The bar, the beach, the girl

I read aloud another passage from "The Judgement" by Chart Korbjitti. I shifted my voice to a lower tone as I depicted the main character, Fak, descent into humiliation and his embarrassing inability to change his situation. I laughed when I finished the segment.

"Hungry," she asked me with a yawn. Most of our two day trip on Koh Samet had been spent with her lounging about the bungalow I'd rented. She'd move around on the bed and change channels on the television. She showered eight times and complained that it was hot. At night she wanted to go out but was soon bored by the resort bars and the two "happening" bars on the island. She'd drink one beer then complain about how boring the club was.

I looked at her and smiled. "You're so cute when you yawn." She yawned again and laid back down. She curled herself into the fetal position and began to nap as though she was a contented cat. Her dark (for a thai girl) skin was soft under my hand. She said that she didn't want to go to the beach because it would make her black.

"You're not black," I said.

"I am. I don't want go outside, make me black," she replied. In a rare moment of movement she got up and began to spread white lotion on her body. She looked at herself in the mirror as she coated herself in the creme.

"suay chai mai," she asked.

"Suay," I replied with one of the few Thai phrases that I knew. Most of our exchanges in Thai were the same. She asked me if I thought she was pretty, and I'd tell her she was, because she was. She'd ask me if I thought other girls were pretty and then scold me if I replied that they were. She told me I liked ugly girls. I didn't understand what she was talking about.

While she was asleep I went out to the resort bar. I ordered a mai thai. It was thick and fruity. I sipped it slowly while looking at the waves lap the beach. I felt different being here in Thailand. I wasn't looked down on, and everyone smiled at me. I was just another schleb back home but out here women desired to be with me. My job as an english teacher (which I'd only recently acquired) paid well and my apartment was nice. I'd saved enough money working as a waiter at a chain restaraunt, Outback Steakhouse, to come out here and not work for almost a year. The chain had made it out to Thailand as well. I'd never see the insides of one of those dumps again, I said to myself. I took another drink and let the alcohol from my drink sink in. I felt potent. I had another drink that I quickly downed then went back into the room feeling slightly drunk.

"You go where," she said when I came in.

"I had some drinks at the bar."

"You meet girl? You not love me anymore?"

I laughed at her paranoia. Was there anything that this girl said or did that wasn't attractive. She was so possessive over me sometimes... I liked feeling wanted. I laid down next to her and held her. Later I convinced her to have sex again. She fell asleep afterwards. I watched her sleep.