(Liberty: page 2 of 3: page 1)
I walked in the front lobby and was greeted by the cool air of several fans blowing from the rear. There were five people waiting for the elevator, so I decided to stop in at the lobby bar to see if anyone from the boat was there. There was a man in sunglasses and a long, black ponytail standing behind a table playing a Madonna song. The room was smoky and dim, with black lights overhead. I spotted Greg Hernandez and Luke Daniels sitting with two Thai women. One of the women had her hand on Greg’s thigh and the other, much more plain in appearance, was setting a round of drinks on the table.
“Hey, it’s Haney!” Luke waved at me as I approached the table. The bar was nearly empty and lit with two overhead lights, giving the entire place a sickly yellow tint. The bartender was smoking a cigarette, the ashes falling onto the pages of a newspaper. I shook hands with Luke and Greg and sat down.
“Have a beer.” Greg slid a bottle across the table to me. I picked it up, condensation dripping between my fingers. I toyed with the label and listened to Greg as he attempted to talk to one of the women. Her English was not very good and she kept giggling. Her friend put her hand on top of mine and smiled.
“Your friend nice.” She nodded toward Luke.
Luke belched and put his hand on her lower back. “This is Thiang. She’s a good girl, aren’t you, Thiang?” Thiang did not seem to understand what he was implying, but kept smiling at both of us as we drank our beers.
“We’re going to go watch the kickboxing down the street. Do you want to come?” Greg asked.
“I just came from there and was really looking to get some sleep before work tomorrow.” I lit a cigarette.
“Girls, do you want to go with us?” Greg took the other woman’s hand in his. Thiang said that she didn’t.
“Well, you enjoy yourselves. Haney, I’ll see you in the morning,” Luke said. “I don’t think you’ll get anywhere with her, if that’s what you’re trying to do,” he whispered in my ear. I said that I was just tired and he slapped my back as he got up to follow Greg and the other woman out of the bar. I stood up to leave also, but Thiang tugged on the sleeve of my shirt and I sat back down.
“Sit.” She smiled and walked over to the bar. I watched her buy two more beers and when she turned around, I saw that her face had gone from demure to coy. I cracked my knuckles as she handed me another beer. She watched me take a long sip, leaving her beer untouched. Her eyes were locked on mine and I began to sweat.
“What your name?” She said after a long silence.
“Paul Haney.” I stared straight ahead and continued to drink.
She began to drink and ask me other questions. Was I American? Did I like Thailand? “Where you live in America?”
“I live in California, but I am from Texas.” I finally looked at her, surprised to see honesty in her face.
“You cowboy, then?” Her eyes became excited at the prospect of sitting next to a real, live cowboy. I laughed.
“No, Thiang. I’m not a cowboy.”
She looked disappointed. “You come to my house?” She touched my arm and I watched as her straight black hair fell down one side of her shoulder as she cocked her head. I pondered her question for a moment before answering. I had to be back at work on the boat at seven the next morning and it was now just after midnight. This was a woman who I did not know and certainly would never see again. She tapped her finger on my wrist.
“Yes.” She smiled and we both stood up. I walked with her out of the bar and over one block to an alley, where her apartment was on the right about halfway down. I was surprised at how old the complex looked. It was a white two-story L-shaped building. The paint was peeling and had begun to gray. At the end of the complex, there was a communal kitchen and laundry area. We walked down a breezeway past the communal area to stairs leading to the second story. Her apartment was the first one as we came up the stairs. She stood and looked at me for a moment before unlocking the door. Thiang closed the door behind me and took the white cardigan sweater that she had been wearing off and neatly placed it on the back of a chair. She sat down on the bed; I remained standing.
The apartment had only one room with a bathroom. She had left the door open and I could see that she had no shower curtain. She had very little furniture—a dresser along the wall, the bed, which she was sitting on, a nightstand, the chair by the door and a two-shelf bookcase completely filled with books.
Thiang walked over to the bookshelf and took out two books. I recognized one as a Thai-English dictionary. I sat down in the chair and pointed to my pack of cigarettes. She nodded.
“I learn English,” Thiang held up both books.
“That’s great,” I said, playing with the lighter. She looked at the flame and handed me one of the books. I held it in my lap, turning it over to read the back. Half of the words were in Thai and half were in English, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t concentrate on what it said. I thought that she was waiting for me to say something, to do something, but all I could do was pretend to be engrossed in the book.
She put the other book back on the shelf and went to open one of the windows in the apartment. There were two windows on opposite sides of the room. I once heard someone say that it is bad luck to have a door that directly faces a window because all of your luck and money will fly out of your life. Her windows faced each other and I wondered if what I had heard was true.
“What do you do for a living?” I asked, looking around the apartment.
“I am typist. I live here for six years. It cost a lot. Eight hundred baht, one month.” She held up a finger. I quickly calculated in my head the exchange rate and realized that I could have paid her rent for three months with the money I had in my pocket.
“How old are you?” Thaing walked over to me and sat down on the floor. I looked down at her and noticed how beautiful her chin was as it titled up toward me.
“Twenty. How old are you?”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “Thirty-five,” She opened her eyes. “You are not old,” She and I both laughed.
I stood up. “I have to be back at work in the morning. I have to go to bed. I need to go back to the boat. Do you understand that?”
“Yes. I walk with you back?” She stood up and I handed her the dictionary. She tossed it on the bed and we walked back down the stairs and down the alley toward the street. She stopped in front of the hotel and took my arm to walk inside with me. I shook my head. I didn’t feel like staying with the others. We said very little as we finally reached the beach, where I was able to catch a water taxi back to the boat.
“Do you want to see me tomorrow?” She looked up at me.
“Yeah," I shrugged.
“I have friend. You bring friend?” Thaing took a pen from her purse and a piece of paper. She wrote something on it and handed it to me. I smiled without looking at it and thanked her and said I wasn’t sure if I could find anyone to bring, but that I would try. I stepped onto the deck of the taxi and she waved until I could not see her any longer. I opened the paper and looked at it before putting it into my shirt pocket. It was her telephone number with her name written underneath.
After work the next morning, I took another sea taxi back into the city. I had already begun to sweat in the sun and the congestion of the streets made it worse. I had brought my laundry with me, so I found a dry cleaning shop. The woman behind the counter was very old and wore her hair in a tight bun. She had wrinkled skin that was dark with age spots. She did not understand English and I had to use hand signals to convince her to let me use the telephone.
I called Thaing and she said that she would meet me in front of the dry cleaners in ten minutes. I stood outside and smoked a cigarette. I considered leaving and going off to have lunch somewhere by myself or finding one of my shipmates to spend the day with. I did not love this woman and could not really communicate with her. Her words were broken and I felt as if I were trying to explain things to a child. I dropped the cigarette to the ground and stepped on it as she walked up, an attractive girl holding her hand.
“This is Pakpao. This is Paul,” she emphasized each word very slowly. Pakpao was taller and thinner than Thaing, but had shorter hair. Both of the women wore black pants and colorful t-shirts with sandals. They looked American.
“You are hungry?” Pakpao asked me, pushing a pair of sunglasses down from her head. Her sleek hair swayed a little at her chin, which reminded me of my first girlfriend. I said that I was hungry and I followed Thaing and Pakpao to a small café around the corner from the cleaners. Thaing ordered for me and I watched them talk. They laughed and looked at me several times as I ate the spicy soup and bread. After we finished eating, I gave Thaing some baht to cover all of our meals. She and Pakpao left the table to stand in line to pay.
“Haney! Hey, man. It’s good to see Ôya. Mind if I join you?” I looked up to see my supervisor, a first-class petty officer, standing over me. His name was James Mason and was in his early thirties and was married with a three month-old daughter.
“Sure, go ahead. I’m with a girl I met last night and her friend and I know you’re married, so if you don’t want to hang around, I’ll understand.” I moved over as he sat down.
“It’s fine with me. We’re in Thailand, now, buddy, so we are free to do what we please,” he laughed and I could see the chew in his mouth.
“That’s them over there.” I said.
“Not bad, Haney. Not bad at all,” He spat into an empty water glass. “Let’s go say hello.”
We walked over to Thaing and Pakpao and I introduced James. They smiled and said hello. I asked if they wanted to go to the beach to watch the sailboats and they said they would like to.
Most of the women on the beach were wearing t-shirts as a result of the Hindu custom. I was used to the bikinis and even some nudity that was so common back in San Diego. We sat under a palm tree and watched the sailboats and later lied on our backs to watch the people hang gliding. After about an hour, James nudged me.
“Haney, I have a room just down from here. How about we take these two Thai beauties back there and bring a little American fun into their lives?” He winked.
This made me nervous. I lied back down and continued to watch the people dip and soar above me through the sharp edges of the palms.
“Come on, Haney. This is your vacation. We’re on liberty, man. Let’s go,” He stood up and offered his hand to Pakpao. She took it and both she and Thaing stood up. All three were looking down at me, shading me from the sun. I stood up and walked with Thaing and Pakpao behind James back to the hotel.
That evening, the four of us went back to Thaing’s apartment, where her parents were sitting in the courtyard. She kissed them hello and introduced us, holding my hand. Her mother was a small, frail woman with very white hair and was holding onto Thaing’s father. He was also small and was almost completely bald. There were two men sitting with them, also holding hands. Thaing introduced them as Sook and Ditaka.
Her parents had brought food over in containers and we all sat outside eating. Her father handed me a Thai cigarette and smiled when I lit it. Thaing brought me a beer and picked up the laundry bag that I had been carrying around all afternoon. I had been so frustrated at my inability to communicate with the dry cleaning woman, that I forgot to give her my bag.
“It be done by tonight.” I watched her walk around the corner where the communal area was and I heard the machine start after a few minutes. I smiled at her as she returned and sat down next to me.
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