No Fairy Tales in Real Life

Mind Over Matter

Mind over matter (Copter)

I gazed out of the window on our flight to Chiang Mai. Bas sat beside me with his hoodie low down over his head. P’Kim was somewhere in the back. It’s actually a short flight for about half an hour. I’ve heard that there’s a bit of a drive from the airport to P’Tae’s house though. P’Tee offered to pick us up. But we refused. We’re planning to book a room in the city and drive there tomorrow morning. We don’t want to burden P’Tae with all the stuff going on there.

It’s amazing how things can change in a matter of minutes. One minute we were thinking how painful unrequited love is. Next, your problems don’t seem so important. There’s nothing in this world you cannot resolve by talking, except death.

Nobody knew that P’Tae was married let alone he had a five year old kid. Not even P’Tee who was closest to him. How he had to pretend he was single and hide his wife and kid. Only P’Tae was capable of handling that much of pressure. And then to find out that  your wife was dying from lung cancer, leaving him alone with a kid. My heart break was like a drop of water against an ocean full of water.

Bas seemed to have emerged from his self imposed exile. He was the most shocked among three of us. He seemed to gather a lot of courage from this news. P’Kim had been very caring for both of us. He took care of us and arranged plane tickets and even booked a hotel room. There’s nothing for us to worry our minds over.

When we checked into the hotel, it was late evening. P’Kim had booked a suit with one king sized bed and one double.
“You and Bas can take this bed.” He placed Bas’ bag he was carrying on the king sized bed. I nodded and guided the sleepy kid to the bed. He crawled over it still in all his clothes.
“Hey” I slapped his bottom. “At least remove your jacket. It’s heavy.” I dragged his heavy denim jacket off from his body. “And brush your teeth.” He gave an annoyed sound and rolled on to his stomach. “stop being a baby.” I slapped his shoulder this time.
“Alright, alright I’m going, Mom” he grumbled and dragged his body from the bed and staggered to the bathroom. I scowled at him while P’Kim snorted from his bed.
“What?” I turned around with hands on my hips. He raised his hands in surrender. He was sitting leaning his back to the head board. With his leather jacket removed he looked lot thinner than he used to.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked defensively. There were dark patches under his blood shot eyes.