Thai Horse

‘Good stuff.’

‘Yeah, good stuff,’ Hatcher agreed. ‘You exercise like that a lot, do you?’ He threw a couple of playful punches to make his point.

‘I am a boxer,’ Sy said proudly, sticking out his chest in an exaggerated show of pride. ‘I drive tuk- tuk until I get money to quit.’

He jumped back and thrashed his arms in another series of jabs, threw another hard kick, and jogged in place. ‘I practice every morning at dawn for two hours. And thirty minutes each afternoon I practice my moves.’

‘You want to work for me for about a week?’

‘A week? Do what?’

‘Translate for me.’

‘Everybody here speak English. And you speak Thai,’ Sy said.

Hatcher nodded. ‘Yeah but not Sabai-dii. You get me around, tell me about people. Help me get things done. No problems.’

‘Ahh. No problems,’ Sy said, and suddenly he understood what he was being hired for. ‘Mai pen rai.’

‘That’s right, mai pen rai,’ Hatcher agreed. ‘So how much?’

‘Every day. All the time?’

‘I sleep late,’ Hatcher said with a smile.

Sy chuckled and nodded slowly. ‘I gotcha. Sleep late, stay up late.’

‘That’s about it.’

Sy, his hands folded behind his back, paced back and forth in front of Hatcher, his forehead wrinkled in a frown. ‘I will have a fight tomorrow night, so I cannot work then.’

‘Okay.’

‘And I must do my moves each afternoon.’

‘I understand,’ said Hatcher. ‘Where do you fight?’

‘Everywhere. Tomorrow at the Royal Park near Wat Phat,’ he said proudly. ‘If I get good enough, someday I will become a member of the King’s guard.’

‘That’s what you want, huh, to be a King’s guard?’

‘Yes. I have asked Buddha for that gift every day for twelve years. I wear the hai- huang and tattoo to guide me to that job.’

He reached inside his shirt and took out a circular brass ornament on the end of a silver chain. A reclining Buddha was engraved in its center. The Thais were big on amulets, which they called hai-huang, meaning ‘worries away,’ and some had amulets for every occasion. There were stalls and shops that specialized in amulets near all of the four hundred wats in Bangkok.

‘That’s a handsome hai-huang,’ said Hatcher. ‘Okay, I’m sure we can find thirty minutes for you to practice every day. Maybe I’ll even go to the fights with you.’

‘I will get you ticket,’ the driver said excitedly, thrusting his leg out to the side in two hard kicks.

‘Okay, so how much?’ Hatcher asked again.

Sy stopped and held out his hand, the fingers splayed out. ‘Fi’ dollars, American bucks.’

‘An hour?’ Hatcher said.

‘All day.’

‘Five dollars a day?’ Hatcher said with surprise.

‘And I eat.’

‘Right. Five dollars a day and meals.’

‘Chai,’ the little Thai said.

‘You’re worth more.’

‘More?’

‘Twenty bucks a day.’

‘A day!’ Sy said, his eyes growing twice their size. Hatcher nodded.

‘I am rich man,’ said the delighted Sy. ‘I will rent a car.’

‘Can you drive a car?’

‘Sure, okay.’

‘Okay, I’ll throw in the car,’ said Hatcher.

‘Throw in?’

‘I’ll rent the car.’