His face looked rugged and battered by life, but he was handsome and Ling felt a connection. Ling smiled, then quickly looked away and finished serving the Aussie guy. In just the moment that it took before she could go and serve Danny, one of the other girls had beaten her to it. Danny could only stare at the back of Ling. He was looking for the Dragon tattoo, but he could not see because of her clothing.
The other farangs around the bar would not have understood any of the bargirls’ excited chatter. They sounded like that all night. But Ling understood. They were all talking about the older handsome farang, with the nice blue eyes and sad smile.
Ling could not help but glance at the farang again and he was looking back at her. There was no doubt about it. The other girls were taking it in turns, and sometimes not even waiting their turn, to get Danny’s attention. But, as the farang was smiling and shaking his head to decline offers to play ‘Jackpot’, ‘Connect Four’ and ‘Jenga’, he was definitely looking over at her.
Danny realised the beautiful girl with her back to him had also noticed him as soon as he sat down. She glanced over her shoulder and he thought that she looked at him and smiled, but, by the time he realised, she had already looked away. She was busy talking to a big Australian man. Danny thought that he was a particularly ugly man. He was very loud, with no class. Danny guessed that he must be a farmer. He had huge hands and strong arms. The Aussie was already drunk and drinking more drinks every minute. Danny noticed the beautiful girl glance over at him again and again she smiled. This time Danny was ready and smiled back. He wanted to talk to her, but the other bar girls kept bothering him and did not give him a minute alone. They all wanted to play stupid bar top games in the hope that he would buy them a ‘lady drink,’ or even better, just buy them. To make it even harder, the big drunken Aussie guy was making it very difficult for her to move away from him and just kept slurring stupid conversation in a loud Aussie accent.
Danny was astounded by her beauty. He had never seen such a perfect looking woman. The likeness to Ying was striking. Surely she could be a world class super model and here she was working as a bar girl in Patong. He had seen many bar girls, all of them very pretty, and it had never bothered him at all about what they did for a living. There had never been any emotion, but something about this girl just touched him. She was just too beautiful to be here doing this. Danny tried to get a grip of his emotions. He had no intention of ever falling for a bar girl. He had a job to do and he knew he was not making much headway. This was just crazy, but he had to talk to her. There really was something about her. Danny even thought to himself that, if she was working in a bank or a shop or a hotel or something, then he could fall in love with this girl. There was an air of gracefulness, and even dignity, about her. She had a charming easy manner and Danny could see that all the men around the bar only had eyes for this amazing looking woman. Her warm brown eyes had the power to stop men in their tracks. Danny was convinced that he knew this girl.
Danny spoke to the petit bar girl with the cheeky grin, who was trying to get him to play ‘Jackpot’ with her.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to play.”
“Easy, I teach you. See numbers on pegs one to nine. You have two dice. You throw and use any number to turn over peg and all the pegs turn over spell ‘Jackpot’. You buy me drink then.”
“Right! So whoever wins, I buy you a drink?” Danny laughed.
“Yes, that’s the way I like to play it. OK, no drink. We just play for fun. No problem, I joke with you.”
“I’ll tell you what. If you go and ask the girl over there to come and talk to me, I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Oh! You like Ling?”
“YING !”
“Ling.”
“How do you know which one I mean? You haven’t looked yet.”
“Yes, I know already. Every farang same same. All like Ling. Very beautiful girl, and virgin.”
Danny laughed and even the petite cheeky girl laughed at her own ridiculous statement.
“OK. You buy me lady drink?”
“Yes, that’s a deal.”
The girl went over to Ling and spoke. Ling looked over and smiled at Danny. The petite girl took over talking to the drunken Aussie and Ling came around to Danny. They both smiled at each other.
“Hello, my name Ling.” Ling wai’d to him so beautifully. It was something she never did to the bar customers, but she just did it this time. Danny nodded.
“Yes, I know. Your woman there told me your name. My name is Danny.”
“Hello Danny, nice to meet you. You look handsome man but sad.”
‘Jesus’ thought Danny, she even talks like Ying.
“Thank you. I think you’re looking grand yourself. Thank you for talking to me.”
“Khob khun kha” she smiled very sweetly. “We have to play game now.”
“Oh! No thanks. I’m not really into playing these bar games.”
“Yes, we have to. Because then I can stay only with you. If we no play game, then other men shout me for drinks or my boss come and send me to other customer. You play ‘Jackpot’ very easy.”
“Yes, OK. Let’s play that then. I just want to talk to you really.”
“Yes, can do no problem.”
“Would you like a drink?”
“Khob khun kha.” Ling fixed herself a drink and wrote out the bill on a little piece of paper and added it to the other one in the small wooden cup in front of Danny. They played the dice game as they chatted.
“How long have you been working the bars?” Danny asked directly.
“Nearly two months now.”
“Do you like it?”
“No. Not job to like it. I have to do, but not for long time. Maybe meet nice husband here, all girls want same.” Ling was uncomfortable answering Danny’s questions, but her Thai culture made her too polite to refuse to answer. Danny, sensing that it was making her uneasy, changed the subject and they got onto the questions all bar girls like to know.
“How long you stay Patong?” she asked, still smiling and melting him with her beautiful eyes.
“Don’t know yet. I have a visa for six months.”
“Oh! Long holiday?”
“It’s not really a holiday, Ling. I’m just here to find something.”
“What you lose?”
Just then the big Aussie guy shouted over.
“Hey! Ling! Come here.”
“Sorry, very busy. Another girl help you.”
“No. Ling, I want you here. I want to ask you something.”
This was very bad form from the Aussie brute. Everybody in and around the bar scene knows what goes on, but it’s the height of bad manners to shout it out like this and embarrass any of the girls. Whenever sex is discussed it is discussed quietly. If the girl agrees to go with the customer the price and time is also agreed very discreetly. The girls talk to many customers during the night; sometimes arrangements are made to meet later at a night club or the next day at the beach or at a restaurant, and, if a girl does agree to leave the bar with a customer, then the only sign you usually see is when the girl wais to the bar’s Buddha shrine as the customer is settling his bills, including the bar fine, before they quietly leave together hand in hand. So, for this drunken Aussie to be shouting out so loudly was a very bad thing, and would cause Ling to ‘lose face’. Everyone around the bar already knew what was coming before he said anything.
“Come on Ling, I want you here with me.” The man could hardly speak. His eyes were crossed as he tried to focus; his drunken eyelids hung heavy and low, half closing his eyes.
“Sorry, very busy. Cannot stand there.”
“Come on, Bitch. I was good enough before the old boy came along.”
The bar suddenly hushed, except for the music. The
Aussie had suddenly gone from being a drunken idiot to being a very real threat and a menace to everyone there. He was drunk and angry and a very big man. This was a bad combination.
“Sorry, cannot” repeated Ling.
“Ling, you come back to hotel with me. Two thousand baht?”
Although this was double the going rate at about £40, Ling had no intention of going with this brute of a man, and, by shouting out like this in front of everyone, he had broken the golden rule that everyone understands.
“No. Very sorry. I think you should go and sleep now. Very much beer tonight.”
“Yes, I want to sleep. I sleep with you Ling. Six thousand baht (£120). Come on, that’s more then you make in a week.”
Ling did not answer, not because she was considering his offer, just that she was now too embarrassed to talk to him. Her boss, Marc, had been watching the whole thing, but he was too afraid of the size of the guy to say anything. The bar was silent. Nobody wanted any trouble.
“I’ll pay you six thousand baht not to sleep with him” said Danny.
Ling flashed her eyes at Danny and shook her head quickly. She did not want Danny to get into any trouble with the monster from Australia.
“Oh! The old boy is a pommy bastard. Wait there boy, I think we need to have a chat.”
The Aussie struggled to get off his stool. The atmosphere around the bar racked up and most of the men sitting around the bar moved out of his way. Three Thai men sitting on a motorbike quickly started betting on the outcome of this potential fight and money was piled up on the motorbike seat. Two of the men bet on the big Australian, but the third man thought Danny had a face that was used to being punched and he saw a cold hardness in his blue eyes. He did not look like a man who would lose a fight. He bet all the money he had on the tough looking farang.
Danny decided that he did not need to get into a brawl with this man. He needed to be dropped straight away. Danny swivelled his bar stool around to face the oncoming Aussie. As he got closer Danny realised that he was not just huge, he was ugly too. As the man got to within three feet of Danny, he kicked a well-aimed kick, smashing into the Aussie’s testicles. For such a big man he screamed like a girl as he doubled over, but he was still standing. Danny grabbed him by the hair and smashed his face into the bar. Blood splattered as his teeth splintered and broke, the impact sending the big Aussie reeling onto the pavement. Almost instinctively, Danny jumped in the air and landed his full body weight, knees first into the Aussies ribs.
The loud crack of breaking bones was sickening. It was all over. One of the bar girls was already on the mobile phone to the Police.
All the girls were talking quickly in Thai and Marc was taking the money from the semi-conscious Aussie’s wallet for his drinks bill. Ling ran around to join Danny on the outside of the bar. Her long brown legs looked even longer in her blue mini skirt. She put her hand out to Danny.
“Come quickly. We go now. Police coming. You come with me, no problem.”
Ling took Danny the few short paces to the long row of motor bikes parked along the kerb and she started one up. Even now, and with all this going on, Danny still had time to think about how beautiful and how sexy she looked astride her bike.
“Come quickly” she insisted.
As he climbed on the back he saw all the customers from the bar stuffing baht notes into the little wooden cups and leaving before any police arrived.
Chapter 12: Escape with Ling
They rode away from the bar along the Beach Road and the wind made the night air feel cool on their faces. Danny liked holding onto Ling. She rode all the way to Karon Beach, the next town along the coast.
“Why are we going so far?” shouted Danny against the wind.
“Better” she replied. He didn’t ask anymore. He was just happy to be with her.
Ling suddenly pulled over to the other side of the road and stopped the bike near to a man who was barbequing chicken and fish on a BBQ rack attached to the back of his motor bike. A few people were sat around on the roadside eating. As they got off the bike Ling took Danny’s hand and placed it on her breast.
“Feel my heart. It beat very fast now.”
Danny could not concentrate on her words. He was feeling her breast and it was big, firm, soft and warm. It was just exciting. Ling removed his hand again.
“You fight like a Thai man” she said. “Are you an army man?”
“God no! I’m a detective. Well I was. Actually, I’m nothing now……” His sentence faded as he struggled to explain.
“Really! A detective? Very good job.”
“Where are we going Ling and why have we stopped here?”
“We here, eat food. I wait phone call from friend at bar. Then we go somewhere, I don’t know yet. You no worry, no problem. I take care.”
“Why are you going to take care?”
“You already take care of me. I like you really. I take good care, no problem. Now we eat.”
Danny had already noticed how much people in Thailand seemed to eat. In fact, they never seem to stop. But they only nibble at things and usually end up sharing it with a group of other people, so nobody eats big meals and nobody gets fat. But then, that’s why they always seem to be hungry. Ling bought some barbequed chicken, a corn on the cob, some dried fish that looked like the bottom of an old slipper and some fried insects. They sat on the ground near the roadside and ate the food. Danny was starving so he ate some chicken and corn cob. He even tried some of the dried fish.
“You like?” asked Ling.
“No, not really. It tastes like old dried up fish.”
“Yes is dried fish. Very good. You try insect. Arroy mak mak.”
“What is an arroy mak mak?”
“Means very delicious.”
“Oh! I thought it was the name of this type of insect.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay.”
In between talking they both just nibbled at the food and looked at each other. There was a chemistry between them and a strong physical attraction. The connection was growing stronger by the minute. Ling felt very excited about it. This is what every bar girl dreams about, meeting a nice farang and escaping the bar scene. She knew already that she could fall in love with this man. She already loved his smile and he had the most amazing blue eyes that she had ever seen.
Danny also recognised the feelings and chemical changes flashing though his body. Without doubt she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was half his age but that did not matter. It was more than her beauty. She had something about her that he didn’t understand yet. Unlike Ling, Danny wasn’t excited about these feelings, he was worried. He was very worried. He had not been with a lot of women since his wife had been murdered, more than ten years ago now. He was usually too drunk to notice anyone. But this girl was different. He already liked her far too much and he was already so sad that she was a bar girl. His head told him to either put things back on a business footing and pay her whatever a bar girl charged for a night, or get away from her. But his heart wouldn’t let him. They were both happy and relaxed in each other’s company. At this moment nothing was going to separate them. Something was happening between them.
Ling’s mobile rang and she spoke quietly into it. Her voice sounded very seductive when she talked so quietly. Danny just listened, but didn’t understand a word. However, it all sounded okay and very calm.
“Okay” she said, flicking her phone closed. “We not go back to Patong tonight. Big man go to hospital in ambulance. Police look for you, but not know anything. No person speak anything to them. Big man’s friends come and pay money so people tell them information, but maybe they not know you a lot. But we be careful.”
“Nobody knows me. I only arrived yesterday.”
“Thai p
eople see everything, notice everything, and if get money then speak everything.”
Danny didn’t answer. He was just trying to take in everything Ling had just told him.
“Maybe no problem” she continued. “They on holiday from United States of Australia. They go home soon I think, then everything okay. Police no problem.”
“So where are we going to go now then?”
“I take you back to my apartment. We need to talk things, make good plan.”
Ling smiled and it made everything seem alright. If he was now a fugitive, then at least he was on the run and in hiding with the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. Suddenly, his Thailand adventure was getting a lot more interesting.
They got back on the motorbike and Danny thought that they were heading back towards Patong Beach, but they ended up in a very quiet place after travelling along some roads that were no more than dirt tracks. They led off from Nanai Road along the way back and up the hill from the Beach Road. There were only a couple of low key shops here, which obviously catered to the locals as opposed to tourists; and no bars at all. The area looked flat and barren, with a few new looking rows of chalet type buildings surrounded by fields, with great views towards the mountains. Danny realised that they probably weren’t too far away from the centre of Patong, but they could have been the other side of Thailand. This was so different from any of Patong he had seen so far.
Ling pulled up outside one of the chalets and the motorbike engine was cut. Suddenly there was nothing but the sound of the insects, frogs and gecko lizards all making the noises that they did to fill the night with tropical sound. In the distance a dog barked.
The Kiss of the Dragon Page 4
