Every Breath You Take

Pictures of You (Kongpob)

We follow the director out of the office and down the hall. He keeps looking back at P'Arthit then sighs deeply. P'Arthit gives him a funny look before looking over at me and shrugging.

We walk into the library and he shows us where all of the yearbooks are while he goes to get their school records. We find the three books that should be from when he attended this school. I grab one and start flipping through it. I find his individual shot. He looks so cute. I can't help myself from pulling out my phone and snapping a picture of it. I smile to myself as I continue to look at a young P'Arthit.

I slowly look through searching for more pictures of him. Surprisingly, there are a lot of him and P'Kane. They must have been really popular. I look to see if there are pictures where there's more than just the two of them. This photographer was focused that's for sure, and must have been on the yearbook staff to have gotten so many pictures of them in it.

"Nothing here. All of the pictures are just the two of you." I tell him.

"Same here." He says.

We look over at his parents who are staring into the book. I can't quite make out their expressions but I can clearly tell that it's not happiness. P'Arthit and I move around to see what they're looking at. It looks like obituaries. The last two pages are filled with a large picture of P'Kane and P'Arthit with messages written to them. Only P'Arthit's picture has been practically scratched out. The words 'LIAR', 'I HATE YOU', and 'YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED TOO" are scrawled across the page.

"Well someone doesn't like me." P'Arthit says.

"This isn't funny." I say feeling upset.

"I don't think it's funny either. I'm just stating a fact." He says offhandedly.

"How did they know you were alive? I mean you didn't even know who you were, plus you guys picked up and moved away." I say.

He shrugs at me and looks back at the page. He staring hard at the picture but I can see it, it's not because he recognizes the guy in the other picture. He's looking for clues in his. This must be really hard for his parents to watch. I look up at them and I can see the hurt in their eyes. Not only did they lose their son but the most important person to him remembers absolutely nothing about him.

"Here you are." The director says handing us the school records.

"I'm afraid all they can really tell you are test results and standings, attendance and basic things like that." He says.

"Director? You wouldn't happen to know how long this picture has been damaged would you?" P'Arthit asks.

"Damaged?" He asks looking at the yearbook.

"What the...?" He says as he grabs the book and stares angrily at.

"How dare someone!" He yells and storms off after dropping the book back onto the table.

I reach over and take my mother-in-law's hand and give a gentle squeeze. She smiles sadly at me before she and her husband stand.

"We're going to walk around. This is a bit....overwhelming right now." She says.

My Oon hugs his mother tightly and places a kiss on her cheek.

"I'm sorry." He says hanging his head.

"Why are you sorry? Not once have you ever done anything wrong. Not once my baby." She says squeezing him tightly, then takes her husband's hand to leave.

"This is hard for them." Pii comments.

"It's hard on everyone. I bet it's hard on you too." I say wrapping my arms around him.