Cross Currents (7 page)

The sky was bereft of a single cloud, and the tropical sun gave life to the colors of the island—the green of the foliage, the gray of the cliffs, the gold of the beach, and the blue of the bay. A breeze wafted from the west, causing the coconut trees to sway like cobras in front of a charmer's flute. The scent of tropical flowers and salt permeated the damp air.

Most of the beach was empty, the long line of wooden lounge chairs almost devoid of tourists. They would arrive soon, Lek knew, wondering why Sarai had called out to him to come to one of their bungalows. He looked toward the water and saw his children making their way along the shore, picking up small bits of trash. Suchin carried Achara in a sling on her back. Niran held a bucket for the trash and his beloved net, and often stepped into the water, watching the movements of sea creatures. Smiling at the sight, Lek limped along the sandy trail between the bungalows, pleased that Patch was laying bricks in the distance. A paved path would be a major improvement, as monsoon rains often left the existing trail waterlogged for days. Lek had been forced to sell one of his two longboats to pay for the bricks, but he felt sure the investment would be worthwhile. Two boats had been an extravagance anyway.

He turned right, toward one of their best bungalows, moving up three cement steps and into the room. Within seconds he could tell that something was wrong. Sarai sat motionless on the side of the bed, her feet bare, her shoulders slumped. She wore a bright red sarong and a yellow blouse, but her face seemed drained of color. He sat down beside her, resting his hand on her thigh, waiting for her to speak.

She pulled back the sheet, revealing a burned section of fabric. Somehow the sheet had been set afire, then doused with water. A fist-size hole remained, black and brown at the edges. “I should have looked closer,” Sarai said softly. “Right when they left. I always do, but this morning Suchin wanted to . . . she wanted me to braid her hair. So I hurried in here, looked around, then went home.”

Lek nodded, aware that the British couple who had occupied the bungalow would by now be on the morning ferry, heading back to Phuket. He and Sarai always inspected their bungalows before their visitors left the island. That way, if there was any damage, compensation could be procured before the foreigners sailed away forever. “It's not your fault,” he said softly, patting her knee again.

She shook her head, her full lips pressing together, her fists clenching. “It is my fault. Of course it is. I should have seen this right away. Do you know how much a new sheet costs?”

“I don't—”

“Three hundred baht! What a waste. Three hundred baht for a sheet we already had. A good sheet, with hardly any wear.”

“We'll manage.”

“How? How can you look at me and say that? Our money is almost gone. We can't afford to buy the children new clothes or for you to see the doctor. How is that managing? How do we work so hard, every day, and have nothing to show for it? What are we doing wrong?”

He reached for her hand as she started to cry. “Let me rub your feet.”

“No.”

“Please. Lie down. Let me rub your feet.”

“Rubbing my feet isn't going to buy a new sheet.”

“It might—”

“What are we going to do? The children are so happy. I don't want to take them to Bangkok. How would you even find work with your hip? No one would hire you. We'd have nothing. Do you hear me? We'd have nothing.”

“We'd have each other.”

She wiped her eyes, wishing that her headache would leave, chastising herself for once again forgetting to eat and drink. “Later, when we're old, that would be fine. But not now. Not with the children. They need more.”

Lek started to reply but heard someone approaching. Sarai wiped her eyes again, and reached for her old-fashioned straw broom. She started to sweep, pausing when Patch walked up the steps. In some ways, Patch resembled Lek, wearing old shorts, a tattered T-shirt, and sandals.

Patch said good morning in Thai, then switched to English. “I wanted to ask you about the path.”

Concentrating, Lek forced himself to think in English, a language he had long tried and failed to master. “The path?” he repeated, wondering if his instructions might not have been clear.

“Well, I was hoping that maybe I could change the pattern in the middle. You know, try to make a rainbow with the bricks. So that people would know that they were on their way to Rainbow Resort.”

Sarai nodded, repeating Patch's words in Thai, then responding in English. “Could you make a brick rainbow?”

“I think so. I could go into the village, where they're building that new hotel, and use one of their saws to cut some of our bricks. Or I could buy a few bricks that were a different color, and cut them so they fit together and made a rainbow. It would be easy.”

Thinking about a rainbow in the middle of their path prompted another tear to tumble from Sarai's face. She smiled, wiping it away. “Thank you, Patch. Yes, please. Your idea is good.”

Patch realized that she had been crying and dropped his gaze. For the first time he noticed the hole in the sheet. “What happened?”

“Oh, it is nothing. Just time . . . time to buy a new sheet.”

“What a waste.”

“Yes.”

Patch started to turn away but deduced that the sight of the ruined sheet must have made her cry. “I'll take it,” he said. “I have a good sheet in my room. I don't need it. You can take mine and use it in here.”

“No. You keep your sheet. We will take this sheet for our bed.”

He shook his head. “Achara can't sleep on this sheet. No way. That's not right for a baby.”

“You are our guest,” Sarai replied. “You must sleep well.”

“Don't worry. I'll sleep fine.”

“You sure?”

“Of course.”

“I will fix it for you. With a . . .”

“With a patch. You can fix it with a patch.”

She smiled. “Yes. I will fix it with a patch. A patch for Patch.”

“Perfect. How could that not be perfect for me?”

“Thank you,” she replied, wondering what his mother was like. “Thank you so much. You have a good heart.”

“Thank you for letting me make my rainbow.”

“Your brother, he will arrive later today?”

“Yeah.”

“I will cook something good for him. Something delicious.”

“I'm sure he'd enjoy that after his long trip.”

She thanked him again and then began to speak in Thai, repeating everything to Lek, making sure he understood. Lek listened, turned to Patch, and placed his hands together, bowing slightly. He thanked Patch in Thai, wishing he could communicate better with the American, wanting to talk with him about so many things.

After Patch left, Lek turned to Sarai. “See? We'll manage. We'll always manage.”

“We have to.”

“Come. Lie down. Give me five minutes to rub those busy feet of yours. Please. Feet that move so fast deserve to be rubbed.”

“What about your hip? Shouldn't I be rubbing it?”

“It's fine.”

Sarai smiled, and Lek was relieved to see her laugh lines deepen. She closed the bungalow's door, stretched out on the bed, and his hands found her ankles, pressing against her flesh, resting at first. Then his fingers began to move—hard, calloused fingers that swept across the hard, thick skin of her heels. She closed her eyes and let him carry her away to a place free of doubt and worry, where his hip didn't hurt, where their children didn't have to sell soft drinks, where the strength of their family wasn't tested on a daily basis. Sarai let him take her to this place, and for five minutes she swam within its waters.

Then she squeezed his hand, thanked him, and reached for her broom.

THE CEMENT PIER IN PHUKET looked big enough to accommodate a warship, Ryan thought as he wheeled his suitcase toward a waiting speedboat. In the distance, scores of travelers were boarding a large blue-and-white passenger ferry. The travelers—often wearing nothing more than swimsuits—carried backpacks, beer, and guidebooks. Though distant engines purred and rumbled, it was the intonations of a dozen languages that permeated the air.

A few feet behind Ryan, Brooke hurried to catch up, amazed that they could fly from Bangkok to such a beautiful place in just over an hour. “We should go on a boat like that,” she said. She was dressed in a white tank top and denim shorts, her long hair emerging from the back of her pink Race for the Cure baseball hat. “It seems like a better fit for this sort of journey.”

“Why? So we can get to Ko Phi Phi in three hours instead of forty minutes?”

Brooke saw a couple kissing toward the rear of the line. “It might be fun.”

“It might be.”

“Look at it. Doesn't it look fun? Why so reluctant?”

“Because it might be boring too.”

“How could a ride on that possibly be boring?”

Ryan watched fishermen working on a nearby boat, which was brightly colored and featured giant booms that held hundreds of lightbulbs. The fishermen were shirtless and moved fast, uncoiling a spool of netting. Behind the fishing boat was a gray-hulled military vessel of some sort, listing slightly to one side. From atop the wheelhouse, the red, white, and blue flag of Thailand rippled in the wind. No one appeared to be on board.

“We've traveled halfway around the world to see Patch,” Ryan finally replied. “And we're forty minutes from him. Forty minutes. Why would we want to make that three hours?”

Glancing at the kissing couple, Brooke followed Ryan toward the large speedboat that he'd rented through a travel agency. A Thai man, presumably the captain, approached and asked in broken English for their contract. Ryan had the papers ready, and within ten minutes he and Brooke were sitting near the middle of the boat, a pair of large outboard engines powering the craft past the idle ferry. Most of the backpackers were gathering on the roof, putting their feet over the edge, leaning forward against a white railing.

Though Brooke was envious of their slow, adventurous ride, she reminded herself that of course Ryan wanted to reach Patch as quickly as possible. Leaning back in her bucket seat, she watched the mountainous, immense island of Phuket slowly recede. Once they were clear of the harbor, the captain pushed the throttle down and the twin engines roared to life. The bow rose, casting spray out on either side. Brooke took off her baseball cap and oversize tortoiseshell sunglasses, thinking about the couple who had kissed so openly. Given her history, she wasn't sure whether she'd ever kiss a man in public. But she found herself wondering what it would be like, wondering how the couple had met and what the future held for them. A part of her was envious of their connection, and she asked herself whether she'd trade places with the woman, suspecting that she would.

In her second year of business school at Northwestern University, Brooke was about the same age as most of the other travelers. Yet she felt so much older. Restless with such thoughts, she turned toward Ryan, wondering where his mind was. “Is Patch like you?” she asked, the boat humming beneath her.

He swiveled his seat toward her. “He looks like me.”

“Really?”

“Growing up, people thought we were twins.” Ryan paused, his fingers tracing the contours of a crack in the leather chair. “We had fun with that. He had fun with it, especially. But I did too.”

“What did you do?”

“Oh, we'd confuse our babysitters, our dentists. Stuff like that. Later, in high school, we'd switch football jerseys, and he'd get to play a down or two with the varsity. He got thumped, but he got to play.”

Brooke smiled, moving to the side so that her wind-whipped hair didn't obscure her view. “Did he act like you? Like another kingpin in the making?”

Ryan thought about growing up in Kansas City, about growing up with Patch. Their father had worked long hours as an elementary school principal. Their mother was diagnosed with lupus at age thirty-one and had often been bedridden. With their father usually gone and their mother sometimes nearly incapacitated, Ryan and Patch had grown up relying on each other. They'd been inseparable and best friends. And though years had passed since they had slept under the same roof, they'd always remained close, calling each other in times of need, sharing stories and secrets.

“Patch was always more of a dreamer,” Ryan finally replied. “I got the good grades. I liked school. I think the whole thing bored him. He read all the time. Day and night. Just not the books that his teachers wanted him to.”

“Did he have girlfriends?”

Ryan nodded. “Patch is good at making girls smile, making them laugh. Much better than me.”