in the factory. He didn't know how to plant rice or maybe he was too
depressed to learn. It wouldn't seem there would be much to learn. You
just put them into the ground. Anyhow, he was walking around in a daze
all that time. That's what she claimed they said about him. Soon he
returned with us but before we knew it off he went to Chaing Mai. I
don't know why. I got a post card from there. It didn't say much
other than he had taken his first flight. Can you imagine just buying a
ticket, leaving, and not saying a word."
"Ka, not really. I can't imagine anybody doing that...unless he
just didn't want to worry you. Maybe he didn't want to worry you about
if the idea was right or wrong financially. I bet he has friends
there and they'll help him to locate work."
"Yes, it is the best thing. I've been going to the temple to give
food to the monks and blessings will follow. I'm sure of that. I've
never gone on a flight. Where are the two of you going?"
"To Montreal."
"Where's that?"
"To Canada." She smiled but the word, favorable as it was, didn't
have the flavor of Paris or cities in America.
"What will you do there?"
Nawin wondered what she would be doing there. She had escorted
him around galleries, parties, and auditoriums where he gave speeches.
Bangkok gossip columnists had sometimes even mentioned her presence
with him. What would she be doing in Montreal while he attended
post-graduate classes? That was a fundamental question he had no
answer for. He had granted unto her a new profession where she didn't
have to spread her legs to anyone but him. He had rescued her from
stripping and whoring in a bar in Patpong but perhaps that would not be
enough. Nobody was content. Like any animal, a human always yearned
for more. They were trying to build up on themselves so that they were