Revenge

[Guest]

Nam pulled back an iron grating and we stepped into a lift. It was like a small version of the rest of the rooms in the house. But it looked somehow older and smelled of old men?s clothes. There was a huge lever in the corner attached to a great big hunk of iron machinery. The lever stood out about two foot from the rest. Nam ran her small hands over it as though it was a giant dildo and gave me one of her raised eyebrow looks before giving it a massive tug. The lift jerked into action and soon we were descending at the rate of two inches a minute.

 

Nam stepped away and smiled leaning on the padded wall. ?I have man Swisserlan. His name Carlos. Everytime Carlos come see me he not want call me Nam. He call me Jutteen. Carlos never want fuck. Just touch me. Take off my clothes. Then touch. Some time Carlos like me touch him. Sometime he not want. You know. Every month he send to my bank haa muen baht. Fifty thousand baht. I never ask but he send me anyway. For nothing. Maybe one year he come see me three time. From Carlos I make already more than one million baht. Never even fuck my pussy. You believe ? In Swisserlan Carlos have wife. Have daughter. He take me the room and show me the picture like. I don?t want see but he want show me. Every time him like to show me picture him daughter. He want me to keep picture her. She have on the maa. The horse. Have car. Have everything. But she not look nice. Face same not happy. Never happy. One time I smoking him. Him speak ?Jutteen, Jutteen.? Yaa him come out in my mouth. Then him cry too much. You know why ?... Because daughter him call Jutteen same. Is funny or not ??

 

?Hysterical.? I said.

 

She smiled and carried on. ?Have too much farang like to cry. Man pay bar take me room then just sit and cry. For what ? One man say not want to see me work somewhere bad. He can?t see me make something bad. If he see him cry. If him not want see why him come bar ? But he send me money and write letter want me promise I stop. I never promise. Other girl lie. I think for what. He send money anyway. Man come all the way from Farangsay. Never fucking. Just for cry. Why he not stay and cry at home ? Save money. He never take ugly girl and pay her for nothing like this. Not same him real good heart. He just want me see him cry. Just want Nam. Every man like this. I think this man want to cry because him can?t fuck.?

 

?You never know.?

 

?But I like man fuck me. I like a lot of man fuck me... I like everything... I very bad girl. But someone want give me money for nothing is up to him. Maybe one day I write nice letter to Jutteen and tell her her dad want come in her mouth. Good idea or not ??

 

?I?d say not.?

 

?Okay. I not do. See how I love you tilac.? She smiled.

 

?Yeah... I?m touched.?

 

?I make a lot of money from farang. Not every girl can make same me. Some girl hate me but is okay. I like some girl hate me. If she scare me then she not do something bad. Before... Long time before I have to work here. In this house. I have to make same girl we look before. If they want someone can come here and hurt me. But nobody want. Man not want hurt me. Only want me hurt him. Maybe do something sokkapok on him. You know ??

 

?I can imagine.?

 

?You like ??

 

?No.?

 

?Is good. I no like too. But some man him like.?

 

?Have one rich man like me too much. Want help me. Want pay for me leave. No someone want me go because not have bat prachachon. But him help me make fake. He never want help ugly girl like this. My friend no have someone help. But make for me. Is okay. After I boring him. I leave him and go work bar farang. Farang so easy. Same he crazy. Always want pay big money for nothing. Before, when I stay here, I nothing. If have someone want to hurt me, kill me, I die already. Now I can come here and make same very rich man. I can make anything I want happen happen. Anything.? She smiled a deep dark smile. The lift went thug and she tore open the iron grating door.

 

We stepped across a carpeted hall to another door. Nam knocked on the door. A Thai man came and opened it up. Inside was a thick haze of cigarette smoke and Lao Khao breath. Five Thai men were sitting in the centre of the room drinking and playing cards. It looked like some strange variation of poker. They paid us scant attention as we entered. Walking in I noticed that the smell of the fags and drink were preferable to the smell that lay underneath. Acrid piss and drying blood. The man who opened the door smiled broadly as my eyes found the sight of another man in the room gagged and tied by ropes to a wooden chair. One of the card players made a joke and everybody laughed. I caught the eyes of the prisoner. Half his face was red and swollen. The right side of his face was little more than a home for blood and pus some of which seeped out the tiny hole of the right eye. But the other eye was wide open. Wide open in a kind of fearful anticipation. Wide open and focussed entirely on me.

 

There was some disagreement over something in the game and the men were jokingly swearing at each other in Isaan. They laughed broadly as I stepped closer to the man who almost backed the chair over looking at me.

 

?You know this man ?? Said Nam.

 

?Why would I know him ??

 

Nam smiled. ?Look him again.?

 

I saw nothing familiar in the mess of his face. I noticed that there was a huge piss stain on his trousers and a drying syrupy pool by the legs of the chair. It reeked like something a day old but the smell didn?t bother me. It was the fear in his eyes and the way it seemed focussed on me.

 

?See ?? She said. ?You say you not know him but look his face.?

 

I didn?t want to look at his face. I get queasy enough seeing the safely dead blooded corpses on the pages of 191. A living man who looked as bad made my stomach churn.

 

?He know you.? She added.

 

?I don?t know him. Can we get out of here.?

 

?Look him tilac. Look his eye.?

 

And, of course, I realised I did know him. His feet had, only a week or two ago, been intimate with my ribs. He, along with two friends, had taken my wallet and put me in hospital. He had kicked and spat on my helpless body as it lay there in the street.

 

?You see ?? Said Nam. ?He know you very well. Maybe him go kii just look you.?

 

I saw his face as it had looked as he kicked me. I saw his face in my imagination more clearly than I could remember seeing him at the time. I saw pure malevolence in him as he kicked me. In kicking me he had been kicking every bit of bad luck he?d had in his life. He was kicking the shit out of every lie he?d been told and every thing he couldn?t have but someone else could. I remembered that kick to my side. The one that sent an unimaginable flood of pain throughout my entire body. I saw his hatred for all farang and all people who had money and women and the stuff that he?d been cheated out of by fate. His hate for every big man who walked along the street with the prettiest of Thai ladies. And, who knew, some of that hate might be the righteous kind. But now...

 

Now he wasn?t that. Now he was this poor tortured kid who didn?t know anything or think anything beyond the pain and fear. And why was he here ? How did Nam know him ? Because it was her that had fucking paid him to beat me up in the first place. A kind of red mist like fast flowing blood pounded behind my eyes.

 

?Now you know him ??

 

?Yes.? I said. ?I know him.?

 

?See. I tell you I can do anything.?

 

?Then let him go.?

 

?But tilac. Him hurt you bad. You not want leven.?

 

?No. I really don?t. Just let him go. Please.?

 

?But...?

 

?Please. Nam. Get him out of here. Let him go back to his mum or his dad or his gang or whoever. ?

 

Nam paused. Silent for a moment. ?Cannot... Him cannot leave here. This man. Him dead already. I just want you see. Nobody can hurt you. Only Nam can hurt you.?

 

?Then you know nothing about me.?

 

I took the Swiss Army Knife from my pocket and opened it up to the saw blade. I went to the back of the chair and started cutting at the ropes.

 

?What you do ?? Said Nam.

 

?Just giving a dead man a chance.?

 

By this time I saw the eyes of the other Thais in the room on me. They were all too surprised to see what I was trying to do to do anything about it for a moment. But the man was struggling so hard to get free that his chair toppled over with a crash.

 

Suddenly all the Thais seemed to be leaping at me. One grabbed me and threw me to the floor. The knife flew out of my hand and slid across the floor like a hockey puck. In a flash two guys seemed to be sitting on my arms while the man in the chair, my attacker, was upright again and squealing like a mouse as he got hit again and again and was unable to hit back. I struggled against the men holding me down. They laughed. One said ?farang may mii laeng.? The farang has no strength. He was right.

 

One of the other men. The youngest looking walked up to me waving a cleaver. ?Ao mai. Ao mai ? Ai hia.? Then as if bottling out of his own threat he tossed the cleaver aside.

 

Nam was yelling at the men. They were yelling at her. All the while the man in the chair was weeping and trying to beg as he was being punched repeatedly by a drunk who couldn?t think of anything more constructive to do.

 

Nam said something that seemed to strike home and the men got off me. She pulled me up. I guess my ten seconds of trying to do the right thing had ebbed away. I just let her help me up and let her pull me out of the room. I didn?t look back. What I heard was enough. A kind of sick defeated common sense prevailed. Nam led me out back into the corridor. She just didn?t get it. I?m not even sure I got it. Where had my heroic burst of action been when I?d seen the girls tied up in the bar ready for someone to beat them to death if that?s what someone wanted to do.

 

We went to the foyer and got the Boatman. He was much the worse for having been drinking since we left him. A line of empty bottles sat on the table as he was chatting with the young man who watched the door. Nobody saw us out. We just left. Climbed down into the long-tail boat and wound our way along as the night gave way to a dawn sky the colour of rancid milk. Not much was said. Nam just held on to my hand and kept looking at me to see what I was thinking. I was trying very hard not to think anything at all. I just kept hearing that last gurgling whimper my revenge victim had made as we left the room.

 

Nam was right. I was more scared of her now than ever. I was more scared for her too. She must have sent this guy after me. It had to have been her. How else would she have found him and known who he was. And yet there was something there. Something I didn?t like but something there nonetheless. I thought to myself that Toby had got off easy. All he?d lost was a job. I was fucked forever.

 

When we arrived at the jetty by the slum the dawn had broken into a white sky day. The air was warm and thick when we got out the boat and stepped on to dry land again. The Boatman went back to his place which, in the day, didn?t look so bad anymore. There was a sound of cartoon shows coming from inside. We both got motorcycle taxis to the mouth of the soi where we stood on the dusty road waiting for a taxi. Neither one of us speaking to the other. Maybe ten minutes later one turned up.

 

The taxi was stuck in traffic for what seemed like hours. I felt cold with the air con on full blast. I guess Nam did too because she nuzzled into me and I held her close. She took my hands and kissed my knuckles. I felt like Hell. I felt like I?d been to Hell and back but that I?d brought Hell out with me. And I was still completely besotted with her. I still wanted her more than I?d wanted any woman in my life.

 

When we got to Silom Road I said I had to get out there. I said I had to see my boss today. She just nodded and said ?Bye tilac.? Somehow she knew more about my life than I did. She certainly knew I didn?t have a boss on Silom Road. After getting out I watched the taxi snailing down the busy street, went to MacDonalds and ordered chips.

 

[Straycat]

Mesmerizing, as usual. I hope there will be more!

[Guest]

:applause:

Well done..........but chips at MacD..........he must have been shook up.

 

[Redbaron]

Fantastic,

just read the entire "TurkFist" (what a name!?) collection. Amazing stuff. I hope the majority of it's fiction.

 

bring it on...

[limbo]

Another great story Turk!