physical antagonism: it was strictly mental as if the thought of the
youngest was so repugnant as to be beyond a physical response. He began
to stumble with the bags until Kumpee's girlfriend stopped their
advancement to help him carry some of his load. Her smile was wide
against her pale pigment; and her Chinese complexion looked at odds to
Kumpee, the oldest and darkest of the fraternal misadventurers.
Jatupon was jealous of her relationship with the fetid one but this
gesture of pulling away from his brothers to take one of his bags
ameliorated any negativity that the appearance had not counteracted.

The journey from the parking garage and down through the hectic
whims of Bangkok traffic seemed inordinately long to him and silently
he objected to being led this way forfeiting friends and consistency he
had always known in Ayuttaya. The sidewalk and road went over a canal.
A woman with baskets of fruit dangling from the ends of a bamboo pole
that was on her shoulders must have made Kumpee's girlfriend hungry
since no sooner was she back with her beau than the exigency of eating
had driven the herd to seek a bowl of tom yam soup with noodles. Under
the canvas, eating and sinking morbidly into himself as he looked out
over the cabin-shacks that were along the canal, he listened to Kumpee
and Kazem.
"You're the one who wanted to move here and so I said, 'Yes,
little brother. Let me fulfill your wishes and needs. It is my duty
as an elder brother."
"I never said that."
"You were always saying that."
"Back up. That was before the accident and it was just talk."
"Man, you did not make any objections. We sold off their things
and there wasn't one objection from any of you."
"I didn't know then that you would be pocketing the money."