I’ve seen a lot of bad parenting in the world, much of it in LOS. Rhek Thum has some notoriously bad parents. There is an inordinate amount of ya-baa here, as well as a higher than national average homicides committed by, and on teens. Now I read the running thread about the mother scaring her little boy with a cockroach. Cute kid, smart too. Shame he has to go through something like that.

This particular experience came to mind.

Returning home from Phuket some months ago, I stop to use the Wi-Fi at a government building in a village a bit outside Rhek Thum proper. The sun is setting and the small offices are closed and I’m sitting in a pickup parked on the shoulder out front.

I’ve been here before. Across the street is an empty lot thick with fruit trees. Next to the lot is a sore thumb. The other four houses in the immediate area are new, painted brightly, and have chrome rails, or even lawns. But this small, forlorn wooden structure is surrounded by tall weeds and uneven dirt. I’ve only been here before in the daytime and have never seen anyone in or around it, and so easily assumed it abandoned.

I busy myself with the internet, and like angels, they arrive so quietly I don’t hear them. About five meters away there are terrazzo benches against the front wall of the offices. In my peripheral I see two pairs of tiny legs pressing against the benches, and each other, swaying in time. They don’t sit. I didn't know it then, but they are waiting.

Barefoot little girls speak softly for a minute, then the older one starts singing a song I can barely hear. Bushes prevent me from seeing faces, but the legs tell me one is maybe four, the other is certainly shy of three. I am captivated by how very calm they are. No shouting, no arguing, no running about. Just serene swaying while the eldest sings. I listen a while, and shake my head and think, how can their parents let them go off on their own? After dark? I am tired of seeing two year olds hanging over motorbike handlebars, or walking solo in the street.

I will soon feel ashamed for my indictment.

I go back to the internet, keeping them in my peripheral, like they need protecting. After five minutes or so the four year old, in (polite) Thai, says, “Mom coming, ja.” I glance in my rearview and see a woman only from the neck down, carrying a bowl and one spoon. The bowl is not very big.

I never see her face either, because she sits on the benches between her children, and very, very softly talks to them while all three eat. She says nice things. How, this is not their house, and they are only using the bench to eat and they all must clean everything very well when they are finished, or they can’t come back. The children repeatedly say, “yes, mother,”” and, “very spicy, mom,” still unaware of my presence.

The little girls wear old clothes, but the dresses are white and look clean as far as I can tell in the porch lights. I look over my shoulder at that ramshackle shed, see a dim, yellowish incandescence from a single bulb escaping through so many cracks and gaps, and out-of-square openings lacking glass. Attack me if you like, but I say Thais are loud. Yet the deportment to which I am now am privy is anything but typical of what I’ve witnessed over the years. I confess I tear up.

They finish eating and wipe the benches and police the floor and, as they walk back to their house, I see in my mirrors the mom from behind, following slowly, but tall and straight. My first impression is, nothing can destroy such spirit.

But I don’t know that, not really.

Merry Christmas.

.

Lovely story.....

Lovely story.....

+1

Quality is hard to come by sometimes here. Lovely story, well told.

Is it poster of the Year time again ?

nutter and a half straight proper !!

Very few of us have Kindle or easy on the eyes-screens.

Do you know that reading long texts on white backgrounds is harmful?

Very few of us have Kindle or easy on the eyes-screens.

Do you know that reading long texts on white backgrounds is harmful?

.

One can always watch Miley Cyrus videos.

Very awesome story. Reminds me of the writings of Annie Proulx...

Your story stopped time there while I read it and reread it.

Is it poster of the Year time again ?

.

Yes, it is.

Thank goodness I wasn't nominated.

Well you should have been, I'd vote for you.

Well done.

Merry Christmas to you, too.

Very few of us have Kindle or easy on the eyes-screens.

Do you know that reading long texts on white backgrounds is harmful?

.

One can always watch Miley Cyrus videos.

That's better for my eyes, but I doubt Kitsune will appreciate it much as she is female.

Well you should have been, I'd vote for you.

.

Thanks for the complement.

Maybe they'll have write-ins.

Well you should have been, I'd vote for you.

Thanks for the complement.

Maybe they'll have write-ins.

You are now ... http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/782897-thaivisa-poster-of-the-year-2014-nominations/?p=8822186

Well you should have been, I'd vote for you.

Thanks for the complement.

Maybe they'll have write-ins.

You are now ... http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/782897-thaivisa-poster-of-the-year-2014-nominations/?p=8822186

.

Oh, dear. What have you gone and done now?

If I win, I'll have to live up to the title. How many more stories about my Rhek Thum can you all stomach?