Deleted Posts In The Wrong Section - Of The 3Rd Kind

[Guest]

" but oh no bossy missy know it all just jumps in and makes a fool of self again."

 

No, there is only one know all Mr Mekong and that is you. The problem is you are right most of the time which is rather anoying ...

[JaiRai]

As I lay in the open lot on Ratchada, burning under the hot sun & clawing back up through the murky fog that had set up shop in my mind -- the phone rang. It was Ken, a reserved and conservative Japanese business associate in Chiang Mai who had become a close friend over several years. I answered, just a wee bit groggy.

 

"Hey Ken... sorry mate, can I call you back later? got a strange fucking situation going on down here"

His reply was a strained whisper fading off.

"Danny..."

Now I'm alert. I dusted myself off and started walking to find a taxi as I spoke.

"Ken, you OK?" There was some mumbling at the other end that I could not make out.

"Ken?... Ken??" A click and silence.

 

Called back, no answer. Repeated several times and left a couple urgent voicemails. Nothing. Had a nagging in my gut that this was serious. Waved down a taxi, then another, then another. After a half dozen "mai bpai" finally found one willing to go to Don Mueang in rush hour. That's right, Don Mueang. Fuck it, going to Chiang Mai.

 

Went to the Nok Air booth at DM, got my ticket for the next flight out - 6:20pm. The alarm and fear I felt about today's earlier weirdness were repressed in lieu of the threat to a friend. It's good to be reminded sometimes that you're still human. And nature was just about to give me another reminder of my humanity -- while headed over to my departure gate I felt it, and 'IT' was coming on strong. Why oh why did I eat Som Tam from the street this morning?

 

I made my way to the restroom with a quickness reserved for Olympians and slid into the nearest stall without bothering to wipe down the seat. Whew. Relief. Much better. And then I looked up and saw the writing. "094912350" on the back of the stall door, scrawled just above a creepy mouse head. It's not the same number I thought - you're being paranoid Danny - whatever.

 

Then I realized it was in fact the same. Fuck. Fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck.

 

The pressure began at the base of my skull working its way up. And the white noise...

 

When I came to I was seated on a plane in mid flight on the way to Chiang Mai. A concerned stewardess leaned in to me pressing a moist towelette on my forehead. She made eye contact and gave a sigh of relief - "Ohhhh, happy you alright, before I think you mai-sabai"

 

"Jing-lahw?" I asked. She then spoke quick in broken Thaiglish to explain. It seems I had gotten on the plane acting a little funny and mumbling nonsense, then became non responsive in my seat. She was about to alert her boss. I had no recollection of anything described but reassured her anyway. "Yes - I'm sabai dii, no problem, sorry you scare." But the truth was a different matter. I was way past alarmed now. I was somewhere else. And as I gazed out the passenger window of the plane, a storm raged below.

 

I was about to go down into it.

[Flashermac]

Must have flown a cheap airline. Hostesses have to pass strict tests in conversational English (and other languages) to work for the biggies. Nuff said.

 

 

 

[Dexi]

Yes,last time I flew Nok to CM the air hostess`s English was perfect.....although maybe they just learn certain phrases and their general language skills are not as good

[JaiRai]

Landed Chiang Mai.

 

Booked taxi at the kiosk, asked for the Thapae gate (Ken's place is a couple blocks away). On the way there called him - surprise, he answered on the first ring.

 

"Hey Daniel-san - how's it going" 'Daniel-san' was an inside joke at me and reference to the 'Karate Kid,' it also indicated he was playing around. What the heck?

"dude, what the fuck happened earlier? - you ok?"

"What are you talking about???"

Now I was irritated.

"This afternoon when you called and got disconnected, I tried to called back - thought something was wrong. Serious."

"Dan, I haven't called anyone. Malee and I been hiking a trail to Wat Pha Lat all day, didn't even have the phone with me till half an hour ago"

 

............

 

awkward silence.

 

"Dan, you still there?"

"Yeah. Something fucked up is going on"

 

Got to his place. Relayed the day's events. Ken looked at me like I was full on fucking crazy, and then called Malee into the conversation. She wanted the number given to me by the Tuk Tuk driver. Most people knew Malee as an art instructor. We knew her as someone heavily into numerology and 'that spiritual stuff' (as Ken liked to put it).

 

I couldn't find the napkin given to me by mr Tuk Tuk, but no worries, I'd called the number also out of curiosity (and got some sort of auto shop), still had it in the phone log. Meaningless. I gave it to her - “053219490.â€

 

She nodded and said "uh huh... you are in trouble"

"what is it???"

"this is definitely...

definitely..."

 

"DEFINITELY WHAT?????"

 

"definitely...a phone number" and she started laughing.

sigh. god damnit.

 

Ken and Malee were now having a hushed conversation between themselves.

Then, "We think you should rest Danny."

 

In short order I was given a glass of Scotch and a valium. Lit a cigarette... and faded.

[JaiRai]

I walk along the moat in dead silence. Not a soul here. Everything dark, covered in snow. A light at the end of a small soi catches my eye and I begin towards it.

 

Coming into focus now I see an old vacant home, just out front a cherry tree in blossom, its flowers give off an ephemeral glow. A large lizard perches on the branches above. I walked beneath and it leaps at me with an intense ferocity --

 

Whoa. Strange dream. Snow in Chiang Mai... haha. I reach for the lamp on the nightstand and it isn't there. Still dreaming? Then I remember, I've spent the night at Ken and Malee's place.

 

4:00am. Dressed and went outside for a cigarette and a short walk.

 

Can see a crowd congregating outside, just up from the Thapae gate. I'll go that way. After a few moments I can see it's drunk Farangs spilling out into the street from Spicy's, the Chiang Mai after hours club.

 

A Thai woman dressed in a simple skirt and blouse passes me on the left and it catches my attention. She is rather plain from a distance with no make up and rather conservative in appearance but -- but, when she is close you glimpse an understated beauty that is potent. I know her from somewhere.

 

She walks through the crowd in front of me, catching the attention of a few hooligans groping random freelancers. The three of them, loud boorish and dumb, were having the time of their lives at the expense of everyone else. When the cretin in charge of the pack puts his hands on her she slaps him, hard. His former expression of condescending amusement transforms to a sadistic anger. And then it gets worse when he looks up to see me chuckling. The three of them amble over.

 

"Something funny mate?"

"nope"

"why don't you share with us" He's leaning in and in my face. he's got about 15cm and 15kg on me, not to mention back up. Sigh.

I keep walking, he grabs my arm and escalates.

"You're a rude cunt aren't you?"

"nope, just tired"

"where you from rude cunt?"

"Luxembourg" I keep walking.

"rude fucking comedian wanker cunt - where you going?" he runs around and plants himself in my path.

this is not going to go well.

I try to maneuver around but the three stooges won't allow it. The leader gives me a shove and one of his mates has his foot just behind me and I take a fall. I stand back up as they laugh.

"sorry" i say.

"what you sorry for rude cunt?"

 

I look away and close my eyes. I picture myself as a flash of lightning, and with what speed and force I can muster bring an elbow back into his gut. The leader doubles over in surprise and pain, the companions bringing up their arms to strike. I take off at a full sprint and think I'm going to make it - then trip over a jutting piece of concrete in my path. Pain shoots through the knee that took the brunt of the fall. In less than a millisecond the 3 are around me kicking as I ball up for protection, when a loud female scream pierces the air "Stop it!" Someone else yells "Police!" and just like that the 3 are gone.

 

I've got a banged up knee and some awful bruises, but could've been much worse. I feel a hand on my shoulder and a quiet voice instructs "come with me." It's the Thai woman from before. She leads me away from the area down a side soi.

 

A short distance away we arrive at a very old home. She lights a candle and I notice that there's no electricity at all in this building. Oh no, I'm in the hippie zone.

 

She gives me a cool wet cloth to wipe my face off and says "I want to show you something."

[JaiRai]

"Wait, wait a second.." I say. "who are you? what's your name?"

"Parisa Janghuarinakawn" she replies with a subtle smile.

"Haha - I mean what name do people call you?"

"You can call me Ning. Khun la? Khun cheu arai?"

"Daniel."

"Danyun. Pii Danyun kaaaaa - is that how you like the girls to say it?" her smile gets a little devious.

"Oh boy."

 

Ning holds a lit candle and walks me outside. In front of the home sits a large cherry tree in full blossom. A "wow" slips out before I even start processing.

 

"beautiful no?" she asks.

 

Up to now I've been ignoring the events of the past couple days. Filing under some strange side effect of exhaustion (dear god please don't let it be dementia). The blackouts, the weirdness - I didn't know what to do with it all. These things don't quite fit into my framework of how the world works.

 

But now I'm overwhelmed and start to shake. I feel her arms come around me, warm moist breath on my neck. "It's Ok Pii Danyun." she leads me back into the house and up to her room. There's an awkward moment where we just look at each other...

 

For several hours our bodies are intertwined, I lose cognizance of time. More than that - I lose myself. Awareness of who I am is stripped away, exposed. Some moments I cling to her for dear life, strange as that sounds.

 

Eventually, she's laughing and ready to go outdoors and feel the sun. I notice a peculiar tattoo on her left side, hidden by her arm.

 

 

 

I point at it - "what does that mean?"

"That's nothing Pii Danyun... come on, ja bpai gin kaao, get up, ab nam!"

 

Without showering I follow her outside, her scent on my skin and clothes.

"First, there's one more thing I want to show you Pii Danyun"

"Okay."

 

I follow her down several sois to a temple, and she brings me to something like an ancient face. Her demeanor grows much more serious as she lights incense.

 

 

I close my eyes for just a moment.

 

When I open them she is gone.

[Coss]

This is very good, more please

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

 

Sanuk!

[JaiRai]

Squint my eyes and look around to make sure. She is gone. I circle the temple grounds. Circle them again. Then, walk the street. I retrace our steps as best I can but I cannot find her home or soi.

 

Ging. The cherry blossoms. The night before. The past several days. All illusion??? I no longer know. I guess I never really did.

 

It builds until it's too much. The pang of loneliness, loss. I sit right down on the curb, can't move. Don't care. Life reduced to a sense of resignation.

 

I remain there motionless until the suns go down, indifferent to the points and stares. My phone goes off several times, I shut it off.

 

The sun rises.

 

Food vendors push their carts out for the morning crowd and a hunched over Khmer woman stands across the street looking at me. After a few moments I look right back at her hoping she'll turn away and focus elsewhere. She doesn't. I can sense her concentrating her stare right at me for several minutes. "WHAT?" I mouth without speaking. The loneliness and resignation is turning into something else. Irritation.

 

I stand up and see the faint trace of a smile on the Khmer woman, she nods her head towards a small soi to her right motioning me to go there. Then she leaves. Hmmm. The irritation subsides but in place is a sense of defiance. Defiance against fate, or whatever you want to call it. Losing my mind or not, I want to know what the fuck is going on.

 

I make towards the soi when I hear a "there he is" behind me. I turn around to see Kan and Malee riding in a Tuk Tuk. They stop, give the driver a lot of baht, and walk over. Ken is not fucking happy.

 

"We've been driving all over the old city the past couple hours thinking something bad happened asshole, we even checked with the police. Why haven't you returned any of our calls or SMS? I'm serious Dan." He shoots out the words in a machine gun cadence.

 

"Lets sit down somewhere" I say, and amble over to a cafe. It lies at the head of the soi the Khmer woman was guiding me toward. Ken follows with a grudge in his eye, Malee rubs his shoulders.

 

I decide not to bullshit and tell them everything that happened since I left their home. Well, almost everything. Kens looks a bit disgusted and I can tell he either thinks I've completely lost the plot, or I'm making shit up. But Malee is engaged and alert, she keeps nodding her head wanting more information. Finally she interrupts me -- "the old woman was motioning towards this soi? lets look." Ken just shakes his head.

 

As we head down the soi there's nothing unusual. It's just a bit run down but nothing special. And then I see it. The same mouse head that was there when I first blacked out on Ratchada, when all this started...

 

 

 

 

The soi itself is has a sense of the familiar. I become 100% in tune to the environment, looking everything over as if trying to locate the lost piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

 

Malee calls me over "Danny, what was the number the tuk tuk driver gave you in Bangkok?" I look it up on my phone: “053219490â€

 

She points. In front of her is a beat up sign.

 

 

Ken's eyes widen and Malee nods - "Danny, I have a question."