drone of one's solitary and melancholic thoughts but it was less the
case with the pensive passenger, Nawin (formerly Jatupon) who,
Aristotelian and poised as a Garuda, was a surly contemplative despite
lordly debauchery. Through being whirled in vicissitudes he felt that
he could withstand anything fate had to offer. Unlike the others, he
did not need to escape his thoughts as much as a bull from a corral.
Instead, he befriended his morose tendencies.
Basking in the grandeur of his new stature, the back seat Nawin
was dwelling on himself continually in the concern that his fame,
isolated as it was, had not happened totally from the merit of his
work. He wondered how much the licentiousness of his life and the
salaciousness of the subject matter were the real color of what could
be marginal talents. He wondered if he should change his subject
matter proving himself as an artist even if it reduced the virility he
felt as a type of swarthy Thai sex symbol. How strange it was, he
thought to himself, that despite the fact that being dark was never an
attractive trait in Thailand where the lighter, Chinese skinned Thais
were thought to have more material success, sensuality, and beauty, he
who was not particularly handsome from being dark as a shoe's heel
should be sexy from his wanton disposition. Likewise, his thoughts
were dark in a land of frivolous irresponsibility. To Thai's the word
"serious" had a negative connotation and he was that. Unless one was a
monk, being contemplative was a tacit violation of laws in the Land of
Smiles. He had become the rescuer of whores humanizing their sorry
plight. Their only sins were to be born poor and to be loyal enough to
not pull out of the loose fetters of family obligations. They
continued to remember shadowy figments of obscure rural relatives whom
they needed to feed. Still being a hero was burdening him with a
singular motif and he continually shot this thought through his
neurological circuitry until the taxi driver spoke, parting his