varied weather made each of the days more memorable. The brothers,
transplanted into Bangkok with a livelihood, continued on as if in
Ayutthaya. Memory of the uncle's unfulfilled promise of a dinner had
worn away like the memory of their parents or the abandonment of Kumpee.
At first Suthep strutted around in his independence like a
dominant rooster but as the months went by the independence underwent
the metamorphosis to loneliness and by 1 a.m. of each early morning, an
hour or two after Jatupon would leave him, Suthep would often feel the
chill of adulthood. One late night/early morning as the smoke of
charbroiled fish and the steam of rice, noodles, and pork soup rose up
the sweat-profuseness of his face and into his hairnet, he watched a
girl giggle and slurp up her noodles with her boyfriend. He imagined
all traffic on the streets and sidewalk gone and that there was just
the three of them. He imagined those customers leaving unhappily.
Then, as they were beginning to walk together, there was a dispute that
intensified to the point where he attacked her. He imagined him
dragging her by the hair, slapping her down, and denuding her. Suthep
imagined himself walking over toward them and watching their canine
copulation for a period of minutes. Then an idea possessed him and he
started up his motorcycle and circled the couple, eventually chasing
off the body that had been forcing itself into her. He imagined
himself helping the trembling body of the female dress. He didn't want
to cover her but he did it to comfort her so as to gain her confidence
to obtain a new round of banging that would involve himself and would
last longer than if he were to force another encounter on her now.
Pleasures that had the potential of being perpetual were always the
best. He imagined that he learned about her life with contrived
sensitivity and with time secured himself as the being whom she yearned
for.
Then the happy couple was again a reality and he was standing