The Sad Part Was Page 6

  “Who is he?”

  The man used both hands to shift the head of the body, so as to be able to see the face more clearly.

  The sky flickered three times in a row.

  “He doesn’t look familiar. His face doesn’t register in my memory. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen this gentleman.” He contemplated for a moment. “What was he doing on this roof deck in the middle of a storm that’s been blasting down like there’s no tomorrow? Was he a criminal who suffered an unimaginable accident during the course of his professional duty – crushed to death out of nowhere by the letters from the advertisement sign?”

  “It doesn’t matter what he was. In a situation such as this, the first thing one should do is alert the police. Or else call an ambulance,” the woman opined.

  Her companion bobbed his head in agreement and got to his feet.

  In the second floor bathroom, the man stood under the downpour from the shower head. The white tiles on the wet floor felt rough against the soles of his feet. The woman, now bone dry, lay under a soft powder-blue blanket. Her white T-shirt and dark blue shorts were slung on a plastic hanger, hooked onto the crank handle of a slatted window. The fan in the room spun a hundred and eighty degrees in each direction; one moment it blew on the surface of the wet fabric, another moment on the face of the woman on the bed. Her bare feet stuck out from under the blanket, creating an opening for the breeze to flow in and envelop her body. It was neither hot nor cold; the temperature in the room was more inviting than the weather on the roof deck.

  The man switched off the squirting shower head, stepped out of the steaming enclosure and pulled a towel to his body. His rain-drenched clothes sat in the sink under the mirror.

  Normally, at this juncture, people like to reminisce about the past, but the woman on the bed was pondering the future.

  “When I’m exactly fifty-three years old, my son and daughter will both be grown up and have completed their education. My daughter’s applying for a job at a big bank. My son’s interning at a publishing house. He wants to be a writer, a poet actually, but his work’s showing no sign of gaining recognition in literary circles. I stay home and do miscellaneous work because my husband’s the general manager of a furniture export company. He earns a good income and can take care of the whole family. Nobody has to struggle. We have plenty of savings in the bank. There’s nothing to stress about, so I only worry about the children’s future.”

  As his hands twisted his wet clothes, squeezing the hidden water down the circular drain, the man called out from the bathroom:

  “What’s your husband’s name? What does he look like?”

  The woman smiled before answering. Even though the man could not see the expression on her face, he could surmise it from the tone of the voice that drifted into his ears.

  “I greatly regret to say that it’s not you. My husband’s tall and dark. His face is roughly landscaped with hair. When I’m fifty-three, my husband will be fifty-seven. I met him while traveling overseas. I’d gone to visit a relative in London and stayed with her for some months, just enjoying the sights and sounds, enjoying being aimless. My husband was studying for a masters at a university forty minutes outside the city. He was a friend of a friend of a friend of the relative I was staying with. We met at a get-together for Thai people, got chatting, and hit it off. Not long after I returned to Thailand, he moved back here for work. He called me. We started going out. One day, he asked me to marry him, and I said yes. He’s a faithful husband who’s devoted to our family – that’s hard to find in this day and age. I’m happy I chose the right person. Our married life is serene. My mother passed away five years after I got married. She didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her first grandchild. My husband asked my father to move into our spacious and comfortable home, and my father gladly accepted. Why live sad and alone when you can be close to your children and grandchildren? My father likes to garden. Soon after he moved in, my house became filled with brick-colored clay pots.”

  The man stared at his face in the mirror as he listened attentively to the woman contemplating her future. His fingers had become wrinkled like prunes. His body had come into contact with too much water for such a short space of time. The sound of the storm was ongoing; from inside it was faint, but one could infer that it was still fierce outside.

  “You don’t see me?”

  The woman on the bed remained quiet through several flashes of lightning.

  “Each to their own future. I don’t see you around. We probably broke up a long time ago.”

  “When are you traveling to England?”

  “Some years from now. About three years, I’d say. The day of the trip, I was really excited, having never traveled outside the country before.”

  “In three years. That means you’ll have finished school.”

  “That’s right, I’ve finished school. I couldn’t find a job right away. I decided to visit my relative in London in order to scout things out, see if I could find a place to continue my studies. But the tuition there was unbearably expensive. My parents didn’t have the means to send me.”

  “Please stop talking about the future. I don’t want to hear about any future of yours that doesn’t involve me. Let’s just be happy in the present.”

  The man hung his wet clothes on the towel rack and walked into the bedroom. He was naked, save for the towel knotted at his waist. When he reached the side of the bed, he didn’t look at the woman’s face. He simply peeled the sheets up at one corner and lowered himself down.

  “The police are taking their time getting over here. Twenty minutes have elapsed, and there’s still no sign of them,” the woman pondered.

  “Rain. Traffic. Nothing unusual. They should arrive any minute now,” the man said, slapping the pillow behind his head into place. He propped the back of his head up with his left arm, forming a barrier between the pillow and his hair. His right hand resting on his forehead, he glanced over at the television set on the wooden table three steps from the foot of the bed. The screen was silent.

  “Shall we turn the television on and see what entertainment awaits us in the airwaves? There could be a drama series that promises to become addictive, or a game show that promotes the institution of celebrity, or an interview with a person of importance in society.”

  “Simply lying here is more peaceful. Don’t forget the unbreathing body on the roof deck. There’s a dead person in close proximity – how could have I have the heart to let myself be entertained by the media? I’m mourning that man’s death,” the woman remarked quietly.

  The man tilted his face toward her.

  “But who was this individual? He was no relative or friend of ours. For me to grieve and cry over his death would be poor acting. I cannot do it.”

  “I’m not grieving. But everyone who dies, no matter who they are, deserves equal sympathy. Apart from that, it’s shameful that we were so oblivious. A dead person was lying steps away, and we still put on a salacious show out in the open without any consideration for earth or sky. Thinking about it gives me goose bumps. Disgusting.” The woman contorted her face to display her sentiment.

  “I’m starting to get goose bumps again. What would you say if I suggest that we…”

  Before the man finished his sentence, the buzzer sounded through the whole house.

  A few minutes later, the four-level townhouse contained several policemen and emergency workers.

  “At approximately 21:00, while my female companion and I were amusing ourselves in our game of Twister in the bedroom on the second floor, we heard a loud bang from the roof deck. It was so loud and abrupt that it completely threw me off (almost literally, in fact). After hauling myself upstairs, I discovered that what sounded like the cracking of the sky came from the fall of two red English letters that were once part of an advertisement sign for a well-known brand of camera. Said sign used
to be prominently placed on top of the neighbouring building. My companion and I were standing there looking at the massive letters piled on top of each other – and if you want a detailed statement, I can attest that one of letters was an N and the other was an O, and the N was lying on top of the O. We stood there in the middle of the rainstorm for a while, staring in bewilderment at the two letters, and then we noticed a foreign object lying motionless underneath the O. When we approached, it became evident to all four of our eyes that the object in question was the body of a man. I examined the pulse of the male victim and found no heartbeat, so I surmised that he had already departed this world. After my female companion and I paid an abbreviated version of our respects, I picked up the phone and requested you to come and investigate immediately. The unbreathing body of said man is still lying facedown in the same spot where the lady and I discovered him. So, without further ado, you should lead your team of men in khaki upstairs to execute your duty. If you’d like umbrellas to protect your crowns from the relentless downpour, I have some that you can borrow. Unfortunately, though, I only have two, so you’ll have to share. Do accept my apologies for this. Please follow me to the stairs that will bring you and your crew to the roof deck, the scene of the incident.”

  “It’s no problem about the umbrellas. We all have our own raincoats. But first, we need to ask you a few questions. It’s protocol.”

  The young man led the team of gentlemen up the stairs.

  “Are you the owner of the house?”

  “No, my parents are the owners of the house, but they’re on vacation. Right now they’re probably sound asleep in a three-star hotel room somewhere in the south. I’m on housesitting duty. My female friend’s staying here to help me watch the house, since housesitting alone is such an onerous task.”

  “Is it correct that you’d never seen the victim on the roof deck prior to this night?”

  “I don’t know him. I’ve never seen this man’s face before in my life.”

  “In your opinion, what was the cause of death?”

  “The cause of death is perfectly apparent. The unfortunate nameless man was crushed to death by the letters N and O. But how he came to find himself on this roof deck to be crushed by the giant letters, I haven’t a clue. My own theory, which I told to my female friend, is that he might have been a criminal who suffered a tragic accident while carrying out a job. Whether that’s correct, I do not know. I have to leave that part to you.”

  The investigating officer nodded in agreement.

  The door at the top of the staircase slammed open onto the stage of the storm’s light and sound show. All held up their hands to shield their faces from the splashing rain.

  The lifeless body of the unknown man was still lying soaked underneath the O. The emergency servicemen approached. When they reached the body, two policemen and two medics together dislodged the giant letters and yanked the victim’s body from under them.

  “Seeing that my eyes have already grown accustomed to the image of this man’s dead body, may I take leave to return indoors before I catch a cold? I hope you won’t object.”

  To the beat of the thunder, the investigating officer nodded his consent.

  In the second floor bathroom, the young man stood in front of the toilet. A stream of pale yellow liquid was passing from his own private faucet down through the U-bend.

  “If that man wasn’t a criminal, what other reason did he have for going up on the roof and making himself a sitting target?” Sitting on the edge of the bed, the woman yelled her question as she combed out her hair.

  “I can’t possibly be privy to everything that goes on on this earth. How am I supposed to answer your question?” Finishing his business, the man used the fingers of his right hand to shake the last drops off his personal tap before pulling his black underwear and shorts back up.

  As he emerged from the bathroom, the sound of the official personnel’s footsteps gradually pulled into focus.

  Then a knock was heard on the bedroom door.

  The man turned the doorknob and pulled it toward him. On the other side of the door, he encountered the sight of a stretcher being hauled out. The anonymous man’s body was completely covered with a white cloth. The young man noticed a strange look on the faces of the officers walking past his door. Every one of them seemed to be turning to glance at him with disdain in their eyes.

  The investigating officer stood dripping water on the other side of the rectangular door frame.

  “I’m afraid the two of you need to follow me back to the station and fill out some paperwork, so we can officially open the case. It’s standard procedure. It shouldn’t take long.”

  The tone of the officer’s voice was stern. The amiability displayed when they first met had vanished.

  “Is something wrong? Why are you looking at me in that manner? I swear that my statement was truthful in every respect. My female friend and I really have never known or encountered the deceased. When we went up to the roof deck, we saw the victim lying lifeless under the giant letters, exactly as all of you saw with your own eyes.”

  “From our investigation, my colleagues and I believe your statement in every respect. Our theory indeed is that the hapless man lost his life from the forceful blow of those two enormous letters.”

  The officer paused to clear the phlegm in his throat. At the same time, the impetuous sky sent a threatening growl.

  “But what my squad and I found utterly revolting was your shameless conduct. Even with a dead body lying there on full display, drowning in a puddle, you still felt the need to stage a love scene, in the face of a fellow human being’s death. If the nation’s young men and women are all as lacking in decency as you, our future will be be dark and dismal indeed. As a person of more advanced age, I’d like to express my sincere disappointment at the moral collapse of the younger generation.”

  The woman stopped combing her hair. Her cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment.

  “But…” The young man’s throat produced a strangled sound.

  “Don’t deny it. The smell given off by your flagrant behaviour still hangs in the air on the roof deck. It’s so crude, even the purity of the rain finds it hard to wash away.”

  “But…” The young man was still trying to squeeze out a word.

  “Let’s drop it. Now please get dressed and follow me downstairs so we can wrap this up.” The officer slammed the door in the man’s face.

  The young woman covered her face with her palms, obscuring the warm liquid that was starting to seep out behind them.

  “How am I supposed to look those people in the eye? It’s all your fault. I never want to see your face again.”

  Stunned, the young man remained standing motionless by the door. He knew in his heart that the sex act between him and his female friend happened before the discovery of the dead body under the O.

  He was not guilty.

  But how could he exculpate himself? The accuser was the flagrance in the air, that refused to respect the time and place.

  The Disappearance of a She-Vampire in Pattaya

  Before she disappeared, she was spotted arm in arm with a bald, burly Russian. At least that was the rumour, picked up and passed on by the motorbike-taxi drivers who plied their trade at the entrance to Pattaya Walking Street. But some of the local bar girls recalled otherwise. Russian my ass, they said, she left with a boy, a skinny kid, eight years old, or maybe ten.

  The drivers were one hundred percent certain that she was dead – murdered. They were willing to bet that her body would have been hacked to pieces, stuffed into a trash bag, weighted down, and then tossed into the ocean not too far from the shore. The bar girls, on the other hand, were convinced that she and the boy had gone overseas. Maybe even to Europe, to start a new life. Good for her, they said, human blood is all contaminated nowadays. There’s no way of telling what filth yo
u might be drinking. If a vampire can manage to quit the habit, she ought to get out of the game while she still can. Sure, people might say she’s betraying her own kind, or even herself, but so what? Being a vampire in Pattaya isn’t what it was. That’s the long and short of it.

  And the official line taken by the police? According to them, she’d never existed in the first place. And as someone who doesn’t exist can’t flee the country any more than they can get hacked to bits, there was nothing for them to investigate. You’d have to be crazy to think we’d waste our time on a tall tale like that. If you’re talking about the bar girls, the whores, the lady boys, the chicks with dicks, the go-go dancers, the drug dealers, OK, fair enough, them you’ll find everywhere. As for the Russian mafia, let’s both do ourselves a favour and leave that one well alone. But the vampires of Pattaya? That’s nothing but a story people made up to keep their kids from straying too near the Walking Street.

  You’re not going to buy that shit, are you? the elderly coconut vendor spat, his voice dripping scorn. Of course she existed. She bought two of my coconuts. One for herself, one for her victim. She had a big heart, that vampire.

  No matter how widely opinions diverged as to the nature and cause of her disappearance, almost everyone maintained that she had been a creature of flesh and blood, and oh, what flesh and blood it had been! You’d have had to see her for yourself to understand. Those dark eyes might stir up a shiver of fear but they also held you rapt, and not through any kind of sorcery, but because her beauty cast a spell of its own. When the wind caught her long black hair, it streamed out behind her like a piece of the night sky had come undone.

  She wasn’t a Pattaya native, and the local vampires considered her something of an upstart, a common bloodsucker encroaching on their territory. This was partly snobbery and partly envy; when it came to luring victims, she was far more successful than those who prided themselves on their authenticity, on employing only the classical techniques. Nevertheless, she won the respect and even the adoration of a small group of vampires from the younger generation. Already dazzled by her beauty, these impressionable youths were fully won over after she promised to always share her victims.