Стресс E-Book

Owen Jones

• Herausgeber: Tektime
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Russisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 573

Beschreibung

«Стресс – Незаметный убийца современности» — это краткое руководство по пониманию и управлению стрессом в нашем быстро меняющемся мире. В книге приводится целостный, комплексный подход к управлению стрессом, рассматриваются причины, симптомы и последствия стресса, описываются практические стратегии для сокращения стресса и повышения уровня общего благополучия. Из этой книги читатели узнают о различных типах стрессах – остром, хроническом, травматическом – а также о том, как каждый из этих типов стресса влияет на тело и разум. Кроме того, в книге автор рассматривает и физиологические изменения в организме под действием стресса, рассказывает о том, как подобные изменения могут привести к серьезным заболеваниям: болезням сердца, диабету, психическим проблемам вроде депрессии и тревожности. Книга предлагает читателям целый спектр практических методов снижения стресса: осознанность и медитация, физические упражнения, управление временем; кроме того, в книге рассматриваются способы включения таких методов в повседневную жизнь. Автор также рассказывает о том, как устанавливать личные границы, выявлять источники стресса, находящиеся вне контроля человека, и избегать их. Одним из наиболее важных аспектов этой книги является то, что в ней описаны и наиболее распространенные заблуждения о стрессе и управлении им, и что в ней рассказывается о том, как отличать хороший Стресс от плохого и как находить баланс между хорошим стрессом и управляемыми уровнями плохого стресса. В целом, «Стресс – Незаметный убийца современности» – это обязательный начальный ресурс для всех, кто хочет лучше понимать Стресс и научиться управлять им. Книга написана простым языком, что делает ее доступной для читателей с самым разным уровнем образования и специальных знаний. Книга обязательна к прочтению всем, кто хочет улучшить свое физическое и психическое здоровье, добиться более полного чувства благополучия. Я надеюсь, вы найдете приведенную в этой книге информацию полезной и выгодной.

Leseprobe

THE DREAM

Book Six in the Series

Behind The Smile

The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

by

OWEN JONES

Copyright

Copyright © December 1st, 2015 Owen Jones

Published by:

Megan Publishing Services

https://meganthemisconception.com

The right of Owen Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. The moral right of the author has been asserted.

In this work of fiction, the characters and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or they are used entirely fictitiously. Some places may exist, but the events are fictitious.

All rights reserved.

License NotesThis ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go online and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Novels in this Series

Behind The Smile: Daddy’s Hobby

ISBN: 978-1489558800

Behind The Smile: An Exciting Future

ISBN: 978-1483977690

Behind The Smile: Maya - Illusion

ISBN: 978-1491201862

Behind The Smile: The Lady in the Tree

ISBN-13: 978-1502552198

Behind The Smile: Stepping Stones

ISBN-13: 978-1505392647

Behind The Smile: The Dream

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎978-1519363022

Behind The Smile: The Beginning

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1981803835

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife and her family, who have always taken care of me in the most wonderful manner, affording me the time and space to take up this career of writing. No-one could have made me feel more welcome and part of the family than they have. I have loved every minute of my life in Thailand and the reason for that lies largely with them.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

Believe not in anything simply because you have heard it,

Believe not in anything simply because it was spoken and rumoured by many,

Believe not in anything simply because it was found written in your religious texts,

Believe not in anything merely on the authority of teachers and elders,

Believe not in traditions because they have been handed down for generations,

But after observation and analysis, if anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, accept it and live up to it.

Gautama Buddha

––

Great Spirit, whose voice is on the wind, hear me. Let me grow in strength and knowledge.

Make me ever behold the red and purple sunset. May my hands respect the things you have given me.

Teach me the secrets hidden under every leaf and stone, as you have taught people for ages past.

Let me use my strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Let me always come before you with clean hands and an open heart, that as my Earthly span fades like the sunset, my Spirit shall return to you without shame.

(Based on a traditional Sioux prayer)

–—

“I do not seek to walk in the paths of the Wise People of old.

I seek what they sought!”

Matsuo Basho

Table of Contents

1 THE BIG DECISION

2 THE UNINVITED PARTY GUEST

3 CRAIG’S BIRTHDAY

4 SHOW DOWN

5 CONFERENCE TIME

6 COMING TO TERMS

7 THE FIRST DAY

8 LOOKING FOR A LIFE

9 THE ROLLING BALL

10 THE HANDOVER

11 SECOND THOUGHTS

12 PATTAYA

13 OLD FRIENDS AND NEW

14 SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT

15 LA CASA!

16 PUEBLO LINDO

17 SETTLING IN

18 THE SPICE GIRLS

19 BIDING TIME

20 CONSUELA’S PAELLA

21 PROMOTION

22 WHERE TO LIVE?

23 A REMINDER

24 ON THE ROAD AGAIN

25 LLE Y DDRAIG

GLOSSARY

Sample: Chapter One

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1 THE BIG DECISION

Lek lay on the thin mattress on the living-room floor between her husband and her granddaughter, thinking about the bombshell that Craig had dropped on her earlier that day. They had abandoned their beautiful bed with its expensive mattresses more than five years before because the tiling on the four-foot thick solid-concrete subfloor was always cool to the touch. Now they had aircon, but were so used to the floor that they soon developed bad backs from sleeping on soft beds. The nearer the baby was to the floor, the shorter distance she could fall as well, so now the beds and the both bedrooms were kept for visitors.

As she lay on her back staring at the ceiling, Craig put his hand on her still-flat stomach.

“Are you awake, darling? That’s not like you. Are you still thinking about what I said earlier?”

“No”, she lied, “you go to sleep, I’m just trying to remember what I’ve got to do tomorrow”.

“I know it’s a big decision, my dear, but there are many reasons why the time is right to do it now… you can see that, can’t you?”

He patted her tummy gently and she laid her hand over his for a few seconds, before turning away to face Shell. A couple of tears traversed her face. Previously, he had always been the one who had difficulty getting off, while she could normally sleep anywhere any time.

It looked as if tonight would break the mould though, she thought.

She and Craig had been together for fifteen years or so. When they had met, it had been her goal to find a falang and either go back to his country with him to work and make some ‘big money’ or emigrate there with her daughter and seek a foreign passport. Fate had had other plans in store for her though, because the man she fell for, the one lying next to her, had wanted to live in Thailand, and she had gone along with him, because she had saved for Soom’s further education and Craig had savings and seemed capable of earning.

However, she had acted foolishly and squandered her savings and more besides. Craig had stepped into the breech to pay for university, but it had cost him all his savings and his apartment. It was partly because the exchange rate had swung against him by thirty-three percent She remembered what a cow she had been at the time, when she was considering ditching him and going back to work, which would have forced him to have to go back to the UK broke.

She found it hard to believe that she could have contemplated being so callous now. Nevertheless, he had stuck by her and she by him, although she had never given up two of her oldest dreams: to own a car and to work or live abroad.

She had the car now, and could have had one years earlier, but it had been as Craig had said: she hadn’t needed one. The car on the drive had cost a million Baht, worth nearly six years’ gross salary for someone with a decent job, but was barely used. She had to find excuses to take it anywhere despite having Shell and working in town a few days a week.

He had been right, but so had she, she thought. Her argument at the time had been that he had learned that through having one, and she wanted to learn for herself as well. They had both used the same argument for living or not living in Europe too.

Then today had happened. Craig had said that it was time to go to the UK. After fifteen years, he was offering to fulfil her final dream, but it scared her so. She had everything that she had ever wanted, except her daughter living with her, and having worked abroad, and he was asking her to give it all up in order to go away and start again.

It was so scary. She had complained bitterly for more than twelve years about not being able to work away and now she could, or she could just be a lady of leisure over there, although her Thai earnings would not go far in Europe, she knew that. In her village and surrounding area, she was someone. She was an Orbortor, an area financial controller, and a successful businesswoman, but in Britain, she would be a nobody with an average wage.

Then what about her family? Now that her mother was in her seventies, her siblings looked to her for help and advice as the head of the family. She also had a daughter and granddaughter to be there for. She was beginning to wish now that she hadn’t caused such a fuss about living in Europe for all those years.

She had never told Craig, because it would have cost her Face, that she knew of lots of girls who had regretted moving away from Thailand in search of money in cold, distant, friendless lands, where they had no family for moral support, despite the Internet. She was frightened now that she would soon be one of those women living in cold, cold Britain regretting having attainted her dream.

Craig had told her that that happened to lots of Thai women a decade ago as well, but she had chosen to laugh at him and ask how the Hell he knew. He knew, because he had talked to many falang in Pattaya who had told him about their experiences, he had said. She had lied and said that she had never met girls who had come back and said that. Many women said they had had to return to look after Mum, or someone else. Now she thought they may have been Face-saving excuses.

She could just refuse, she thought, but it didn’t sit right with her somehow.

She heard Craig start to snore. It was the first time she could remember his having got to sleep before her and wondered whether it was because he was going home. He had said many times that living abroad was enjoyable but a strain, if money was in short supply. She didn’t want to go back to having to worry about money again, and especially if she were living in an expensive country like the UK.

She foresaw their lifestyle dropping by twenty to twenty-five percent, and it made the future look gloomy.

She cursed herself again for not listening and complaining so much.

She knew that her mother would be brave and say that her place was at her husband’s side. She also knew that Soom would find a way of taking care of Shell, but she didn’t want to be excluded from their lives.

When sleep came, it was only fleeting. Craig woke her up, because she seemed to be having a nightmare. It was four o’clock in the morning, and she had been dreaming she was dying in a hospital bed in the UK with only Craig and a nurse at her side.

“It was horrible, Craig”, she said, “I don’t think I’ll be able to go with you. Will you be able to come back to see me sometimes?”

“What? After all the nagging I’ve had to put up with over the years? What the Hell are you talking about?”

She took his hand and told him all her concerns. Tears flowed down her cheeks and the sun rose as she did so.

They got up for breakfast earlier than usual and continued their conversation in the garden, while Shell slept on oblivious to the massive disruption in her life that was being discussed by the two main people in that life.

“I’m not saying that we have to leave next month, Lek, we could wait a year, and I’m not even saying that you have to give me your answer right now. However, if you are coming with me, as I had assumed, I have to do things one way and make plans accordingly, and if you are not coming, then, well, I might just go and live in Spain”.

“Spain? I thought you said the UK?”

“Why does that make a difference? Look, I am European, I can go and live anywhere I like in Europe, but you, being Asian, cannot. At least, not without certain planning. Once we get you into Europe legally, we can both go anywhere. I’ll be a Pensioner soon, and I’ll be able to have my pension sent to me anywhere in the world - even Japan”.

“No, I don’t want to live in Japan… no, no thanks”.

“Eh? I’m not suggesting we go and live in Japan, it was only an example”.

“Good, because I’d rather stay here than go to live over there. I wouldn’t know anyone… or be able to speak the language”.

“OK, forget about Japan, I wish I’d never mentioned it now”.

“How long would you want to go for?”

“Well, it won’t be only up to me, but I was thinking of five years”.

“OK, leave it with me, Craig, I need to get on now and think about it in my own time. Do you remember that Soom is coming up for Mother’s Day and our birthdays?”

“Yes, it’ll be good to see her again and maybe you’ll discuss it with her…”

“Yes, maybe… we’ll see how it goes”.

Craig kissed Lek on the cheek and hugged her close. She put her arms around his waist and then they set about their morning routines.

∞

Lek got Shell ready for nursery school, took her by car and then returned home to talk to her mother about her latest dilemma.

“But you have always wanted to try living abroad… we used to talk about it often”.

“Yes, but now I have a good job, and Shell, and I’m older…”

“I should think that Shell is the most important of those excuses, and when you first talked about going abroad, you had Soom - your own little girl, but that wouldn’t have stopped you back then”.

“Probably not, no, but I didn’t know what a joy it would be to watch your baby grow up. I’m glad that I didn’t go now, and I don’t want to miss seeing Shell grow up either…”

“No, but she is not really your responsibility. She is your granddaughter and you are helping out. I have thought for a while now that you are becoming too close to Shell. I think that you would be devastated if circumstances arose one day, which would mean her moving away from you - far away. It could always happen, and you, as her guardian, have to be prepared for that day or it will break your heart. It sounds incredible now, but what if you ended up hating Soom because she took Shell away from you? It would mean losing both of them”.

“That would be cruel indeed, Mae”.

“A cruel twist of fate, yes, but not necessarily your daughter’s choice. Still, would you be strong enough to see it like that, if it ever happened?

“It is far better to go through life helping others when you are able to, but all the while remembering that they have… everyone has his own life to lead according to the choices they made before they were born and their Karma. You cannot alter someone’s Destiny, it is pre-ordained, and so is the amount of help you can give. You can only do your best, Lek, you are only learning like most of us on Earth”.

“If it were down to me, we would stay here, and things would go on just as they are now. This is the happiest time of my life and I don’t want it to end”.

“You are talking about yourself an awful lot in that last sentence, my dear. I know that you are not a selfish person, but that sentence belies that fact. Are you frightened of going to live in Europe?”

“No, Mae, leastwise not in the same sense as I was fifteen years ago when all the old biddies told me I might be sold into sex-slavery! But maybe I am scared that my family will forget me if I stay away too long in the same way that Craig’s family hardly talk to him now”.

“I didn’t know it was like that. How sad for Craig. You have met his family, are they anything like us?”

“They were very nice, but they just seem to have learned not to talk to him, but no, my family and his are nowhere near the same”.

“So what are you worried about then? Sometimes we see things that do not exist, including problems. I take it that Europe is not a jail, so surely you can come home wherever you like, be it for a holiday or for good. At least you will have tried, which is a darn sight more than ninety-nine percent of the people here. How long are you proposing to go for?”

“We’re not sure, but three to five years. It’s not certain that we’ll be able to afford a holiday back here…”

“I see… that is your main concern. I see now… Shell is nearly three and it is likely that she would have forgotten you in three or five years. However, you can become part of her life again. She will accept you with open arms, you can guarantee that”.

“I know, Mae, I know, I guess I’m just scared”.

“You are a thinker, Lek, so consider this. Craig gave up all his friends and family to come here, and since making that decision, has probably given up all his money too. If you want to give him credit for that, you should go with him until you can do it no more. Like I said, help until you are no longer able to. That is all you can do, and all that anyone can hope from you.

“It is clear to me that your place is with your husband, not least because of the commitment he has shown to you over one and a half decades. Still, the choice is ultimately yours, as always. Soom is coming up for your birthday, isn’t she?”

“Yes, I will talk to her about it. I don’t want you to get sick when I am not around to help either, Mae”.

“Thank you, but I am sure that I made arrangements for that, should the occasion arise, many years ago and there are lots of other people around… and if I die while you’re away, then we will meet again one day, have no fear of that. I have enjoyed my time on Earth and you have been a dutiful and loving daughter, I will be sure to seek you out alive or not”.

“Thanks, Mae, that means a lot to me… I feel the same”.

Lek was close to tears and knew that her mother knew it, but it was still difficult for her to cry in front of anyone.

“Is that the time already?” she exclaimed looking at her watch, “I’d better go and check on the shop and hotel. Thanks for the chat, Mae. I love you…”

“I love you too, Lek. Take care of yourself and then those who love you, or you won’t be able to take care of anyone. Remember that. I’ll see you later, dear”.

Lek checked on both establishments, but the girls they had in charge could run them without any help, so Lek phoned Ayr and arranged to meet her for lunch in a small restaurant in a village nearby, where they were unlikely to be disturbed.

“Something has come up”, she told Ayr, “but it isn’t life-threatening, so no need to worry”.

“OK, but I’ll pick you up at eleven. I’m curious and there’s no sense taking two cars”.

When they were seated in the restaurant and had ordered prawns and mixed seafood salad, Ayr could wait no longer.

“Come on then, out with it, you’ve had me guessing for hours”.

“It’s quite simple really; Craig wants to go back to Europe for a few years and wants me to go with him”.

“Great! So what’s wrong with that?”

Lek told her everything that had passed between her mother and herself earlier.

“Yes, I see your point, but I agree with your mother. I think that you should go. Craig has stuck by you, now it’s your turn to stick by him… not to mention the fact that you nagged him for years to take you”.

“But what about you and the businesses? I can’t just swan off and leave you to run them on your own”.

“Listen, Lek, we don’t run them now… our managers do. Anyway, I haven’t told you this before, but Ross has been asking me to go back to Australia with him for at least the last year…”

“Well, why didn’t you say anything?”

“For the same reasons as you just gave…”

“Oh, I see. Thanks. Now what?”

“What’s the problem, don’t you want to go?”

“I just told you about that…”

“Yes, but, really?”

“I don’t really know…”

“OK, darling, but there’s no need to use excuses with me; we’ve known each other too long. Keep that for others, if you like and I’ll back you up”.

They hugged and Lek started to cry again, seconds before Ayr did.

“If we do this, Little Sister, we may never see each other again. We won’t be at the opposite ends of the country, but at opposite sides of the world”.

“That thought was also making my decision difficult, but Ross has been very patient. He is wealthy, so we could visit you whenever we wanted to, but I know that is not your predicament…”

“I also know that visits, like phone calls, peter out… even faster than phone calls…”

“Yes, it is true. I wouldn’t try to argue with that”.

“Our lives will never be the same again, ever…”

“No, I know. Gone but not forgotten, though, eh?”

Lek stared at her friend for a while and then looked out of the window. It was just too painful to contemplate.

“What does Soom say about it all?”

“She doesn’t know yet, but she’ll be here for Mother’s Day - the day before, in fact”.

“That’s good… I don’t need to discuss it with anyone but you… There is no-one else who matters, but even when my parents were alive, I would have gone anyway. I agree with your mother’s point of view”.

“So do I really, but having someone else say it to you sort of lets you off the hook, doesn’t it?”

“You’re not a coward, Lek, but I know what you are talking about”.

“Just what would Goong make of all this, I wonder?”

“I think she’s sitting not far away, smiling to herself and wondering what all the fuss is about… aren’t you, Goong?”

They smiled at each other and wished it were so.

∞

“Mike, so you won’t be coming up to the village with me for Mothers’ Day, my mother’s birthday and Paw’s?”

“No, my dear, I went to the village last year, remember? So, it’s only fair that I go to spend the day with my own mother this year, and if I do that, I might as well do a day’s work in the bank as well. I only wish I could come with you. I’d love to see Shell again, and your family will be more fun than mine, but I’ve got to take Mae’s feelings into account as well… it’s only fair”.

“Yes, I know, but I still wish you were coming too…”

“We’ll go up there together for the weekend early next month. Give Shell and everyone my love, won’t you? I’ll speak to you on video link every day too”. He kissed her, made himself comfortable and prepared to go to sleep, but something was bothering Soom.

She lay there staring at the ceiling until she heard Mike start to snore and then she rolled onto her side. She knew what it was that had irked her now. This was the first time that Mike had not been keen to make love to her when they knew that they would be apart for several days. In the past, he would have been all over her. Tears slid down her cheeks and she wondered whether this was the first sign that they were becoming an ‘old married couple’, although it had only been four years, or was it a symptom of deeper-rooted problems?

If it were, then perhaps that was why he was so blasé about not going with her to see his own daughter. Perhaps, he had other activities planned, which only partially included a brief visit to wish his mother a happy Mothers’ Day.

The idea bothered her off and on all night and on the journey to the village the next day. Sure, he had taken her to the airport in the morning and kissed her goodbye, but that could have been show. The circumstantial evidence worried her, and wouldn’t go away.

“Thanks for picking me up, Mum, happy birthday and a happy Mothers’ Day. I have some presents for you in my bag in the boot. So, how’s my little girl today, how are you and Paw and what have you got planned for this evening?”

“Your Dad is well; he’s writing his next masterpiece, you know. I’m fine and so is Shell. I dropped her off at nursery this morning at nine as usual and then drove out to pick you up. I had a couple of coffees in the airport lounge and read a magazine while I waited. I really enjoyed it. I pretended I did it really often and tried to look like an international jet-setter, you know”.

“You do do it quite often; I come up at least once a month… and tonight?”

“Yes, I suppose I do, don’t I? Oh, tonight? Nothing special… the same as every year. We’ll have a small family party in your grandmother’s house for us three Mums… three generations of mothers all celebrating. It’s a pity my grandmother couldn’t have lived a few more years to see it… still you can’t have everything, can you?

“How’s Mike?”

“He’s OK too, but he has to be careful with his mother, so he has to try to divide his time up evenly, but make her think she’s getting the lion’s share. He was up here last year, so it’s her turn this. It’ll mean he can get an extra three days work in which will keep the boss happier than if we were both away at the same time.

“Can you take me to visit ‘The Old Lady in The Tree’ today or tomorrow?”

“Sure, we’re all going to be busy today, but tomorrow certainly. Why, is there something bothering you?”

“No, nothing specific, but I always come away from those visits feeling ‘better’ somehow… more at peace with myself and the world. Do you know what I mean? When did you last go?”

“Yes, I do know what you’re saying. A visit has the same effect on me. You know, it’s funny, I haven’t been along there this month yet, but I have something I’d like to talk to her about as well. I’m glad you brought it up. Oh, wait a moment… we are going to four parties rolled into one tonight, so we’ll have to wait and see how we feel tomorrow… we can’t go there with hangovers, it wouldn’t be right”.

“No, fair enough, as long as I get to see her at least once before I go back”.

Soom knew better than to ask her mother what she wanted to talk to The Old Lady about. That would have been nosy and rude, but she was curious, nevertheless.

“OK, first stop the ‘Big C’ supermarket to get some essential supplies for tonight; then lunch, and then home to see Craig and get started on tonight’s parties. Does that suit you?”

“Whatever you say, Mum, it all sounds great to me!”

To save time, they decided to have lunch, just a bowl of rice-noodle soup, in the restaurant upstairs in the supermarket. They sat at the edge of the large restaurant, which overlooked the shoppers with their trolleys below.

“How many are you expecting to be there tonight, Mum?”

“Well, you and Shell, me and Craig, Gran, my sister and brothers and their spouses… that’s er, eleven, so if we cater for twenty we should be OK… and with any luck we’ll have food left over for tomorrow, just in case we do feel a bit tired”‘

Soom laughed. “Good idea!”

Lek slowed down as they passed the nursery on the edge of the village, but the children were inside, so she drove on, slowing again as they approached the hotel in the centre of the village.

“I thought he might be here. ‘Soaking up inspiration from the day-to-day village activities’ he calls it, but I think it’s more like drinking beer Chang from a bottle. The food will keep if you want to stop for half an hour”.

“Yes, please, Mum”, she leant over kissed her mother on the cheek and waved at Craig, as Lek parked the car on the forecourt in the shade of their shop next door.

Soom jumped out of the vehicle as soon as it stopped and ran to Craig who stood up with his arms out wide as she approached.

“Hello, darling, lovely to see you again”, he said as he hugged her and she made a sound as if all the wind were being squeezed out of her, as she always did. She reached up, kissed him on the cheek and he let her go. She was a tiny forty kilos to his one hundred and twenty. “What are you having to drink, ladies?” he asked as Nong arrived.

“I’ll have an ice cold Chang, Nong, a small one. Soom?”

“Same, please”.

“Wow, that’s unusual, Soom. Good for you. Lek?”

“And my usual, please, Nong”.

“We’re not staying long, just the one beer because Soom wanted to say ‘hello’. There’s food in the car that will go off in this heat, so we’ve got to get it to Mum’s house soon and then we can start preparing for this evening. You won’t get too drunk before you come back, will you?”

“Why would I? Jeez, Lek… Ah, thank you, Nong.

“Happy Birthday, Lek, my dear wife, and may you have many more”.

“Happy Birthday, Mum and Happy Mothers’ Day”.

“Thank you, both, and Happy Mothers’ Day to you too, Soom!”

“Yes, Happy Mothers’ day, Soom!”

“Thank you!” and they all clinked bottles several times.

2 THE UNINVITED PARTY GUEST

At three pm, Soom and Lek left Craig to his beer and his writing and took the food to Lek’s mother’s to start the serious work of preparing for the party, even if it was only a small one. They stored the meat, fish and fowl in the fridge and began cleaning; peeling and chopping herbs and vegetables to the sound of Thai popular music and occasional glasses of lao khao for Lek, as the other two never touched the hard liquor.

The sound of music, laughter and the pounding of pestles in mortars was coming from nearly every house in the village as sons and daughters who worked away arrived home to wish their mothers a happy day.

Mothers’ Day was one of the biggest non-religious Thai national celebrations.

However, preparing for a party was when women could let their hair down in almost exclusively female company. Most men would still be working, so the women who stayed at home could have their own pre-party hilarity, because they would be busy when their guests arrived.

This was why Lek was happy to leave Craig in the hotel, where he would not be in the way.

It suited Craig too. He still could not understand a group of Thais talking excitedly to one another unless they slowed down for him on purpose and Lek said that that put a damper on it for them. He could see women across the road calling in on friends to join in the merriment and get a glass of lao.

It was like going from house to house at New Year to have a drink with the neighbours.

He wasn’t expecting any visitors, because everyone would be too involved with their own families and those without children like Murray and Ross happened to be out of the country, but that was all right, he was used to being alone, and anyway, he got more work done like that.

He looked at the time on the Kindle that he used for most of his out-of-office writing now; it was just past three, so he had three or four hours before he would be missed. He chuckled at how he had used to estimate his work in beers. In those days, not really so long ago, he would drink a beer an hour and write six hundred words. He could still write six hundred words in an hour, but it took him ninety minutes to drink the beer.

He was slowing down, or his body was and he could feel it. It was the real reason why he wanted to spend some time in Britain.

He was almost sixty-five and felt well, except for a little back trouble once or twice a year, but wanted a professional opinion. He trusted the Thai doctors in the big hospitals, but not so much the ones working in the provinces. Anyway, he had his pensions to sort out, although he knew that that could be done on line.

He did not have a real reason for having to go home, it was more of a feeling. He wanted a last MOT, a last full check-up, because he did not expect to live much past seventy, none of his male relatives had reached seventy-five. He had not told Lek that, he didn’t want to worry her, so he had used his old promise to her to take her to live in the UK after Soom had finished university instead. OK, he was five years late, but she had never complained about that.

In fact, she didn’t complain about much at all these days, she was happy with her jobs, her positions of authority and looking after Shell. She was also proud of Soom. He was the only one who hadn’t ‘made it’, he felt, and he thought that he would have more chance of doing that if he lived in a country where most people spoke English, so that he could participate in book signings and the like.

Where he lived, Murray was the only person he knew for six hundred kilometres that had read any of his books.

It was a way of killing three birds with one stone, but he worried that Lek might not go with him. It was far from a foregone conclusion, but it still had to be done and if he had to go alone, it would be the first time in fifteen years that they had been separated for more than a weekend.

It was a prospect that frightened him, but a little less each day that he had to face it.

Before he left the hotel, he invited Nong and Kurt to his mother-in-law’s house after they had locked up. They thanked him, but said that they had already told Lek and Ayr that this was one of the best days of the year for business and that by midnight they would be ready to fall into bed. He had expected them to say something like that and let it go without arguing. They were completely happy with their business and their own company and did not need anything or anyone else.

When he arrived at the party just after six, he was sat down, and plates of food and a beer were placed before him. His food was less hot than what the others were eating and they were drinking lao.

“We’ve had a rare visitor, you’ll love him if he’s still about, but Thai people are frightened of them, especially the old Thai people”, said Lek. “He’s gone under the house”.

“What is it”, asked Craig, “a snake?”

“No, not a snake”, she replied, “dua heer. I don’t know in English. Soom, what is dua heer in English?”

She looked at Craig and pulled a face expressing revulsion, “A lizard, a big lizard. Wait…”

Craig thought that this might be the highlight of his evening and waited with bated breath.

“A Clouded Monitor”, she said after a minute or so. He was unfamiliar with that particular species, so Soom had the page translated into English and passed him her phone.

“It’s bloody huge! Is ours that big?”

“No, maybe seventy-five percent”, replied Lek.

“If they can reach six foot, that’s four foot six! Wow! And he’s under there?”

“Yes, it is very bad luck. My Mum is not happy. Some people eat them”.

“It says here that they have been an endangered species for forty years and that means you can go to prison for killing one”.

“People here don’t know that… they don’t like them and can have free food, so they eat them”.

“Well, I hope you don’t eat our dua heer or I might report you and I hope you’ll spread the word that these animals are rare”.

Craig spent a lot of time looking out for the big lizard, but gradually got into the party as he became caught up in the atmosphere, and, since the signal from his WiFi unit wouldn’t reach Mae’s house, he borrowed Soom’s Smartphone to read up on the reptile. Apparently, the monitor was active by day and ate beetles, although he told Lek that it ate snails, cockroaches and geckos to give it a more favourable press, since those are the three animals that most rural Thai housewives hate the most. He thought it was reasonable too, because it would take an awful lot of beetles to fill a four-foot lizard.

Lek told her mother and the others and that started a buzz which lasted a while and appeared to make Pang feel a lot better about having the ‘bad omen’ under her house, where it was probably curled up for the night.

They soon forgot about the monitor and brought out the karaoke machine to join in with the music being played in most of the other houses in the street and Shell danced with Soom and Lek in her playpen.

The following morning, after she had taken Shell to nursery on her small tricycle, which they did every now and then to strengthen her legs, Soom joined Craig in his office.

“Would you like me to help you look for that lizard, Craig? Mum’s gone into work, and I’d like to get a better look at him as well”.

“Yes, sure. You’re not afraid it will bring you bad luck then?”

“No, I love animals. Thailand has changed a lot since my grandmother’s day and is changing faster than ever now. I’m not even sure that gran went to school, but I don’t like to ask. My mother only went until she was twelve and her grandmother almost certainly never went. It’s amazing when you think about it. My great-grandmother spent no time in school, my grandmother maybe three or four years, my mother six years and I, sixteen years including university. That’s from zero to sixteen in four generations… in one century!”

“Yes, I hadn’t thought about it like that. In Britain that would be, at a guess: six; eight; ten and sixteen for me as well…”

“Yes, but your family is from a town, mine is from the countryside, and in Thailand rural people are much more superstitious that townspeople, so I have gone from a completely superstitious family to non-superstitious in one generation. That makes a very big gap between us… even between me and Mum and she has lived in a city and travelled abroad”.

“I think I’ve noticed that younger people are less religious and less… let’s say ‘traditionally polite’. You don’t see teenagers waaing, and a lot of them are pretty rude, especially the boys… being rude, I mean, not the girls”.

“Yes, I suppose so… they… we associate all the bunkum with old people and the old ways. It might not be fair, but that is how it is. Buddhism gets the blame rather than the bad monks who use Buddhism for their own ends, and bowing, curtseying, waaing and crawling on the floor is considered degrading to kids who have twice as much education as their parents. Perhaps, it makes them… us, arrogant”.

“All old people are superstitious and stupid, all young people are educated and smart, eh?”

“Yes, something like that. Am I like that, Craig?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve never seen you behave like that towards your family or me anyway”.

“Good, I’m glad about that. Are you ready to go and look for Lizzie the Lizard?”

“Sure, let’s go. Where do we start, your gran’s house?”

“Sure, but she could be anywhere. She probably got up at first light and they can roam hundreds of metres, so we haven’t got much chance of finding her. I don’t like to say this, but someone could even be preparing her for dinner right now”.

“But…”

“People don’t know it’s against the law… they don’t know she is an endangered species. They only see her as bad luck and free food. That’s what I mean about ignorance and superstition, but kids are learning about such things from the wildlife programmes on TV, especially satellite TV and the Internet, and at school, especially from the foreign teachers, so it is getting better, and pretty quickly too”.

“That’s something, I suppose, but all the rare animals will be eaten by then…”

“We still have wild tigers and elephants… OK, not many wild tigers and no wild crocodiles, but we’ve got huge snakes, they’re finding them every few months – monsters, eight to ten metres long… you see them on TV!”

“Yes, but what happens to them when the TV crew has left? Skinned for shoes and sold for barbecue?”

“I don’t know… I guess it’s hard to keep something like that in a zoo…”

“Yes, they can’t put them all in zoos, and they can’t put them back in the wild because they only found them when they were cutting the forest down for development. I bet they get tied up for a few days and if no-one wants to buy them, then it’s barbie time”.

“Yes, probably”, she agreed sadly as Craig pulled the lane gate shut behind them. “Don’t talk loudly now, or we’ll scare it. Be on the look out for a big brown lizard with yellow spots. It could be on the side of a tree or on the ground in among the fallen leaves, but it will be hard to see”.

They walked down the lane between Lek’s and her mother’s houses like a pair of Sherlock Holmeses, sometimes bent low to look under houses or sheds on short stilts, and sometimes upright to inspect trees. When they had checked the lane and then gran’s house, they went next door with the intention of spending a few hours combing the block and then going for lunch in the hotel.

“Can we look around your garden, please?” she asked her aunty who lived next door.

“What have you lost, maybe I can help?”

“We saw a dua heer last night and want to find her”.

“Filthy things, going to eat it are you?”

Craig heard the words ‘dua heer’ and ‘falang’ but did not understand much of the rest. When the aunty got up on her table and Soom started looking around, he asked her what had been said.

“She thought we were going to kill it, but I told her that the international police had outlawed it punishable by a big fine and a jail sentence. She wasn’t very impressed with ‘falang police’ and said it’s none of their business”.

By twelve o’clock they still hadn’t found Lizzie, so they called in the hotel for a drink and a bite to eat.

“Hot, isn’t it?” said Nong when she came out to take their order and wipe the inevitable film of dust from the table. “What have you two been doing?”

Craig interrupted, “Sorry, Soom, but Nong, can we have a cold beer and a cold orange juice first, please?”

She hurried off. “Sorry about that, Soom, but she’d talk all day otherwise. Tell her when she comes back”.

Soom told her story.

“Yes, I saw it this morning! I chased it with my six-foot snake stick, but it was too fast for me. It went down the back there behind the hotel and over the wall”.

She translated for Craig.

“Did you tell her about the ‘falang police’?”

“No, not yet, but I will now”.

“What did she say?”

“Pretty much the same as everyone else I told; that it’s Thai business not falang”.

“It’s like bashing your head against a brick wall, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“I mean, telling everyone it’s a rare animal… no-one cares… you don’t make any progress by bashing your head against a brick wall”.

“Oh, I see. No, you don’t, not with old people, but if you told the young, they would probably listen. That’s what I was saying earlier. That’s given me an idea. Do you want to start looking again this afternoon?”

“No, it’s too hot now, I’ll just sit here and do some writing on my tablet”.

“That’s what I thought you’d say. It is very hot, we can try again later or tomorrow, if you like”.

“Yes, I’d like that”.

When she had finished her orange juice and a piece of Kurt’s Apfelstrudel and Custard, she took her leave of Craig and left him to his thoughts.

She returned at five with her mother.

“Hello, ladies, where’s Shell?”

“At my mother’s; call us up two orange juices on your tablet, will you, please. It’s so hot today”.

“Sure, what have you both been up to this afternoon?”

“We were sitting in the shop. I was going over the books, and Soom was updating our company website”.

“I put a warning about Lizzie on the site with a photo, saying that if anyone killed it, or one like it, the International and Thai police wanted to be informed so they could take the person to court for sentencing.

“I also said that it was rare and protected and that we were offering a five hundred Baht reward for its safe capture. I thought we could take it out of the village and release it”.

“Good idea”, said Craig.

“Good idea… If it was such a good idea, you wouldn’t have to bribe people to help you. I nearly burst out laughing when you told Mum what that thing eats last night. Do you think that she and the people around here don’t know what they eat? Do you think that she is that stupid that she doesn’t know?

“Beetles, bugs, snails and geckos! Right!”

“That’s what it says in the book and on the Internet”, interjected Craig and Soom nodded in agreement.

“Well, that is what hatchlings might eat, but four-footers and their parents would soon eat all the beetles in Thailand if that was their only food. These big ones eat chickens! A small one like your Lizzie eats chicks and the big ones eat fully-grown chickens, and most farmers have got chickens running around the garden or yard, haven’t they? That’s the real reason they hate dua heer.

“They eat dead dogs and other dead animals too. That’s why people call them dirty. Sometimes, they’ll bite a toddler and the bite goes septic and swells up and they have to go back and forth to hospital for a week or more. I do wish you’d give us farmers some credit once and a while, I really do”.

“I’m only repeating what I’ve read. I don’t know…”

“No, you don’t, and nor does the writer of your book or the web pages, but we do. They should come up here and ask people who really know, not someone who keeps one in a glass case…”

“Vivarium. Why didn’t you or your Mum tell us this last night?”

“My mother is far too polite to argue with you, especially in public, and I didn’t think the time was right – it was a party. Anyway, what’s a wiwarium?”

“Vivarium, a glass tank for keeping reptiles, er, animals in, but not fish that’s an aquarium”.

“I don’t care about big names for glass tanks!”

“No, sorry, I thought that Soom might like to know”, he said trying to get out of the hole. Soom helped by repeating the words under her breath as if trying to remember them.

“Thanks”, she said. “I’ll try to remember that”. He winked at her and smiled.

“I’ve told you before that the government issued a warning on TV to tell all Thais not to put too much faith in what they see on the Internet, because it’s full of lies, liars, cheats and thieves”.

“There are good and bad, Mae, just as in all walks of life…”

“Perhaps, but in life you meet someone face to face and you form an opinion about him, but on the Internet, it’s just words on a screen and you don’t know who wrote them or why, or whether they are true or not. I agree with the government on this one”.

“The government only said that to stop people trying to find out what other countries thought about the coup!” said Craig.

Lek just glared at him and Soom looked down at her hands. He had broken a cardinal rule: never to discuss anything political in a public place.

“What do you want to do for my birthday?” he asked trying to change the subject as Nong put the drinks on the table.

“Discuss it with Soom, I’ve got to go and see my mother”, she said and walked off.

“Oops, I forgot”.

Soom raised her eyebrows and gave a false grimace, but did not say anything.

“So, what do you want to do for my birthday?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Well, we’ve had a party for it every year since I’ve been here, but I don’t really enjoy parties… or I don’t enjoy them if they are held in my honour anyway”.

“No, I know that, but Mum likes to show you off”, she said giggling behind her hand.

“Yes, all right, it’s not that funny. It’s very nice of your mother… it’s just that I don’t like it. I usually go for a pub crawl around the village on my own and then go back to the party in the house”.

“I could join you on your pub crawl, if you like and then we could all go for a meal”.

“Yes, that sounds good, but early, eh? It’ll take five hours to get around the village and I would like to go for a meal at six”.

“Yes, OK, suits me… Oh! Excuse me that’s my phone…”

She turned away to take the call, so Craig returned to watching the people on the road before him. He wasn’t listening to Soom, but he became aware of a change in her voice and looked at her profile. A tear ran from her nearside eye, then she clicked the phone off and looked at him.

“What’s the matter, Soom, not bad news, I hope?” He could see that she was struggling with her emotions, but only because he knew her so well. She was good at it, like her mother.

“I’m not sure, could be, but nothing for you to worry about. I’d better go and see how Shell is doing – give gran and Mum a hand. Will you be lonely here on your own?”

“No, girl, you run along”. She put a hand on his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks, Dad. See you later”.

Later that evening, after dinner, when Soom was in the shower, Lek approached Craig in his office.

“Look, the three of us are going to bed now… we’ve got something to discuss. Are you sleeping with us tonight, or in the office?”

“Well, I had intended sleeping on the living room floor with you and the baby as I always do, with Soom now that she’s staying… like last night. Why?”

“No, nothing, that’s all right, but what time are you going to bed?”

“I don’t know… same as usual, I suppose, about midnight”.

“Three hours”, she said looking at the wall clock, “yes, that’s fine. It’s just that it’s a private chat. A mother and daughter thing in Thai, and I don’t want to have to be translating for you. You understand, don’t you, darling?”

“Yeah, sure, I saw Soom crying this afternoon after she’d had a phone call. I had worked out that someone had upset her and that it was probably about Mike since she didn’t use his name or an endearment. What’s the sod done now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Soom will tell you tomorrow. Anyway, thanks. Don’t come in before twelve unless either of us calls you. Good night, dear, sorry about all this, but thanks”, and she kissed him.

“Good night, dear”, she said when she heard the bathroom door open.

“Yes, good night, Dad”, said Soom coming into the office in a towel. “Don’t work too late, will you? Tomorrow is another day”.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her and felt a little guilty.

“What is it, Dad?”

“Nothing, it’s just that you look so much like your mother when I first met her… it’s uncanny, but I’ve never noticed the resemblance before”.

She smiled leant down and kissed him on the cheek and so did Lek, then they were gone, laughing to each other about something that he hadn’t caught. A few minutes later, there was the swoosh of the living room door and Soom appeared at his desk in her pyjamas.

“Here, Dad, I brought you this, a big glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Mum and I are going to have one before go to sleep, so I thought you might like one as well. It’s better than beer at this time of night.

“Speak to you in the morning”.

“Yes, dear, thanks for the Bailey’s and the thought. Good night”. He watched her reflection leave the room in the smoked glass window in front of him, and wondered how they would cope without their Thai family in frosty Wales, where no-one had spoken to him for several years. It was going to be harder than he had imagined, now that he had seen Soom again, and it would be harder still for Lek as her real mother. He foresaw quick tempers, frustration and arguments in a town where neither of them knew anyone, leading to Lek soon returning to Thailand alone; because he wanted to give his books a chance, sort out his pensions and make sure that he was as fit as he should be.

‘Was it all worth it, or was it a just lot of hassle for nothing?” he wondered. Only time would tell, but it was looking grim, and he knew of plenty of other couples who had not survived the tribulations of moving to Britain and leaving their Thai families behind only to be seen on video links for eleven months of the year.

3 CRAIG’S BIRTHDAY

Lek and Craig had stopped exchanging presents a decade ago, because Craig could not get into town to buy Lek anything unless she took him, so the parties that she threw were her gift and the cake that he could get locally was his. However, Soom usually gave him something. When she was young, it would have been something like a rose; when she was at university, but ‘hard up’, something useful like a blotter or a desk tidy, but since she had been working they were often expensive and well-thought—out.

At breakfast, she handed him a heavy box containing a set of six exquisitely carved teak bookends depicting the heads of legendary Thai folklore animals.

“They are fantastic, Soom! My best present ever. They will go into pride of place straight after breakfast. Are you still coming on my birthday pub crawl with me?”

“Sure, I’m looking forward to it”.

“Are you coming as well, Lek?”

“No, I can’t unfortunately”, she replied sarcastically, “but Soom said she’d make sure you don’t drink too much for me”.

Soom tried to express in her smile that she had not, but would not openly contradict her mother.

“OK, well, birthday or no birthday, that book won’t write itself, so I’d better get on with it. Thanks again for the lovely present, Soom. I’ll see you outside the hotel between one and two”.

“You didn’t have to say that, Mae. I do wish you wouldn’t drag me into your digs at him”.

Lek didn’t reply, but stood up, gathered the breakfast things and took them to the sink.

“You’d best give Shell her shower and get her ready for school”. Soom got up sadly and went inside.

∞

When Soom turned up at ten past one, she apologised for being late.

“You’re not late, by Baan Suay standards, you’re early”.

“Yes, I know, but I learned ten years ago that lectures started on time, and when I started at the bank I discovered that ‘being on time’ meant getting there ten minutes early. So, sorry for being late”.

“OK, don’t worry about it. What are you having?”

“Mineral water, please”.

“Certainly”, he said ordering it by tablet.

“Cheers”, she said when the drinks arrived, “happy birthday, Dad. Where will we be going this afternoon?”

“Just around the village. We’ll walk up that way, and come back this”, he explained pointing.

When they were between the first and the second venues, Soom asked him a serious question.

“Mum told me last night that you wanted to go home and take her with you. Do you mind talking about that on your birthday?”

“No, not at all”.

“Why do you want to leave us?” she asked as they took a seat.

Craig ordered the same again.

“It isn’t a question of wanting to leave you, Soom, did your mother say it like that?”

“No, but that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?”

“Only in the sense that, if we go to the UK, we will be leaving you behind, but that is not why I want to go. To be honest with you, I am not looking forward to it at all, but there are things that I have to sort out back there. I also promised your mother fifteen years ago that I would take her there for a few years when you were settled. We will come back”.

“What do you have to do that is so important, if you don’t mind me asking?”