think how he survived the flight to Chaing Mai. That I'll never know."
Nawin, to show proper deference to an older man and to prove to himself
that he wasn't churlish, looked toward the mirror and front windshield
and gave the whole frontal world a nod. The boy born of the name
Jatupon was bleeding inside him. His brain waves wiggled around like
noodles. He was no better than this man. They both had been born poor
with limited opportunities. He couldn't laugh at him for any reason.
"Are you going international or domestic," asked the driver of the
twenty-five year old. Again there was a chortle. "Why does that
question seem to make her laugh," asked the taxi driver. "That is very
strange. That is a strange young lady."
"Krap," said Nawin gruffly, "I don't know why she is laughing."
"We are going international. Eva Airlines. Eva Airlines, an
international flight to Japan," reiterated Nawin. He kept it simple.
He didn't even want to think about Montreal. The thought of
accompanying an animal, of sorts, to the other side of the world was
too much. No sooner had he said it than she reminded them both of the
fact that she would be going to her home first. Nawin had fallen into
his own pensive inclinations but unlike them he wanted the completion
of his thoughts. He was scanning his mutating neurological circuitry
for a possible answer to the enigma whom he called his wife.
Noppawan's flippant comment that the stoplight wouldn't get any greener
as she smiled and shut the door on him and his whore troubled or
inveigled him. One's driveway wasn't exactly equipped with a stoplight
so that one sentence bordered on sarcasm. Her placid demeanor was like
plastic and how she behaved belied everything so how was he to know if
she was discontent with this arrangement if not jealous of it.
It was the first time that he would be leaving her to travel
abroad. He had offered to delay the trip by a week or two until she
had submitted her grades at Assumption University, which Thais called