Maya - Illusion

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife and her family, who have always taken care of me in the most wonderful manner, affording me the time and space to take up this career of writing. No-one could have made me feel more welcome and part of the family than they have. I have loved every minute of my life in Thailand and the reason for that lies largely with them.

CONTENTS

1 A Bolt From the Blue (#ulink_9c9fabd1-85a8-5b2a-b951-517256053669)

2 The Visa Run to Laos (#ulink_c537170a-3311-511d-a835-b50304b52db5)

3 The Death of a Neighbour (#ulink_166bb047-11ab-5788-856a-3e436e18cee3)

4 The Fruit Garden (#ulink_f10a0ebf-df3b-5a82-83b0-4be3a7000d06)

5 One Hundred Days (#ulink_ffad8c35-2bab-5143-b5c8-82caf3136968)

6 The Family Businesses (#ulink_d6d0ee5a-ca79-54dc-9afd-1f4b0f077449)

7 School Summer Holidays (#ulink_06b5b7b7-0108-543f-a9a1-9fef30116403)

8 Songkhran (#ulink_ebaeccc1-53ef-5aba-9044-3920af99cde0)

9 Ayr’s Business Plans (#ulink_9c4b6333-2088-5169-8fa2-e62c2b1438dd)

10 Topping Out (#ulink_9e050a5b-4d8f-5c8f-b82a-e875a9c461c9)

11 Rising Prosperity for Baan Suay (#ulink_e2b84f74-8de2-5b06-a8ea-b88b7c140c7c)

12 High Society (#ulink_7a72ed83-a91b-5bfa-81a8-ba8328474ccb)

13 Local Falang Community (#ulink_a6a38927-5e28-59c0-9a01-2685be54bc05)

14 Another One Bites the Dust (#ulink_d7ef82ca-58f5-52c4-863b-d214aed10427)

15 In Sickness and in Health (#ulink_0b952506-3851-561f-a1c5-4768471fc9b2)

16 A Tree Falls... (#ulink_5438b012-4ef2-51a6-b8ab-f665c5227a62)

17 The Business Trip (#ulink_d823dadf-5b53-5fb8-bc8f-acf4773e04c6)

18 Craig’s Book (#ulink_5dff515a-a6b0-55da-84d3-5cd836a2e0bb)

19 Woollen Wedding Anniversary (#ulink_853b5728-8e5e-5894-951a-4f4f2a252e4f)

20 The Party Season Begins (#ulink_b77c2a1d-ab06-552b-adb5-f751b691a914)

21 A Change in Fortune (#ulink_50cb32ed-6aa1-5a27-8291-8a47b4c4bd3f)

22 The Sanuk Employment Agency

23 Operation Salvage (#ulink_7dce9b0b-f9b6-52c6-b2c8-1ff9d58e4e88)

24 Christmas (#ulink_48c11870-fe92-5458-8d15-9c44bc00b8f7)

25 Maya - Illusion (#ulink_d3c3bf72-abba-5ce6-885d-a2b0b6e7fc4b)

Glossary (#ulink_f0eccb87-6b9a-549b-a20c-69828d392ca7)

The Lady in The Tree (#ulink_a537a292-addf-597f-a806-598159e3efed)

About the Author (#ulink_04a7561d-f7b6-5cd9-85c7-54667975fe39)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The cover girl’s name is Chalita.

Please send any queries about work to me and I will forward them to her.

Owen Jones

1 A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

Lek was waiting in Craig’s study.

She had been building up the courage for this moment for days and at the precise moment that she had chosen to do it, he had gone to the toilet. She knew that if he didn’t get back soon, she would be in tears before she could tell him her news.

She heard the flush go, so she steeled herself, but then the shower started. He would have to pick just this moment to have a shower too, she thought, but to be fair, he didn’t know that she wanted to speak to him. They spoke so seldom to each other these days.

Lek started to dust his desk with her handkerchief and tidy his bits and pieces for something to distract her, but she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes already. What the Hell was he doing in there?

She went into the kitchen and poured Craig his second daily cup of coffee, took it back into the office, cleared a space for it among the clutter on his desk and carefully put it down.

Clack! The bolt was thrown on the bathroom door with the sound of a rifle being cocked.

As he came into the office moments later, he was surprised to see Lek standing there – she would normally have left the house hours ago to embark on her quotidian routine tour of friends for coffee and then lunch.

“Hello, telak, how are you this morning?” He kissed her on the temple and sat down. “Thanks for the coffee. Just what I need.”

That was it, she was crying. Tears flowed down her face although unaccompanied by any sounds of sobbing at all.

“Oh, Craig, my darling! I am so unhappy... I think that I must go back to Pattaya and start work in Daddy’s Hobby again, if Beou will have me. I am so sorry, my dear.”

“I don’t understand... ‘if Beou will have you’. We have talked about your going to the city to get a job. The costs of our living in a city would outweigh what you could earn...”

“No, dear. I don’t mean that we go to Pattaya... I mean that I go alone. I can live in a cheap room; share with other girls, like I did before. You... you cannot come with me. You must stay here...”

“What? You are telling me that you want to go back to Pattaya to work in a bar and that I should just sit here and wait at home?”

“Yes, but not wait... I will not come back... You can stay here... get a divorce.... go… wherever you like. You can find a new lady, a good lady to take care of you and I will... I don’t know what I will do, but it will be without you. I am so sorry.”