Falling Stars and Dropping Temperatures

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Falling Stars and Dropping Temperatures

 

     I'll never doubt my lass again. It is quite nippy

up here in Surin in November. Especially in the late

evenings and early mornings. Why, a Surin witch could

actually freeze her little tits off here if she didn't

dress properly! And tit-less witches must be a

frightening sight to see indeed. I know I would find

it disturbing. Personally I prefer tits on just about

anything, except men that is.

     I had seen off two friends visiting from Bangkok

earlier in the day. We spent hours chatting over

breakfast and coffee after a late morning awakening.

Too much whiskey from the night, and very early

morning, before had been consumed. We were recuperating and relaxing. I'll let them recount the evening if they wish to. (They are list members.) It was fun, if not the excessively exciting night out that can be had in Bangkok or Pattaya. This is Surin after all. No Nanaplaza or Soi Cowboy up here. The company of friends I enjoy is

still more enjoyable than a night out with strangers,

having sexual parts shaken about in front of my face

by women I neither know nor love. (Although it does have it's redeeming qualities at times!) It would have been

nice if the lasses dancing in the lone Surin gogo bar

I know of, that we attended, had at least taken some

fucking clothing off though.

     The lady who has rented me the red shitbox

pick-up for quite some time now screwed me up bigtime

this trip. Toward the end of my voyage up and down the

sois leading to Surin from Bangkok, in a mini-van

with seats decorated, seemingly, by a gay Puerto Rican with a

bent for faux leather of a brilliant blood red color,

she called and asked us when we would like her to drop

off said red shitbox pick-up truck for my use. We

agreed she could leave us the truck the next day,

sometime after noontime was the decision agreed upon.

We needed the wheels to take our butts to the Surin

Elephant Roundup on Saturday morn.

     This was on Thursday, the 15th Nvember. Friday we settled in. We took a loooooooong walk in the Surin Winter Wonderland that morning. The lass, my fairly new wife, was a bitchin' and a moanin'. For chrissakes woman shaddup! Yer nearly half my age, and I have a bad back too on top of it. Ya don't hear me whining do ya? Sheesh. Walking with a Thai lass IS like walking a cat on a leash. Ya have to practically drag them by the neck down the soi.

     We saw shitloads of elephants, elephant food,

baby elephant antics, and dodged much elephant poop

while walking around. The air was electric, the

excitement palpable, the stench pervasive, and the

falangs too numerous to count. This was Surin's big

weekend. The once a year time to suck as much baht

from the tourists as was possible, until next year.

     As usual my lass was less than thrilled at the

length of time she needed to use her bi-pedal

abilities. She whined and moaned, and dragged her ass

about as though this thing called "walking" was some

truly horrendous torture the likes of which would

cause even the Marquis de Sade to shudder in horror in

contemplating.

     The time for the arrival of the red shitbox came

and went. Nothing was heard from it's owner. A friend

of my lady's. I napped awhile in the early evening.

Well, it was a long walk we had taken. I am slightly

older than my lass, and the effects of jetlag were

still kicking my biological rhythms about. So around 8

p.m. my lady woke me and informed me that her "friend

she" with the pick-up could not perform as promised

the arranged rental agreement. Not that she'd be late, not that the truck was broken, but

that...............she had sold the truck that very

afternoon!! HUH? "She sold it?!" I asked in amazement.

Well, it looked that way I was informed. Dubious I was

to say the least. But..my pen rai....I guess. This is

Thailand after all. I've learned it pays little to let

these blips in your plans here affect your inner calm

and tranquility. It's senseless really. Take the hit, brush it off, smile, and forge ahead into your life's

adventure in the Land of Smiles.

     So I shrugged this off, and we pondered our

alternatives in procurring some sort of locomotion

other than what God created for us. Something man-made, four wheeled,

and petro-chemically fuelled was what we desired.

Mobile phones were opened and family and friends were

called and enlisted in the search for the perfect

cheap conveyance in a shitbox form. Something would

work out eventually. Meanwhile I would enjoy myself, and fret only occasionally. As one good friend would

say..........Fuck it!!!

     We managed okay with our motocyke, and the

occasional tuk-tuk. The weekend progressed. Our

friends arrived and visited, and seemed to enjoy

themselves and our company. The elephant show was seen

and enjoyed by all.

     As I said, my friends left in the afternoon on

Sunday. Once they were gone I relaxed some more,

listening to some jazz and reading the Nation and the

Bangkok Post. It's what Sundays were meant to do

really. Relax and recuperate from Friday and Saturday

night's excesses. All else seems blasphemous to a lapsed

old Catholic boy like me. Again the urge to nod hit me

in the early evening. Albeit an hour later than the

last time. Saturday night doesn't factor in to the jet

lag stuff, as we didn't come home until 5:30 in the

morning. A few more days and the biological clock

would finish resetting itself. Hopefully.

     A call came later. Sister and her husband were

bringing their pick-up truck for us to use for a few

days. I would need to drive them back to their home

outside Buriram after they visited for a couple of

hours. An hour or so's drive from the house in Surin.

Shit. I was tired already.

     I finally got to meet my brother-in-law. He

wasn't at the wedding. Marital discord had erupted a

few months before. He was spending too much time, and

money, it seems on his current mia noi. So I was told anyway. This being the wife's family's version. Knowing Thai guys it seemed fairly believable to me. Sister vocalized her

objections to this treatment from her long time

husband once too often, and openly, for his liking I

guess, and while he was drunk. He beat the crap out of her. And him being a cop, and a Thai, he suffered no

legal consequences for this.

     This being Thailand the consequences were more of

a familial nature. Condemnation and ostracization from

the immediate family. A scolding from a monk. No

longer welcome in the wife's home, nor the big bed, he

took up with the mia noi for a few months. He realized

his mistake after a while. Seems that though mia noi

is great in the sack, she was a bubble headed pain in

the ass to live with, and a baht sucking black hole of

infinite depth. He moved in with his father and began

a course of soul searching, and has been working hard

at reconcilling with Sister. She's taking it slow.

He's on probation with her. She's searching for signs

of his rehabilitation before agreeing to take him

back.

     I met him last night for the first time. He was

personable and funny. Made everyone laugh a lot, and

seemed like a nice guy. I'm not fond of

wife/women-beaters. But everyone can make a mistake in life. God knows most of us do at times. It's just that

I've found that most men who resort to hitting a woman

when angry will eventually do it again. (This wasn't a

self defense slapping he gave her, but a severe

drunken physical beating, with fists.) Time will tell

I suppose. Alcohol is usually the fuel that ignites

the flame of marital violence. He seems to like his whiskey and beer. Without his abstinence from booze I

predict a recurrence some day of his violent response

to Sis's complaints. While I was with him I noticed he

has a well trained roving eye. Young pretty ladies

attract his gaze like metal filings to a magnet. He

was very obvious about it. At least to me. You'd have

to be blind not to notice really. Looking ain't

cheating in my book, but I try to avoid doing so in

the presence of my lady, or at least try to be covert

and discreet about it. He is neither. Leering openly

at other women in the presence of one's wife is

neither gentlemanly nor advisable in my eyes.

     I doubt the sincerity of his current contriteness,

and can foresee more mia noi's and marital problems in

his future. Poor Sis. Leopards will be born with

octogonal spots before this cat changes his ways I'm

afraid.

     We dropped Sis and hubby off at her place around

11 p.m. At one point during the hour's ride up the

little shit had the nerve to ask me if his driving

scared me. ("The little muthafuggah!" I thought to

myself. His crazy driving was some sort of Thai macho

test for the falang's benefit!) "No." I replied, "I

drive the same way myself." This brought some loud

laughter from him. I guess it was the right answer,

and I passed the test. He did drive like a bat out of

hell with a scud missle stuck up it's ass. Fucking Thai men

can be a real pain in the ass with macho shit

sometimes.

     I had read earlier in the papers that morning

about this night's coming meteor shower show. Since it

was already after twelve midnight when we got home in

Surin I decided to stay up for a while and see what

all the hoo hah was about. I've always been interested

in the stars. I parked the new vehicle in the

driveway, grabbed a couple of pillows and blankets for

comfort, and to ward off the effects of the now pretty

damned chilly night air, (Actually it was fucking

cold, but don't tell my lady I said so.) and prepared an

astronomical viewing platform in the bed of the

pick-up.

     Look sow (daughter) and I snuggled under the

blankets, heads resting on pillows, and made ourselves

comfortable for the impending celestial show God and

nature had planned to commence at 1 a.m., or so the

scientists and newspaper reporters had said. They

weren't wrong. Precisely at 1 o'clock particles of rock, ice, and iron started bombarding the upper atmosphere above us. Streaks of white, red, bluish yellow, and green flashed across the starry night Isaan sky and elicited oohs and aahhs from us, and others in the

neighborhood too. My lady and her sister came outside

bundled up against the cold night air to sit on the

tailgate of the truck at our feet and see what all the

ruckus was about. They soon joined us in our ooh-ing

and aahh-ing as the night sky turned into a laser light show. Within minutes we lost count of the falling stars. The dropping temperatures, and our drooping eyelids had us back inside by 2:30.

     As I lay next to my new wife I thanked the lucky

falling stars now obscured by the roof above us for

our being together. Life is grand.

     Bangkok is a nice place to visit, but I'll take

the star studded night skies of Isaan any time. I fell

asleep seeing flashes of falling stars still imprinted

on the inside of my eyelids, happy to be home once

again.

The end.

     Cent

___________________________

Copyright © December 2001.

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