Bangkok Summer Seduction

We both, of course, knew that wasn’t wholly true. I was almost twenty, but I still was small of stature and of an androgynous and exotic appearance that caused others to note my beauty more than my manly handsomeness. I think she was pleased, though. My father was manly and handsome enough. Marie would mark it as a some victory that I had turned out favoring her more.

“And so handsome too. A real heartthrob,” she added. Again, I had the sensation that she was speaking more of how much of her was in me than about me.

With very little else to say to each other, Marie didn’t take long to turn to a man I just then noticed was standing behind her, touch his arm, and say, “Let me introduce you to Mom Rajawongse Krit Srihipan. As you know . . .” which I didn’t “. . . I have no car of my own and the M.R. was kind enough to volunteer transportation for us.”

A distinguished Thai gentleman, probably in his late forties, trim and tall for a Thai, stepped forward. He was dressed as impeccably as my mother was and now that I noticed him, he was being accorded an area of inapproachability by the crowds in the airport terminal that was even greater in respect than my mother’s was.