"How wonderful! A famous artist of this area. Are you
Laotian?"
"I'm American," he said. It was the second most offensive word that he could think of.
"Are you here on vacation?"
"Yes," he said curtly, not bothering to reciprocate, and the two strangers fell into silence.
"I'm here with my sister," she spoke at last with less certainty than before." We were trying to find a royal palace. We saw a sign but got lost in some backstreets and did not know where we were going."
"Oh," he said. "Well, did you ask around?"
"Yes, but I guess Thai would be better than English."
"Yes, I suppose it would, but you don't speak it do you?"
"No but you do, don't you? It certainly would be great to go with someone who knows his way around, or even if you don' t; two women traveling together begin to argue if they are alone too much."
"You argue?" he tried to restrain his smile. He knew how his gentle and probing eyes of sustained interest and a luminous smile made women love him, and so he looked away.