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The next day I didn’t go back to the park. Better not overdo it, I thought. But the boy called me in the evening around 10pm from a pay phone. I could hear coins fall down the slot as he spoke. I enjoyed hearing his excited voice. He said “goodnight and have a good dream”.
When I came to the park the following afternoon I could not see him. I had expected to find him in the same spot as last time. I began walking across the grass and in the forest-like section of the park I saw his father, who pointed in the direction where the boy was. He looked different today; instead of blue jeans he had “hello Kitty” short pants and a t-shirt with cartoon monkeys on.
I wanted to sit down where we had spoken last time but the boy motioned for me to follow him. I hesitated but the boy could not explain where he wanted to take me.
We came to family group who sat on the grass. They had the plastic mats to sit on and many more rolled up nearby. There were several women, teenage girls and children of various ages. They were eating. The boy wanted me to join the group but I was shy, preferring to stand back a bit. Then the boy took another plastic mat and made another seating for the two of us a couple of meters from the main group.
The family were smiling and looking at me with curiosity but they didn’t seem surprised that the boy came back with a foreigner. I guessed they must have heard of my first visit to the park.
Slowly I learned more about the boy. He was eighteen years old and had just come to Bangkok during his school holiday (this was in late March) to help his father with the rent-a-mat business in the park. They charged twenty baht for each mat. When the school holiday was over the boy would go back to his home in Lopburi, where he stayed with his grandparents. The rest of the family I saw in the park was the boy’s stepmother, stepsisters and step cousins.
It was hot and I was sweating even in the shadows under the trees. I said I would like to buy some water.
- I have money, the boy said proudly and showed me the contents of a tiny yellow wallet.
There were maybe a hundred baht in it, all in twenty baht bills. It was his earnings of the day. I reached for my own wallet but the boy would not have any of that, he left and came back five minutes later with two Fanta cans, one for each of us.
The boy kept looking for potential mat renters as well as people who left their mats behind. Sometimes he would run over to attend to this. Meanwhile I would relax on my own mat, which he refused to accept payment for.
- Free for friend, said the boy.
I would lay on my back, half asleep, listening to the sound of the sunset breeze stirring the leaves above me and to the distant noise of the city.
When the boy came back from his small errands he would sit next to me, again touching me lightly with his leg, arm or back, maintaining discreet body contact.
I felt good.
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