“Do you remember that we always heard that sizzling sound of them frying food in their woks.”
“Yes, so—”
“Well, they fried most of the apartment building. The sprinklers didn’t turn on. No one was hurt fortunately. You had only a few canvases. I took out your paintings and my computer and ran out before the flames reached our door. Our ideas are safe.”
“Thank God! Thank God, no one was hurt.” He imagined the horror of having all his canvases in that location and his image emblazoned in light, heat, and smoke. What a way of setting his reputation on fire. What a way of enlightening the world. And yet, in accordance with Zen, burnt canvases would nip his ego and remind him of the true traceless aspect of being. If this had happened, to which his whole being poured out praise to whatever forces of the cosmos intentionally or unintentionally caused it to not occur, it would have taught him the awareness that permanence was an illusion. It would have taught him an acceptance of fate and an appreciation of the simple pleasure of just being. He thought of the time that he and Noppawan were in a Songkran Festival water fight in Banglampool. Both were unlucky enough to have both sides of their faces shot with water containing some form of caustic chemicals that burned lacerations which later changed into black eyes. For a few weeks the friends had been freaks but then they were always freaks, and at the age of 14 or 15, the inception of their friendship, they had attended the natural science freak museum at Siriaj Hospital. In Thailand no one told the truth. They were careful and obsequious with their “wei,” their traditions, and their buried tongues. They were in favor of just getting along. To Thais, he and Piggy would be perceived as intractably strange. The couple couldn’t claim to be comfortable as freaks although freakishness was their natural order.
“Also, the monkey, the cat, and the parrot: I got them out too.”
“Noppawan? Noppawan Rongthang” he said timidly in the fog of self-doubt.
“Jatupon Biadklang” she mocked him and laughed at his insecurity.
“Why didn’t you move into the condominium?”
“My sister’s apartment is near the university.”
“I’m feeling lonely,” he said while laughing at himself. “I love you but I’m doubting if you love me.”