Liberty

by Amanda Auchter

The submarine pulled into port at Pattaya Beach, Thailand late that afternoon and the first thing I noticed was how warm it was for December. The sun was low, spinning thin vortexes of violet, pink, and orange along the horizon. On deck, with the warm ocean breeze against my shirt, I took stinging lungfuls of the salty air, my brain heady from the release of being confined underwater in a 365 foot area with 120 men for six months.

We were granted liberty by the captain, and with one hundred dollars worth of Thai currency in my pocket, I took a sea taxi with several of my friends and we laughed at how rickety it was. The engine chugged and growled like an old lawn mower and the driver kept shouting things back at us in Thai. We kept nodding our heads, spitting over the side of the boat.

When we reached the shore, David, a tall, skinny man with red curly hair, handed the driver a few crumpled bills and we began to walk down the main road than ran alongside the beach. To the left of us were many businesses and shops and a three-story official looking building that looked to be under renovation. Halfway down was a hotel that resembled a resort complete with well-manicured lawns and a peach colored building with balconies on every other floor, six stories high. There were several palm trees lining the road and sidewalk up to the main entrance of the building.

All of them except me chipped in and got a room for the two-night stay in Thailand. I was the only one who had boat duty the next day. The main street was four lanes wide and was very crowded with people, bicycles, cars, and vendors selling souvenirs. We passed three women, all of them small in stature with long dark hair. One of them began to call to us, her red floral dress flapping in the wind.

“Cherry Boys! Cherry Boys! Hey, Sailor!” She and her friends began to laugh and openly gawk at us and we stared at them. I was amazed. In America, men were the ones who traditionally did the yelling and most of those were construction workers or desperate drunks at a bar. I shoved my hands into my pockets and kept walking, staring at the pavement.

“Hey, Baby,” Toby yelled back, laughing. “Well, men, we finally made it,” he put his arms around Mike and me. “After twenty-eight days on that damn boat you know I’m ready for some good old-fashioned action,” he laughed again.

The first bar we went to was entirely outdoors. There was a large yellow canopy covering the bar area and the tables were in a courtyard with a dry cleaners and what appeared to be a bank next door. We pushed two tables together and sat down as a pretty waitress made her way over to us.

“What I get you?” the waitress. She winked at Mike and rested her slim hand on his shoulder. She had very wide, dark eyes and smiled at lot.

“We’ll have rum and Cokes all around. Is that alright?” Toby asked us. I nodded in unison and surveyed the courtyard further. I recognized many of my shipmates there, some sitting in groups, some alone, and some had already found their girl for the evening. There were several different types of tropical plants that surrounded the courtyard. A large group of plants with heavy foliage hung down over two tables creating a veil of privacy for a man and a woman underneath. I craned my neck to see if I could tell who the man was, but all I could see was the dark hair of the woman he was with hiding behind three empty bottles of beer.

“So, Haney, how do you like Thailand?” David asked me.

“I like it enough, alright. I haven’t seen much of it, yet.” I grinned.

“Well, tonight, my man, we will take you to some places you will never forget,” David laughed as he looked at Toby.

Toby nodded his head in agreement. “That’s right. Paul, there’s this one place where they have these dancers, oh, man, and you can pick out anyone you want. I was here last year and got so drunk that I’m not sure if I took home girl number one or girl number two. Hell, maybe it was both!” he said, slapping the table as the waitress came back with our drinks. I took one off of the tray and threw some money down onto the table and drank it in one swallow.

“What do you mean, number one or number two?” I signaled to the waitress for another drink.

“The girls are numbered so you can get a little post-show action if you know what I mean. Am I right?” Toby high-fived David.

I shifted in my seat. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go, now,” I stood up as the waitress handed me my drink and patted me on the back. I finished it off as the others paid her and we began to walk across the main road and down an alley.

“This place I’m taking you to has the best women, I think,” Toby said as he lit a cigarette. I took one out of my pocket and lit it as well. We walked for a few minutes in silence, smoking. Mike still had his rum and Coke with him.

“Did you steal that?” I laughed, reaching for it and taking a sip.

“Hell, yeah, man. I’m not letting my drink go to waste,” he said, taking the glass back.

We passed an open door that smelled of incense and had about six women standing in front if it. Two were dressed in short black mini skirts and sheer halter tops and most of the rest were wearing bikini tops with cut-off shorts.

“Ignore them,” David said under his breath. “They aren’t good ones. They’ll rob you blind.”

“Some of them might not even be women,” Toby added.

“Hey, American Sailors! Come over here, American Sailors,” a tall woman called to us as she shook her breasts and laughed. The girl next to her, much shorter with bad teeth said something angrily in Thai and adjusted her bikini bottom.

The second bar was a strip club. The horseshoe-shaped stage was translucent and had neon lights that glowed underneath. The dancers were topless and paraded around in single file along the front of the stage. Some danced around a brass pole that was driven through the middle of the stage and some called to us as we sat to the side of the stage and drank beers. I could see that as each girl bent over toward the audience, she wore a white number pasted to the back of her bikini bottom. New girls kept walking out from behind a heavy red velvet curtain at the back of the stage while others exited to the right. I ordered a Thai beer, Singha, and wiped my hands on my jeans, aroused by the display of naked breasts and the wiggle of hips that glowed in the neon glare.

“I like number nine. I’m going to go talk to her.” Toby said, getting up. I watched him walk across the room and shove his way through the throng of people at the bar. He signaled to the bartender, who was a beefy man with long dark hair and a glare in his eye. Toby pulled out several bills and handed it to the bartender, who then walked behind the curtain. After a few minutes, he came back out and motioned for Toby to follow him. Toby grinned at us as we cheered him on and disappeared behind the curtain, followed by two dancers. I drank my second beer of the evening and turned my gaze back toward the stage.

At about ten o’clock that evening, we made our way to another bar and then down several streets until we stopped at an open arena where a kickboxing match was going on. Two men, dressed in boxing shorts, were fighting and people were cheering loudly, some with drinks in their hands. We sat down at a small table in the back and watched. Several minutes later, two Thai women approached us.

“Are you from the submarine?” One of them asked. She was beautiful, with perfect skin and a slim figure. She was wearing black pants and a blue button down shirt, which grazed her breasts just enough to tease my libido.

“Yes,” Mike answered, smiling broadly at the women.

“You’re from America?” The beautiful woman smiled at me. I felt as if I was wearing my own number and she was finalizing her purchase. Her friend was just as beautiful, but wore glasses and a green sundress that was open in the back. She brushed her long dark hair out of her eyes and smiled at us, looking down just for a moment before catching us staring at her.

“How do you like Thailand?” The girl in the green sundress asked.

“We like it a lot. The weather’s great here and so are the people,” David said.

The woman in the black pants walked over to me and sat down on my lap and smiled. “I like you.” She then said something to her friend in Thai and they both broke out in laughter. She kissed my cheek and I laughed nervously as my friends egged me on. The woman stood up and joined her friend. They said goodbye and walked over to another table and sat down.

“Hey, Paul, looks like the ladies in Thailand like you, boy,” Mike laughed, slapping me on the arm. I finished off my beer and smirked.

“So, where to now?” David asked no one in particular. Mike had turned his attention to a girl passing by the kickboxing ring. She was wearing a tight purple sweater that left little to the imagination. “Hello?” David waved his hand in front of Mike’s face. “Where do you want to go now?” He repeated.

“I want to go with her,” he said, pointing at the girl in the sweater. “Paul, what about you?”

“I have duty on the boat all day tomorrow. I think I’m going to go back to the boat.” I stood up and handed Mike some money.

“It’s only after eleven. Just stay a little longer. This is your first trip to Thailand,” Mike said.

“This is your first trip out of the U.S.” David added, beginning another bottle of beer.

“I have to be back at the boat at seven in the morning and I am not a morning person and I am drunk as hell,” I rambled, suddenly feeling nauseous. “Can I crash at the hotel?”

“Alright. Sure. See you back at the hotel,” Mike said, waving me off.

I waved and began walking back to the hotel, stopping twice to throw up in an alley. An old woman with three front teeth yelled at me in Thai as she passed by. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and continued down the main road back to the hotel.

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