Free Thai Girl by Andrew Hicks Page B

fried rice and more beer.
    â€˜I suppose I’m a case in point,’ she said. ‘I can plan my life. I’ve had real choices. Of course it doesn’t always go to plan … worst of all when my horse died. But I’ve put my career on hold, let my house in Islington and returned my company car. I was working sixteen hours a day, half of it over the Atlantic going to meetings in New York. It was grim but now I’m flying for free with my Air Miles.’
    â€˜Alright for some,’ said Samantha sourly.
    â€˜Yes, but there’s always a price. Corporate law was exciting and I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad I’m not doing it any more. No more grovelling to my clients and worrying about professional negligence claims. Escaping my mobile’s amazing.’
    â€˜So we’re all running away from something then. Is that what we’re doing?’ asked Emma, drawing on her cigarette. ‘Me and Ben couldn’t make any decisions after uni, so we went travelling to avoid growing up.’
    â€˜Speak for yourself,’ said Ben indignantly. ‘I went travelling to learn about other parts of the world.’
    â€˜Crap, you didn’t. You just weren’t mature enough to face up to work … so why not sponge off your parents and bugger off abroad. What parts did you learn about in the go-go bars then? Tell me that!’
    Ben was saved from having to answer Emma’s broadside by the food arriving at the table, but when everyone was dipping in, she pressed her point.
    â€˜So maybe we’re all in transition or putting off difficult decisions … like me and Ben not getting jobs, Clarissa leaving hers, and Chuck and Maca forever drifting around the place. But what about you?’ she asked the two girls.
    â€˜Well, I don’t see it as running away,’ said Samantha. Me and Nadia gave up our jobs to come out here … Thailand first, then Malaysia and Singapore. But it’s all a bit different for us … life I mean.’
    â€˜Why is it? In what way?’
    â€˜Well, there’s no horses in Hackney … silver spoon up me arse more like. None of this university stuff … just got a few GCSEs and I’m lucky to be a secretary. I’ve struggled up from the bottom and now I’m a supervisor … well, I was until I gave in my notice. It was partly because I broke up with my boyfriend. Then me and Nadia came out here together.’
    â€˜And now you hate Thailand?’
    â€˜Well, not hate it exactly, but it’s not what I expected. We’ve worked for our holiday and now we want to relax and not be fighting with the Thais.’
    â€˜But why do you see everyone as hostile?’ asked Emma.
    â€˜Maybe because where I come from, life’s always a struggle and you have to battle for every little thing. And there’s so many decisions to make, so many choices. I don’t just mean work, I mean life in general … what you want to be, who you settle down with and stuff. It’s like I’m always at a turning point and about to get it wrong.’ Samantha clung to her empty beer bottle.
    â€˜How nice,’ said Clarissa. ‘Getting older means I don’t have so many options left.’
    â€˜Sounds great,’ said Samantha. ‘Fewer nooses to stick your neck into. I envy the Thai workers here on the beach with no prospects, just blue sea and sky.’
    â€˜You can’t really believe that,’ said Ben. ‘Everyone wants opportunities and not to be stuck in a hole.’
    Samantha was sitting stiffly upright, but the alcohol had loosened her tongue.
    â€˜I’m sure getting older can be tough,’ she said, ‘but I always think of my Auntie Ada. She’s lived in Hackney all her life … it’s the whole world to her. She was a cleaner, married to my Uncle Ken. He snuffed it a few years back and now she’s got the ideal life, safe and settled. She’s