Free Asian Heat by Stephen Leather Page A

into the back.   Dave
tossed his bag in and took his place in the middle of the minibus. One of the
three girls in the front pulled the door shut.
    Dave waved
through the window at Zed’s mother. Zed’s sister came down the steps of the
main house and Dave waved at her, too. She gave him a wai in return.
    As Dave waved, he
saw a face appear at the window of the wooden shack to the right of the main
house. It was an old man, his face weathered and wrinkled, his skin the same
colour as the teak house “Who is that?” asked Dave, pointing at the old man.
    ‘Zed’s
grandfather.” said Lek.   “He’s very
old and bit crazy.’
    “Crazy? In what
way?” The old man grinned. He didn’t seem to have any teeth, his mouth was a
red gaping hole.
    Lek shrugged.
“He’s just very old. Almost ninety. He forgets things. They keep him locked in
his house most of the time because sometimes he wanders away.’
    Zed said
something in rapid Thai and Lek nodded. “He got out last night.” she said.
‘They found him walking around at three o’clock in the morning.’ She shook her
head sadly. “It’s such a pity. He used to be very famous, he ran one of the
best massage schools in Thailand.’
    Dave stiffened.
“Massage?”
    The old man was
still grinning. He raised a gnarled hand and waved slowly.
    Lek nodded. “He
was amazing. He studied Thai massage at Wat Po, but he developed his own
technique and he even massaged at the Palace. He was very,   very famous. No one could do Thai
massage like him. They said that his fingers were magic.’
    “Magic fingers?”
said Dave. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.   The old man was still waving.   As Dave watched, the old man’s tongue
flicked out and licked his upper lip.    The massage he’d had the previous night had been
magic, there was no doubt about that. Magic. And the mouth that had swallowed
his load had been soft and warm and on reflection, almost certainly lacking
teeth. “What’s his name?” asked Dave, wondering if there was some upside to
what had happened to him the previous night.
    “Somchai,” said
Lek. “Khun Somchai, the massage king.”
    Dave pulled his
baseball cap down over his face. “Let’s go back to Bangkok,” he said.
    “Are you okay?”
asked Lek. “You look a bit ill.”
    “Just go,” said
Dave.
    Dave stopped
playing the Alphabet Game after that.   He never went back to Zed’s bar, either.   He said the fun had gone out of the game.   I can’t say I blame him.
    ###

 

 
    THE PREGNANT WIFE

 
    The Land of Smiles,
they call it. Well I’m not smiling, I can tell you. I had a wife in Thailand,
and I had a daughter. And now I’ve lost them both.   And it was my own bloody fault.   The wife wasn’t mine, though, I have to admit that. She was
married to someone else. But the daughter was mine. Even though I never saw
her, and now I never will.
    How did I get in
this state?   Playing the numbers,
that’s how. I wanted free sex and I found the perfect way to get it. I just
didn’t realise that in the process I’d lose the love of my life. And my
daughter.
    My name’s Dave,
Dave Taylor, and I’m twenty-eight. I work as a teacher in a Thai school on the
outskirts of Bangkok.   It pays
quite well and there are plenty of holidays and I get to do some private
tutoring on my days off so I have quite a good life, everything considered. I
didn’t move to Thailand for the career prospects, hardly anyone does. Like most
guys, I came for the girls.   Literally. Thais girls are the prettiest girls in the world, no
question. I came out for the first time two years ago with a group of guys from
work. I was a solicitor in Derby, doing mainly conveyancing work. Boring as
hell, but it paid okay and at least I had a job.   Only half the guys who graduated with me found work as
solicitors; the rest are either on the dole, driving cabs or working in fast
food restaurants.
    We had a blast. A
couple of my workmates were