"Of course," said Boi. "There is little sleep for a man bunked under another man…especially when under a man like you and with socks stinking like that, like an elephant's breath…not that the socks were the entire problem. Those were finally taken away in the morning when I couldn't bear it anymore. They didn't bother me after that. It was…" He stopped.
"It was what?" asked Nawin with a relieved chuckle, grateful for flippant conversation to interpose his silent ponderings. The idea that a Thai and a Laotian could not engage in conversation without an elephant trudging through it almost tickled him to tears.
"I don't know," he smirked knowingly. "I am used to sleeping in the mornings so after they came and removed those contaminated articles of yours I could have fallen back to sleep. For a while I attempted to wave away the remaining cloud of stink so that I could do just that. I rested quietly enough after a time. It wasn't as if I was asphyxiating from those smells any longer. The cloud was still there… extant as they say… but I could have slept were it not for this weird feeling that somebody was looking at me—looking at my body. Have you ever felt that way?"
"No."
"Not at all?"
"No, I don't think so. Not really. I mean with my wife. Maybe at times she watched me when I was sleeping. I wouldn't know."
"You wouldn't know?" he mocked. "And these models that you say that you paint, would you know it if one of them watched you while you slept?"
"I wouldn't know."
"You do paint them?"
"Yes."