through her binoculars.
MAJOR G:
Did you take her to Wat Feuang Fa?
DRIVER:
To tell the truth, sir, I’m not familiar with the names of the temples down these parts. I’m from Trat. This was my first visit to the Gulf.
MAJOR G:
You might recall it. It’s a small temple but it’s on the crest of a hill. You can see it from the road. There’s a bank of bougainvilleas to one side.
DRIVER:
Oh, yes. I do recall that. My passenger was particularly interested in that one.
MAJOR G:
What happened?
DRIVER:
It was the second day. We’re driving along and she sees this temple and it’s like it’s the best thing she’s ever seen and she’s babbling on in Chinese and I don’t know what she wants. I speak English well enough but she’s all single words: stop, go, slow, turn. She tells me to slow down at the temple but not stop. She directs me onto this dirt track a little bit farther on. I try to tell her we could just drive straight up to the temple but she’s not having any of it. Probably didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
MAJOR G:
So?
DRIVER:
So she wants to take pictures of something or other, I’m guessing. Tells me to pull over on this little lane, gets her camera all set up, grabs her shoulder bag and tells me to wait. She runs off into the bushes. I turn the car round, come back and park off the track. About, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty minutes later she’s back and in a real state. Looks like she’s been in a fight. She’s all sweaty and her leg’s cut. And mad, oh, is she mad. And she’s going on in her language, on, on, on. I don’t know what got into her but I tell you she frightened me. She says, “Go, go,” so I drive her back to Pak Nam and drop her off.
MAJOR G:
Where was she staying?
DRIVER:
With friends, according to the e-mail. No idea where they lived. She always had me pick her up and drop her off at the hospital intersection.
MAJOR G:
How did you know when to pick her up?
DRIVER:
She’d either write down a time on a bit of paper or she’d turn up at the Tiwa. That’s where I was staying. She’d arranged that.
MAJOR G:
And when was the next time you saw her?
DRIVER:
The next night. I hadn’t seen her all day. Didn’t know what she wanted me to do. She turns up at the Tiwa at about eight p.m. And there I am enjoying a glass of Saeng Som and Coke on the veranda. I’m just in my shorts, aren’t I? Well, it didn’t occur to me she’d want the car at night. Not a lot of luminous birds out, you know? But she’s all smiley and she wants to go for a drive. So I think perhaps she’s in the mood for a little night life. I’m fond of the odd disco myself. But, no. She doesn’t want me along. She seems to think she can just take the car off on her own. But we’ve got regulations, you see. If someone’s renting the car to drive themselves we have to do security checks. The company hangs on to their passports and makes sure they’ve got international licenses. That’s the law, right? But this woman booked with a driver and so there was no background check. I couldn’t let her take it.
MAJOR G:
So, what happened?
DRIVER:
She takes out this big wad of thousand baht notes and throws it on the table in front of me. There was twenty thousand baht in there.
MAJOR G:
You counted it?
DRIVER:
Later, yeah. It was a lot of money but I couldn’t let her just drive off. If she had an accident or drove into a brick wall, it was my arse on the line.
MAJOR G:
So, you refused to let her take it?
DRIVER:
At first, yes.
MAJOR G:
But then?
DRIVER:
I let her have it.
MAJOR G:
You accepted a bribe and allowed her to break the law?
DRIVER:
No. Yes, well, I took the money, but that wasn’t the reason I let her have the car.
MAJOR G:
And what was the reason?
DRIVER:
I was afraid of her.
MAJOR G:
You’re a big boy. You were afraid of a little Chinese woman?
DRIVER:
Yeah, I know. Saying it like that makes it sound ridiculous. But there was something about her. Something in her eyes wasn’t right. And she had this shoulder bag like a military kitbag and she kept reaching into it and I started imagining she had a gun in there or something.
MAJOR G:
But you didn’t actually see one.
DRIVER:
No.
MAJOR G:
Or a knife?
DRIVER:
No.
MAJOR G:
So you let her drive off in your car because you imagined she was dangerous.
DRIVER:
(long pause) Yeah. She had her hand inside her bag when she asked me for the key.
MAJOR G:
Sounds terrifying.
DRIVER:
