7
When I told him I felt deceived about the brother-in-hospital incident the boy gave me a sheepish smile. I had looked up the word “lie” in the his dictionary and showed him the Thai translation.
- Lied a little, the boy admitted.
- I don’t like lies, I said. - Please don’t do anything like this again.
I can’t be too hard on him, I thought. The scheme wasn’t his idea. He had been under pressure from his step-mother. And he hadn’t really said anything wrong, it was a lie by omission. But I resented it.
The boy decided to sleep over in my room. He brought a little bag with his things. I had counted his clothes as he wore them, he owned three changes of t-shirts and shorts pants, one pair of jeans and a pair of worn out shoes. But his clothes were always clean.
I was concerned about the hotel reception. Would they consider him too young and make a fuss? His identity card showed he had three weeks left to his eighteenth birthday. Close enough, I thought.
The little guy in the reception said nothing. The boy wasn’t aware of why he was asked to leave his ID card in the reception so he wasn’t offended by it.
The boy was shy and undressed in the bathroom. Then he came and joined me in bed wearing his monkey t-shirt.
- Nao, he complained, the Thai word for cold.
I turned off the air condition. Then the boy felt better but I started to sweat. The boy turned the air condition back on.
I switched off the light.
- Nao, the boy said again and cuddled up against me.
I held him close to me. His skin was perfectly soft but his hands and feet were cold. He got cheeky and put his cold hands on my belly. That nearly had me jump out of bed. Next he put his cold feet against the side of my legs. That was hardly any better.
The boy pinched my nose with his fingers.
- Now you dead, he said.
- No I am not.
- Doctor look.
I kept a small battery powered light on the bed table and the boy used it on my eyes.
- Dead, he said again.
- Not funny.
- Funny.
- What this, said the boy, referring to our embrace.
- It is called a hug.
- I like hug.
I kissed his nose tip.
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