walking

PEE AND PUKE'S ROOM - THREE A.M.
pee (comes in looking tired): you know…
puke giggles.
pee (giggling too): … that farang…
puke giggles.
pee: … said, "let's walk!" i think he means the towel in or the sweat lot, but no, we walk… i ask him, "where go, you?" he says, "i like to walk…"
puke: normally, as a carrybag…
pee giggles.

PUKE
when a small boy, i work as a carrybag in the village market, running after every lady and shouting "carry bag! carry bag!" but there are many boys and few wealthy shoppers without a servant to take their groceries home.
one morning, i'm lucky: a stocky lady gives me a 20 kg bag of rice to carry, too heavy for me, but i don't let it show. while we walk, the fat lady's mouth never stops, "… and now, my son has become a lieutenant colonel in the army who collects two hundred thousand per month and his own car…"
on and on she walks and talks, "…the district police chief asks me to consider his daughter, but my son is looking for a city girl. maybe he's right, country girls are worth nothing…" sweat is dripping from my nose, making me look like a frog. every few steps, i've to change my hold. after half an hour, i ask her, "how much further?" – "just a few furlongs." the mountain path turns into stone steps going up a naked rock ledge. don't look down! difficult enough to climb those high steps with that load on my head.
after almost an hour, we arrive at a walled-in farmhouse. the lady hands me a few coins then turns away and shuts the door. i look at the ten and twenty att coins on my palm and then at the closed door. what a stingy old beast! i wrap the coins inside the border of my phakaamaa [i.e. sarong], then turn and start down the endless flight of steps.

PEE AND PUKE'S ROOM - THREE A.M.
pee (giggling): you get some coins… i wouldn't get one satang but for running into pa wirachai…
puke giggles.

RAMA IV ROAD - TWO A.M.
policeman wirachai [in thai]: hi there, chink! where are you going?
pee [in thai]: sir, the [obscenities deleted] farang makes me walk until here!
policeman wirachai (to pee): id!
policeman wirachai looks at pee's id; (to the farang): passport!
policeman wirachai looks at the passport: boy not age!
farang: what?
policeman wirachai: boy not age! you come!
pee (to the farang): pay money, you!
farang: no!
pee (to the farang): go prison, you?
farang (to pee): how much?
pee: five thousand, you!
policeman wirachai: no take money!

RAMA IV ROAD - A FEW SECONDS LATER
policeman wirachai (to the farang): "you go!" (to pee) "you come!"

PEE AND PUKE'S ROOM - THREE A.M.
pee (giving a thousand-baht-bill to pee): from pa wirachai!
puke wais in the direction of rama iv road.
pee (giggling): pa wirachai said, "give it to your flatnose fan!"
puke (giggling): what for?
pee imitates policeman wirachai's real man voice: "my ass hurts!"
puke (giggling): why ask for it if you can't take it? – what to tell khun boss?
pee: why doesn't the [obscenities deleted] farang take a taxi?

PEE AND PUKE'S ROOM - THREE A.M.
pee takes off his t-shirt, slips out of his jeans, and enters the bathroom. puke uncovers the plates with food. what need to talk about his happy childhood?
in the shower, pee washes off the street dust and the touch of policeman wirachai's too strong sweaty body, the beer smell of his breath… pee hates to fuck without lube; his cock is hurting.
coming out of the bathroom in his wet underwear, drying his long hair with the towel, pee sees the plates placed on newspaper spread on the floor and reads in puke's eyes his friend's fear that talking about the past evokes the past.
they sit down to eat. puke heaps rice on pee's plate.
pee (looking down, struggling with his emotions): i never expect to have a friend like you.
puke (giggling to defuse the situation): we're brothers!
pee (giggling too): sorry, brother! i meant, "… without a nose!"