singing a strident folk tune, was someone. It was a person who turned
him to stone, froze him like an iceberg, mortified him, and pulled out
his wounded child. It was a strange composite: at one moment appearing
a bit like his brother, Kazem, and at one moment like the youngest of
his elder brothers, Suthep. For a second or two as he saw this cook at
a distance, he couldn't remember the name of Suthep-he who had been so
innocuous but in his apathy had harmed him the most. Ten or eleven
years had gone by. He wondered how he was supposed to know anymore:
was this man one or the other or neither of them. Another blind beggar
began to sing a song in a microphone linked to a portable speaker. He
was being led by his wife. They came to his table singing a louder
song more stridently than the one he heard at a distance. The sun was
feeling hot and it made him dizzy and mad as Akhenaten in Ancient
Egypt. Nawin, the legal alias of Jatupon, was feeling a weight death.
His whole ideas and feelings were discombobulated. He took out twenty
baht wedging it under the canister containing vinegar and peppers. He
walked quickly to the car and cowered himself in the back seat in
movement toward the airport.






Book II: Many Lifetimes Ago




Chapter 3