“Mee Noi.” The familiar voice startles me, and I spin around.
“Pah!” Running to him, I hug him hard. I’ve missed him so much. He’s a tall man and towers over me. I introduce him to P’Payu as my father. As P’Payu greets him, Sud joins us.
“Pah, what are you doing here?” he asks, accepting a hug.
“Filming wrapped up earlier than expected, so I came home. When I found out where you were, I decided to meet up with you. I hope your producer won’t mind.” He smiles his movie-star smile.
I’d say from the stars in Khun Intapong’s eyes when she looks at Pah that she definitely doesn’t mind. She obviously didn’t know that Sud’s father is the famous actor Thawan Chanthaphan.
“I didn’t put together the last name. Why didn’t you tell me, Nong?” she asks Sud.
“I didn’t want any preferential treatment because of who my father is-khap,” Sud tells her.
“Mee Noi is also my son,” Pah says. He never forgets me. I understand, though, when I see Khun Intapong’s expression, why he quickly adds, “We took him in as a child.”
Sud and I exchange amused looks at Khun Intapong thinking she put two brothers in a romantic ship.
P’Tee and P’Alan finish packing tents into the backs of the vans, and we’re about to leave when I spot someone else I didn’t expect to see on this trip.
“P’Wisit!”
Smiling, P’Wisit approaches with Cora, a girl at our university who is interning with Rainbow TV over the summer. I wonder if Sud realizes she confessed her feelings to him once. Knowing Sud, probably not.
“What are you doing here?” I ask P’Wisit with a quick wai.
“The school sent me. The company needed a medic for the trip,” P’Wisit says. He nods to Sud, who introduces him to Pah.I can’t tell from Sud’s expression how he feels about seeing P’Wisit, but Pah seems very interested in him.
“You’re the friend who went to the movies with Mee Noi,” Pah says, smiling at him. Charismatic as always, Pah begins chatting easily with P’Wisit and the other two staffers until Khun Intapong announces it’s time to get back in the vans and drive to the campsite. Pah puts his knapsack into the storage area with the rest of the luggage and sits between me and Sud on the bench seat.
This time, I sit by the window. The road is paved with black and white stones marking each kilometer along the way. It takes us about twenty minutes to get to the entrance of the park. Not long after we enter, we encounter a group of stump-tailed macaques lounging in the middle of the road. P’Roy has to beep the van horn to get them to move off the pavement, where they glare at us from out of their red faces. I can’t help but laugh, and on the other side of Pah, Sud grins. He seems much more at ease than he did earlier, and I wonder if it’s because Pah is with us. Maybe Sud was nervous about filming the fight scene. Maybe I should have been a little more understanding and a little less paranoid.
Fifteen minutes later, we reach Ban Krang campsite, and we all hop out of the van, stretching our legs before getting busy unloading equipment.
Being the middle of the week, hardly anyone is there, giving us our choice of areas to camp. The weather is muggy and overcast, and we’re all wearing long sleeves and light-weight pants to protect ourselves from the bugs.
Sud and Pah begin putting up a tent and I hurry to help them. A moment later, Khun Intapong rushes over.
“Let me get a few staffers to do that for you, Khun-kha,” she says to Pah.
“Nonsense. I’m the interloper here,” Pah tells her smoothly.
“I assure you it is a privilege to have you here. I admire your work so much.” Khun Intapong’s gaze is focused on the muscles in Pah’s arms where he’s pushed up his sleeves. I can’t wait to tell Mae. She likes to tease him.
Since we’re all hungry, we break out some food and set up folding chairs in a large circle. Then we take turns grilling meat and eat it with fruit.
“Come walk with me, Mee Noi,” Pah says after we’re finished with lunch.
“Sure, Pah,” I say, and we set off on a nearby trail.
Chapter Twenty-six: Sud
I’m worried about Noi, and it’s caused me to act weird all morning. He immediately picked up on it. My attempts to hide it came off as detached, and I hate that. We just started a romantic relationship, and I’m already messing it up.
In the van when Noi started talking about the park, I mentioned the caves, watching him for a reaction. He didn’t have one because he doesn’t remember them. But he remembers thebats, and they were definitely in the caves. One swooped down at me, just like he said. Does that mean he’s going to remember what happened or that he isn’t?
I spoke with Khun Intapong and P’Tee about it yesterday, like I’d told Pah I would. They were very understanding and assured me that there would be a medic on the trip with us in case anything happened.
Little did I know that medic would be P’Wisit.