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mission

(6)

ephidryn

Jun 17, 2008 06:58

Read 565 times, Dig?

dustin was a normal enough guy. he was from tennessy which was really exotic to me never really meeting anyone from tennessy. he was a white dude with dreads all skinny and lanky with a canine that grew out instead of down and a huge head of hair. he had freckles all over his face and he never seemed to sweat. he had been here on koh phanang for quite a while. he did visa runs every 90 days and sometimes he got stuck outside of thailand and had to wander about laod, malaysia, indonesia, anywhere really just waiting to get back to paradise. he smokes these roll up tobacco from a green pouch and smiles more than i do. it seems like he knows everyone but i think he must just act like it and people act in kind.

i met him in this bar in thong salat. where the ferry comes in from the mainland. i was trying to get drunk before the empty bar closed so that i could sleep among the noise of the cars, the distant beats of parties, and the neighbors in my guest house copulating and trying to drown each other out with music from portable music machines. he was wearing this large ugly earring made from a shell and walked in like he owned the place. point at people and yelling stuff in thai. inciting smiles and laughter. he sat down at the picnic table where the staff usually sit. i happened to be sitting there because it was the easiest place to ask for another drink as no one ever manned the bar.

after everything settled down after his grand entrance we got to talking about the island and i asked him all about the famous full moon party which he said was something along the lines of an "atrocious drug induced mosh pit composed of weekenders out for a laugh and a fight". he said the party part was gone from the full moon parties and it had been for ages even before he had arrived on the island 6 years ago. he tried to flog it for a year or so, going to every full moon party, sober, drunk, off his head of acid and mdma all the while eating wet mushrooms from the jungle to keep his head in it. at the end he came to the conclusion that it's just not where it's at.

we talked for an hour or so and towards the end the full moon party came up again and i told him that i was slated to be at this famous full moon party in haad rin in no less than 2 days. he told me not to bother really and invited me to this party up in the jungle on the north side of the island an hour away from haad rin if you could find a ride. the roads aren't great and when it's raining the mud goes from dirty to dangerous. i told him i'd think about it and took his mobile number. he bounced out in much the same fashion that he arrived with lots of smiling, thai shouting, and pointing.

i went to sleep that night thinking about the parties, trying not to hear my neighbors or anything else on the island. it would be good i thought. something different.

i woke up the next day at 8:30 and took a shower. i walked around the block and found a place with a little cheesy espresso machine and ordered a double. i read the front page of the bangkok news and tried to forget it all as soon as i was done. i got on my bicycle and rode out the western road until it turned into dirt. the small hills were killer with the beer from the night before not yet fully through my system. i was hung over and it was getting hot. i had taken my time getting out there and it was going on 10am when the sun really starts to dig in.

i turned around and headed back at a normal pace not slowing down for the stray dogs. they wouldn't want to chase me at this time of day. they're to busy protecting their shade and digesting the food they managed to scab from the thai morning hustle.

the tide was coming in now and all the boats that were beached before were floating in less than a meter of water. i wondered how they got them in this far when they were fully loaded. i guess with the price of oil that's not much of a problem now as the fishermen don't even bother to go out.

the roads are made of concrete on the island. two long slabs side by side repeating on for kilometers. i guess it's easier to maintain. if one turns to rocks they can just break it up and pour one new segment. the cracks between them jolt my bicycle frame through my thin skinny tires making it seem more like i'm on a train than a bicycle.

i got back to my guest house which is also a bar, restaurant, massage parlor, movie theater, internet cafe, and laundrette. they are just opening the doors as i ride by and i wave at unknown figures under the shade of the thatch roof. i leave my bicycle unlocked and take off my shoes before walking through the massage parlor up to my room which is really just a space partitioned off with 2x4s and plywood. there's 5 rooms above the massage parlor and a shared swat-toilet with a the-floor-is-the-basin shower which drains out a hole in the base of the wall to the cement deck and around a corner and over the side. the water in the trough which carries the watter grows green algae in it as it sits in the sun for half the day. gotta be some interesting critters in there.

i'm covered in sweat and i peel off my clothes and grab my towel and lock my room door before i walk to the shower, half heartedly trying to cover my bits with the towel. there's no one around. it's still to early. i squat and then shower in the cold water. i spot a tick on the wall and waste about 6 gallons of water trying to get it off the wall and out the drain hole with the snake shower head. i hate ticks. normally i leave bugs alone unless they suck my blood, burrow under my skin, or otherwise take advantage of me. stinging bugs have some right. how else would i notice them if they didn't have the power to make my histamines explode into furious episodes of brain rocking pain?

i toweled off and thought about how long the scabies had been gone for. still there's never a way to know. you spend three months killing them with different chemicals and methods and cleaning everything only to have them come back a week later. i gave scabies to my friend abbie and her whole family. they all had to do the same thing i did with the washing and the lotions and the feelings. i haven't dared touch anyone since they came back four months ago, save the nervous handshake. all clear now. just have to wait a few weeks to see if they hitch hiked in my shoes or unwashed backpack or some other thing i forgot. building a colony anew and more resilient to any CNR toxin or cutaneous anti-parasitic lotion on the market.

i put on some fresh clothes and walked out onto the deck facing the street. i cracked my book and burned three hours eating lychee fruits and learning british slang. i didn't stop until a noise caught my attention. a click. or maybe a clack. the music stopped. all of it. no more breaks or trance or dance or commercials coming from any direction. it was silent except for the scooters and tuk tuks and cars. There was a loud communal noise from the bar across the street and i realized that the power had gone out. i wondered if this happens a lot and walked inside to flick the switch. smart guy. should i check again? of course it was out. i walked back out onto the deck and sat down in the windy spot again to read some more.

about 15 minutes later the sun went away and there it got a bit cooler. i didn't really notice until the wind picked up and everything seems to get weird. a change in weather big enough for a big dumb human to notice while engrossed in a book is a big change. a few preemptive complaints in the form of yells floated around the neighborhood before it hit moments later. rain. lots of it. dumping. it sprayed up on the deck and i went inside to my room which was still hot from baking in the sun all day. i chucked my book on the bed and went threw on a shirt to go down to the bar. naked is synonymous with offensive in thailand. try to always at least wear a singlet. sometimes i bother to put on pants too.

i walked into the musicless bar and everyone was engrossed en exuberant chatter about the rain as if it had never happened before. i saw the owner and yelled a hey at him. he looked over and i complained that the fan in my room quit working. he started to conjure an explanation as i drowned him out with my laugh and then asked for a beer. i hung out in the bar learning thai, forgetting thai, playing pool, and getting drunk.

dustin showed up a few hours later and did his thing and started in on the beers. i could tell he was ripped by his blood shot eyes and perma-smile. he seemed to be more talkative and boisterous which i envied. whenever i smoke the stuff i just usually just sit there in my head. all rolled up thinking about the past, the future, and everything at an angled lateral from the present.

we played some pool and talked some smack about the USA. he says he doesn't pay attention anymore because the whole situation is a disgrace to the founders but he seemed pretty up on current events.

after a while the rain stopped and he asked if i wanted to go with him to pick up some weed. i was a bit drunk and really tired of being in the bar so it sounded like a great idea at the time. i was a bit worried that he was going to want to go on a scooter but he said we just had to walk down by the water to get a ride. i followed him past the ferry and towards the "official port" sign. we didn't talk much on the way and when we got there he waved at some guy in a long boat and started speaking thai to him. it sounded like they were negotiating a price so when dustin pointed at me and they both looked over i just smiled and dipped my head. dustin hailed me over and i jumped in the front of the boat. the captain had started the engine already so he had to yell over the V8 to get my attention which didn't help much because i couldn't understand what he was saying. dustin translated that i should move towards the center of the boat not so close to the nose.

we took of and i was impressed at the speed. they look slow from far away but when you're right on the water it seems like you're screaming along. the water would spray up every once in a while and the ocean smelled good. we kept getting further and further away from the land. from the island. i had imagined that we were going to some beach which was easier to get to by boat. there's a lot of those here. the road takes 45 minutes and the boat takes 10. it didn't seem like that was the case.

i looked over and noticed dustin was holding a yellow gps looking thing. i yelled to him asking where we were going and he said that his friend lives on an island about 40 minutes away. fuck. 40 minutes. i would have brought a beer from 7-11. i took out a cigarette and tried to light it in the wind. i hunched over and stared out at the water. calm after the rain. the roar of the engine and the glimmer of the water put me in a trance which bent time and made the trip seem to go quicker. it seemed like 10 minutes had passed before dustin tapped my shoulder and pointed at the island. i focused my trance stare on it for a while and it didn't seem to be getting any closer. i turned back to the glimmer on the water which was getting more intense as the sun was getting lower.

i was jolted out of my space out by a loud bang and the engine rolling off. i instinctively turned towards the island and looked. it was much bigger now and there was another bang from the island as the engine rolled all the way off to an idle and the argument started in thai. i'm trying to figure out if it was really gun shots and if they were shooting at us shouldn't we turn the fuck around? i look over at the captain and dustin with my mouth open and watch them arguing for a few seconds before dustin breaks into english to tell me it's no problem and it happens sometimes and that he's good friends with the guy that lives here and he just does that to keep strangers away.

i'm pretty tripped out and decide to light a cigarette while the boat's not moving while they continue their argument in thai. after a couple more minutes of my sissy-like internal monologue and their thai argument dustin whips out a wad of 1000 baht notes of which i could see three and he puts them in the captains hand. the engine starts to roar again and all the fumes that had been collecting around the boat get whisked away.

there's another shot and i can see two guys up on the top of a cliff, silhouettes to the setting sun. i'm positive that at least on of them is holding a rifle and i can't make out the other. i turn to dustin and start to explain how i think three warning shots is really generous and we should take the hint and get the fuck out of there before an accident happens. i was shitting myself. he waves his hand and assures me that his friend is cool and this is just how they say hello. we passed by some sheer rock cliffs and around some rocks pointing out of the water to an area even i would guess is rock free and sandy bottomed.

there was another shot this one was really loud and strange as it didn't seem to echo like i was used to. we were less than a hundred meters from the beach now and slowly moving in. the captain said something in thai and dustin just said one syllable back to him. the drive shaft bottomed out and the drive adjusted the angle and gunned it a bit before bringing it completely out of the water. we drifted in closer and dustin jumped out and grabbed a ratty rope from the bow to pull us in closer. i wasn't getting the fuck out of the boat so i'm glad he didn't mind getting wet.

there was another shot this one was right there. the marksman standing up on some rocks, rifle pointed skywards. dustin ran up the beach straight towards him and yelled some stuff from the bottom of the rocks. they talked a bit and the man with the rifle started laughing. he took of his back pack and pulled out a black plastic bag the shape of a vcr box and dustin gave him some money. i was still in the boat which was being pulled off the sand bottom and was now floating free out in the water again.

he splashed out into the water taking special care not to get the bag wet and tossed it into the boat before he climbed up the side, disrupting the balance. i shook my head at him and he smiled as if the whole trip had been a trick to freak me the fuck out. the motor started again and dustin waved to the rocks. it was dusk now and i couldn't really see too well into the shadows with the last light coming over the top of the cliffs. the captain tipped the engine up and the drive shaft down into a shallow bit of water and dumped some opened it up. we pulled backwards slowly and spun around before jetting off again towards koh phanang.

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"Finished." - Miss Understood

This story was written by ephidryn and has been brought you you by the letters O and U.

writings.:-

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