“Mama make for you, in English, beef curry” Ling informed him. She was a bit surprised that Danny did not look delighted.
“She can’t make beef curry with those.”
“Yes, can do. Mama make very good beef curry for you.”
“Ling, it can never be beef curry, only rat curry. I don’t want any thank you.”
“Why you no try it?”
“I don’t like beef curry.”
“Okay. Just try little bit then. Very good.”
Excited young voices were coming from the side of the house. It was Ling’s two younger sisters. People had seen Ling with her farang boyfriend coming home in the taxi and word had spread around the village. As soon as the girls heard the exciting news they raced home to see their sister and, more importantly, to see her farang boyfriend. They stopped giggling just long enough to wai Danny and then told their big sister how handsome he was. Just like their mama they spoke no English and, just like their sister, they were beautiful and smiled freely and easily.
“This my sisters. Am and Om” announced Ling.
Am was 14 and Om was 12.
The girls were fascinated by the farang with the bright blue eyes. They wanted to stay and look at him, but Ling gave them some money and sent them off to the shop to buy some more beer and a fish. When they returned a short time later, Ling helped her mother and they started to prepare and cook some food. Ling asked Danny to take their luggage up the stairs to the big attic room and told him that’s where they would be sleeping.
Danny was quite relieved that he did not have to watch them prepare the rats. Am and Om helped Danny with the luggage. They spoke excitedly to him in Thai. The three of them took the things up the stairs and Danny made sure that he stepped very lightly, because the stairs and the floorboards did not seem very solid. Once upstairs he saw that the outside walls in the upstairs of the house were just a single layer of wooden boards nailed onto the wooden posts. There were gaps between some of the boards that he could see through. He thought that if he fell against them, then they would give way and he would end up lying on the ground outside, seriously injured.
“Can this be safe?” he said out loud. Am and Om just shrugged their shoulders. They did not know what he had said, but he seemed like a nice man and they both liked him already. Mama told Ling that she thought her farang was lovely.
Chapter 17: Party at Mama’s
The smell of food cooking wafted up into the room and even Danny thought that it smelt great and was actually making him hungry. But the thought that it was the smell of cooking rats was still off putting to him.
He was also vaguely aware of a number of other voices coming from outside, both men and women’s voices. Then another couple of young children’s faces appeared at the stairway, staring slightly bewildered at the old tough looking farang. Am and Om signalled them to come over and they shyly went and sat on the girls’ knees. The eldest child, a little girl of about four years old, wai’d Danny and he could not help but smile. It was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Ling shouted up over the noise and called them all downstairs. Danny was amazed at the amount of people who had gathered outside to meet him. Suddenly he was amongst a sea of smiling faces and being introduced to everyone by Ling.
“This is Mama’s brother’s wife sister,” and “this is Mama’s uncle’s wife brother sister, sister older.” The family links seemed to get longer and longer, but at least Ling knew who they all were and how they were all related. Danny was being wai’d by everyone and the only thing he could do was to return the wai and speak his only Thai words.
“Sawaddee khrap.” But it seemed to be enough and everyone was impressed that he tried to speak Thai. Everyone chatted to Ling, and Danny could only guess that they were talking about him, but he had no idea what anyone was saying. At least they all seemed friendly enough.
Ling was really enjoying the evening. She was already very proud to be with Danny and everyone was congratulating her on her ‘catch’. Her confidence and status was growing by the minute and she was delighted that so many people in the village had come to see her future husband. She knew that, by tomorrow afternoon, the whole village and even the surrounding villages would all know all about the farang who was going to marry her. She could not have been any happier. Tonight she felt like a princess who had been found by her very own Prince Charming. She enjoyed telling everyone that Danny was a detective, because it increased her status even more, and everyone would know that she would have money. This just could not be any better.
Everyone wanted to talk to Danny and practice their English. This mostly consisted of ‘Hello’ and then they would break back into Thai. Danny just smiled a lot and, even though he could not understand a single word, he felt like he was making a lot of friends.
“These people are all grand. Why are they being so nice to me?” he asked Ling.
“Because you good man, no problem” she smiled sweetly.
The evening was turning into a great welcoming party and Danny forgot all about his initial impression. He was really enjoying himself now. Every time he took a mouthful of ice cold beer from his glass some kind soul would refill it again for him. Before long a huge amount of food appeared and was laid out on rush mats on the floor. Danny was amazed that it had all been produced with what he thought was the most basic of kitchens that he had ever seen. There was sticky rice in little wicker baskets. There were fish dishes, vegetables and chili dishes, Mama’s ‘beef curry’, what looked like crispy beef with onions and more chilies. Although Danny knew that the source of the crispy beef was going to be the same as the beef curry and he wasn’t going to eat it, when everyone sat down on the floor and started eating, he felt happy and relaxed. With Ling next to him encouraging him to try everything, he found himself tasting the ‘beef’ dishes.
“Holy Jesus, Mother of God! This is delicious.” Danny could not hide his surprise. The food really was fantastic.
Ling took great delight in telling Mama how much Danny liked her cooking and it seemed to Danny that everyone was delighted with his presence amongst them. He had never been made to feel so welcome by any group of people at any time in his entire life. To Danny this was really a most amazing experience.
After more food, more beer and some Mekong whisky, as quickly as all these people appeared, they seemed to disappear. There were not the long goodbyes and hugs and kisses that Danny was used to when a gathering ended. These people just quickly and quietly drifted away. Very soon afterwards Mama and the girls had gone to bed and Danny and Ling were making up a bed upstairs. Danny was not delighted to see that the bed consisted of the thinnest padded mat that he had ever seen, one blanket and a mosquito net hung over it from one of the beams. There was not a pillow, but Ling found a pretty, embroidered, triangle-shaped cushion, which she gave to Danny.
The rainy season had started and, as they started to undress for bed, lightning cracked and the rain thrashed down on the tin roof above their heads. It sounded so loud and seemed to get louder by the minute. Every time the lightning flashed it illuminated all the gaps in the wood board walls. Ling and Danny cuddled up together and kissed. It was the first time they had kissed and they were both aroused. They caressed and stroked each other. It was tender and exciting. It was loving and caring. Ling straddled him and held his erection in her hand, guiding it into her. He felt her warm wetness.
“Jesus!” he said.
“Shhhh!” Ling put a finger up to her lips to silence him. In the flashing light he could see her eyes, beautiful and sparkling. The expression on her face had a childlike innocence; naughty and cheeky all at the same time.
They made love in silence, with the storm raging all around them and rain clattering the roof. The storm subsided as they climaxed and they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, listening to the now gentle patter of rain on the roof. The air felt cooler and fres
h.
“Ling, I think I have just realised something.”
“Realise what, darling?”
“I think I know what I was really looking for in Thailand.”
“What, darling?”
“I think I was looking for you, looking for this.”
“Yes darling, I know. No problem. You find me now.”
Danny felt different. He did not want to leave Ling. He did not want to find Jack Morgan. He had the strangest feeling that Ying had somehow brought him back here to meet Ling. He felt comfortable. He felt relaxed and for the first time in over ten years, he felt happy. He wanted to tell Ling about Ying, the beautiful detective who had had such an impact on his life. But not yet, not tonight.
“Tomorrow we have to do some shopping. We have to buy some things for your Mama’s house, and I will sort out a direct debit payment with the bank on the internet. I will pay for the girls’ school. I’d like to help. I really like your family Ling.”
“They like you too, very much. What you buy for house, darling?”
“Well, a proper toilet for a start, and maybe some new floorboards. I don’t think it’s safe up here. Maybe something to sort these wooden walls out. Some paint and varnish would look good, I think.”
“Yes darling, we do tomorrow. My eyes tired now.” She kissed him.
They fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Chapter 18: Building Foundations
Ling, her Mama and sisters, Am and Om, had already been up and dressed for half an hour before Ling went to wake Danny.
“Darling, you wake up now.” She gently shook him. He liked waking up to Ling’s gentle voice. She always sounded so cute to him.
“What time is it?” He stretched out and permitted himself a yawn.
“Now 6:30 o’clock.”
“Holy Jesus! Why are we up at this time?”
“We go to temple now. Take food for monks.”
“You’re kidding me. Are you mad? Nobody will be awake yet.”
Ling either ignored his remark, or just did not understand it.
“Yes darling, we go now. Time to wake up” and she went back down the creaky stair boards. Danny could hear Ling and her family chatting underneath him. He leaned over the edge of the mat and looked through a gap in the floorboards and he could see them. He dressed and then washed, as best he could, and off they all went to the temple in the village.
Danny did not think it looked as pretty as some of the temples that he had seen. It needed a lick of paint, but as he got closer, he was amazed to see the place was really busy. He recognised a lot of the people who he had seen the previous evening. Again he became the centre of attention, but did not really know what was going on.
Mama had wrapped fish and rice in banana leaves and gave these to the monks. Other people were also giving them food. Ling made Danny kneel in front of one of the elderly monks and sit there in a wai. The monk blessed him and platted some coloured thread together which he then tied around Danny’s wrist.
The monk seemed friendly enough, as far as Danny could tell, and he thought that he had a nice kindly face. The monk smiled a lot and chatted to Ling and Mama as he made the wrist band. Ling later told Danny that the monk had told them that he had a good heart, was lucky for their family and that he would bring much happiness into their lives. Danny did not really believe in fortune telling, but it was obvious to him that everyone else around here seemed to believe in it.
As they were putting their shoes back on after leaving the temple a lot of villagers came up to be introduced to the farang. Men and women, young and old, all greeted Danny with smiles and wais. It was a humbling experience for him. He had done nothing to deserve all this respect and friendliness. He had never experienced anything quite like it before. It was inspiring and overwhelming. It seemed that he had made more friends in the last 24 hours then he had ever made in his life. It all made him forget his initial gloomy impression of yesterday. He liked these people and he liked this place. There was happiness and fun here and it occurred to Danny that he could be happy living around here. He had seen some nice western style houses as well as the wooden shacks on stilts, which had so shocked him when he was arriving yesterday.
Mama, Ling, Am and Om were all very proud of Danny. They knew that this must be all so very strange to him. He was making a great first impression amongst the locals, because he was smiling a lot and returning each wai, and with each ‘Sawaddee khrap’ he said, he was making new friends.
Mama whispered to Ling and told her that she thought she had found a handsome prince. Ling told her that he said he was going to buy things to improve the house and he promised to pay for the girls’ schooling until they completed it. Mama immediately prayed and thanked Buddha. They went back to the house for breakfast.
“Darling, you eat breakfast?”
“I don’t suppose it’s bacon and eggs, with tea and toast?”
“Fish and rice and crispy beef. Very spicy, very good.”
“I’ll just have coffee then, please.”
Ling checked with Mama.
“Cannot. No coffee.”
“Tea?”
“No tea.”
“Orange juice?”
“No orange juice. Have beer.”
“I think I’m good then, thanks. I saw a big Tesco Lotus supermarket when we drove in yesterday. Maybe we can go there later and buy some stuff.”
“Okay. I’m very sorry, darling. We have no breakfast for you.”
“It’s okay. I’m very happy Ling.”
“Sure?”
“Sure.”
Danny sat outside the front of the house and smoked a cigarette as he drank a can of Coke. Ling and Mama were walking around the house, inside and out, chatting away so quickly, as only Thai people can do. There was a lot of pointing and nodding and they seemed to be measuring various imaginary things by spreading out their arms. Danny guessed that Ling must have told her mother that he wanted to buy
some things to decorate and improve the house. This was obviously the planning stage, although it concerned him that neither of them was making any notes of their plans or arm measurements. He just watched. He had a happy contentment swirling around inside him. Money was no object to him and he was happy to help this family. He really liked them and he really liked Ling.
Danny already felt very different. He suddenly had this family who had adopted him. The villagers had made him feel so welcome. He could not help but think about Ying. He felt her presence. Somehow she had pulled him towards Ling. He was asking himself ‘Was Ling the perfect woman for him? Was this what he came to find in Thailand?’ He knew that he felt happy enough with Ling and he realised that he had not been drunk since he met her, but that was only the other day. He decided that he would just let things run their course and, at some stage, he was going to make an effort to find the missing Jack Morgan.
Danny was still a spectator as they ate breakfast and made a lot of phone calls to various people. Danny of course had no idea of what was being said, but everyone, including Am and Om, seemed to be getting very excited.
After they finished breakfast they all piled into Mama’s pickup truck. Ling drove it and Danny sat in the front next to her. They drove into Udon Thani and went to various garden centres, builders’ merchants and DIY places. Danny was not really a part of any of the discussions, although he was occasionally asked by Ling ‘You like?’ as they were looking at bathrooms and kitchen units, paints and tiles. At each place they went to Ling did most of the business negotiations with the suppliers and, on each invoice, there seemed to be an awful lot written on it. Danny had no idea what all these add-ons were. He just paid the bill and everyone was all smiles. Danny’s head was spinning after a couple of hours and he had not got a clue about what he had bought and what he had not, but Lin
g was in charge and at least she seemed to know what she was doing. In between all this shopping Mama and Ling made a lot of phone calls. It seemed to Danny that they were all too busy, or maybe just too excited, to explain anything to him, but he was happy and he felt good about himself. He knew that he was about to make a difference to the quality of their lives. He felt the bond between them all getting stronger by the minute and he did not think it was because he was spending money on them. There was just a real affection growing between them all. Danny could not remember the last time he had been as happy as this, or felt part of something like this.
They also went into some shops inside the city and they bought beds and some furniture. Danny asked how they were going to get all this stuff home and Ling explained that he was paying for them to be delivered. They bought a big TV and a satellite dish. The last place they went to was Tesco Lotus, where they did a big shop, filling two trolleys with food and household goods, like pots, pans, knives, sheets, quilts, pillows, crates of beer and bottles of cheap whiskey. When they were buying the booze Danny asked Ling if they were having another party. Ling explained that they were for the workers, who would already be waiting at the house to do the work. She went on to tell Danny that there were twenty people there and they were all friends or family. They would do all the work for 100 baht (£2) each per day and it would take two days, so Danny had to have 4,000 baht in cash (£80) to pay them. This seemed a very reasonable amount, but he worried that these family and friends would not have the necessary qualifications to do the work.
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