Gypsy in Bangkok

All the bad luck (Ember)

I had one hour left in my shift and I was counting down every second. This night felt like it was dragging on forever with no end in sight. The flashing lights in the club were making my head hurt more- like a low throbbing hum picking up the tempo. It didn't help that I was barely eating anything over the past few days. Depression?

"5 minutes?" I said to One.

He shook his head at me and waved at me.

One of my closest friends was sitting in the dressing room on the overstuffed brown couch in the far corner, massaging her feet. She extended her foot when she saw me. I smiled at her, my usual big smile, plopped in the chair, and started to massage her feet.

"Well, you look awful Ember."

I didn't answer her but kept kneading into her heel and worked her way slowly up the pad of her foot just below her toes. She sighed in relief.

"Still coming with me on Wednesday Em?"

"I think so." releasing a big sigh as I said so.

Mint had been trying to get me to go to Temple with her. I am not much of a religious girl; God had abandoned me in Bangkok a long time ago. A thousand years of bad luck and negative karma fell upon me in one year. I came to Bangkok, Thailand two years ago to escape what I thought was a boring life that was heading nowhere fast. I had been working hard in a customer service job I hated to finish paying for a degree I was almost certain I no longer wanted. I had always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl but I had started to lose faith in myself. I could not see my path anymore. There was barely enough money to complete school and I was buckling under a huge mountain of coursework. Not to mention trying to balance work, school, and my living expenses. That's when I heard all about my friend who had gone to Japan to teach English, so I thought why not try an overseas work opportunity; I wanted a change of environment really really really bad. Did I mention I needed a change? Well, I needed a change. Looks like I should have researched more and made better decisions. The agency I had used was nothing but a big fraud. After I packed my bags in Jamaica and landed in Thailand, there was no one to greet me at the airport. There was no job, no agency,  and no more money in my possession. How could I return home after I bragged to everyone about how I was going to live the dream after kissing my island home goodbye?

"Make sure. Are you okay though? Another headache sweetie?"

"Yeah, I just feel so worn out these days." I offered her a weak smile. My stomach was rumbling too and complaining to me about not being fed in hours.

"Maybe you need a little break, we can stay by my gran for a few days." Mint looked at me, excitement in her eyes. She was always one for slacking off and having fun. A girl after my own heart. I loved Mint; she was the best thing that ever happened to me since coming to Bangkok. Mint was my true friend. You can't say that about many people, but Mint was one of a kind.

Mint and I talked for a little while, planning a girl's mini vacation to see her Yaa (Grandmother). I loved seeing her, she was so sweet and always had lots of goodies to eat. She did not know that Mint and I were club dancers. Mint took good care of her by sending her money for medicine and food. She was so proud of Mint who she thought had a respectable office job and was dating a young man who worked in a bank. She hated lying to her but it would break her poor little heart. Mint's Yaa raised her and her elder brother. Grandma had struggled to send her to college too. When in college, Mint fell in love with a rich older man who promised her the world. He wanted her to become a housewife and a mother. Soon she spent more time with him, her husband-to-be, than at school, when she realized he was nothing but a good-for-nothing bum with a gambling habit, it was all too late, she had flunked school.