, her grandfather. Her mother had only travelled twenty kilometres, but in those days, it could just as well have been a thousand. There was no railway, no bus service, no taxi, and no other means of public transport for the poor.

When she had returned, the other local women had tried to ostracise her, but her strength of character had beaten them all. Everyone in the village respected her and sought her opinion these days, and Pang was immensely proud to be her daughter.

When they went to bed that night, Pang was glad that the cat was out of the bag. There would no longer be any need for pretence, and she could share her happiness with her friends.

She cwtched up closely to her husband in bed that night, but didn’t like to talk about her feelings because her parents were only metres away. Yet, she felt like a pioneer. She was the proudest woman in the world, and her baby, she was as sure as eggs that it was a girl, would be someone special… and not only to her, Maar and their family, but to everyone she ever met.

Her daughter Lek would be a champion. She would break out of the village life of drudgery, like her own mother had done. She personally, had not felt the need, nor had the courage, but she felt that she was carrying a Wonder Woman, couldn’t wait to meet her, and frequently told her so.

She poked Maar in the side, which was her way of letting him know that he was snoring, and when he rolled onto his side to face her, she snuggled her bottom into his crutch. He was warm. She was warm and so was Lek. The three of them were warm, and snug and safe in her parents’ house.

She relished the feeling, and didn’t want to go to sleep, but eventually succumbed.