osmoala

Tony Cox was hanging off the cliff holding on to the last branch in the world trying to focus at anything than the hungry void a few hundred metres below. Pull out that granade, count to three and drop it. How about that? Was he pleading to his personal Guardian Angel? Repeating the chant from the Army days? Was he talking in his sleep? It was a blind anyway, without the spikes, shells and metal, screws, razorblades that cut your body into pieces, but it still held the power to change gravity for a brief moment. The blast made him weightless, it pushed him in the right direction and when it all was over he wouldn't be able to hear a thing for the nex few hours. He busted his knee landing back on safe ground. It was a brief pain. He brushed away the dust from the torn clothes on his body. He tried to recall where he was only a moment ago. Where am I now? Oh, yes...

I fell asleep in mid jump between CPH and BKK. It was a good sleep, with a few vivid dreams too and when we landed it was early morning in the capital of the Land of The Smiles. People still smile here but not as much as they used to some forty years ago. Now they smile when they see the bundle of cash in your hand.

   At Suvarnabhumi International Airport it's convenient to take the escalator up to Departures for a cab, instead of walking out thru Arrivals where the helpful taxi mafia relieves you of another hundreds of bahts for making you stand in a queue waiting for your ride into town.

   The Highway took me to Rambuttri in half an hour, and it always brought back memories traveling at high speed above the rooftops, watching the giant skyline grow rapidly in the distance. I loved Bangkok, but I had mixed feelings about the place after being here at least fifty times over the years – it was polluted, the traffic was heavy, there were the usual scammers, but if you had some good friends here you would certainly have a good time. Now there was nobody I knew here. Everybody had relocated, some to the islands, some back to Laos, one girl had got married to an American, and Shandy had been drunk for years so I was not sure he remembered me at all anymore. I met him on Rambuttri and he was staring at me with his red shot eyes like I was a stranger and possible prey.

Tony Cox decided to keep a low profile for the time being. He was not enterily alone here. There was this other entity inside of him trying to rack his brains, so he was biding his time. Later, he said to himself. Soon.

Carolyn said, ”'Where?”

   ”Anywhere. Pizza?”

   ”Yes, I love pizza! It's already in the fridge!”

   ”What is?”

   ”This conversation!” She laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. ”Joking”, she said having a sip the fine Ukranian vodka.

   We had been talking about serious matters, like – how to enhance her principal's vocabulary using the F-word. But now she had gotten her job back and we were happy about it so we celebrated with some Ruskov.

She was from South Africa and she she used to surf the cold waters off the coast of Cape Town.

   ”Does it sometimes get to fifteeen or sixteen?”

   ”Never.”

   ”What about the sharks?”

   ”The sharks don't worry me, they're not around where I surf. They're at the next bay.” She wasn't scared of the sharks. But surely they could easily swim from one bay to another?

   ”So it doesn't worry you? The big waves, the sharp corals, the dangerous animals?"

   ”No, never. I'm never worried about surfing there. And there are no corals where I go. It's sand. If you fall off your board the worst thing that can happen is you hit sand.”

   I remembered falling off my board so many times I was happy not to have them in my nightmares. It was like being thrown around inside a washing machine. And sometimes you had to hold your breath up to a minute. It happened so often I started counting the seconds, one Missisippi, two...

   ”Last time I saw you had broken both of your feet falling down seventeen stairs. And now you are down with Dengue Fewer. What's next?”

   ”There's nothing next. I think I had my share. Why do you ask?”

Tony Cox knew the right places to go. Draft Bar was his favourite bar. And so it was for many other people too. The attractions of this 24 hour open establishment were made up by the bar in the middle, the pool table and the girls. Tony Cox shared a mutual interest with the rest of the crowd. Everybody was looking for something.

I liked it the way her smile connected to the eyes. Like she was thinking of something fun most of the time. ”Don't take everything so fuckin' seriously”, she would have said if I asked her. Maybe.

   This was after working hours. Carolyn came back, wearing a stylish black outfit, knocked on my door, tired but full of life. Black blouse, black skirt, black shoes. Low heels. She was 1.76.

   Sometimes we went out to have something to eat and drink, and she laughed when I was joking, because she knew the difference between what you say and who you are.

   ”What happened?”

   ”They said they had a demand for English teachers.”

   She had been fired for taking too many days off. Because of the Dengue fewer that had put her to bed for two weeks. She was still recovering. But a week ago she had the shakes and the tremors and shivers she got from the three striped big mosquito. There is nothing funny about it, but when she was trying to move around in the room she looked like an extra in a zombie movie. She was feeling bettter now. This was Cambodia – you get sacked because you are too sick to work.

   But she had her job back the next day, and she had mixed feelings about it. ”I was prepared to never work again, and here I am.”

   ”Back on the chain gang?”

   ”Not really. I love the students. But it's hard work. I teach 350 students every day, and I work from seven in the morning till seven at night.”

   She spent her days at the school, five days a week. She put in a lot of hours there. Then it was when I found myself counting the hours until she would be back from work I realized I was in trouble.

What about the boys at Blue Bar? They will be there tomorrow. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you will hear the most fantastic stories from these guys. Blue Bar is a revolver spinning around it's own chamber. And Tony Cox, well, he knew about Blue Bar too.