Jayne slept fitfully, woke before her alarm, made her way in the dark to the Southern Bus Terminal. She arrived with twenty minutes to spare, the bus already idling in the departure dock. Despite the chill of the air-conditioning and the rousing smell of diesel, she fell asleep on the bus before it pulled out and didn’t wake until they arrived in Kanchanaburi.
As she descended, she was swamped by a horde of dark, scrawny men offering tours to the Bridge on the River Kwai. She waved them aside and found a place that made fresh coffee, rural style, filtered through a calico bag and brewed in a stainless steel jug until it was thick and strong, served in a glass over two fingers of sweetened condensed milk. She chased it down with a bowl of rice noodle soup, as salty as the coffee was sweet.
Over her second coffee and first cigarette, Jayne reflected on her encounter with Alicia King. While the first to admit she knew nothing about being a parent, let alone an adoptive one, Jayne was surprised by Alicia’s proprietary air, given Kob had been in her custody less than a week. Jayne had expected shock, denial, defensiveness in reaction to the revelations of fraud. She hadn’t expected Alicia to accuse her of extortion. Did the American woman even care whether the adoption was legitimate?
Alicia was preparing to fight; Jayne could only hope that Mayuree was up to it.
She left the café and hailed a samlor —literally ‘three wheels’—a kind of bicycle-rickshaw obsolete in Bangkok. Jayne directed the driver to Mayuree’s address and climbed behind him. The bench seat was upholstered in blue and yellow vinyl with a cover that looked like the hood of a pram.
The gentle pace of the samlor gave her a feel for Kanchanaburi town, which after Bangkok and Pattaya belonged to another era. Gigantic trees dominated the skyline, the street signs were in the shape of fish, and no building in the town appeared taller than three storeys.
Rajiv had included information on the area with her bus ticket. She found a map and figured they were headed northwest, tracing the path of the Kwae Yai—the River Kwai. Mayuree’s family home was located close to the town’s most famous tourist attraction. The samlor driver pulled over in front of a freestanding shop-house on the main road. Mayuree must have been waiting for her. By the time Jayne paid the fare, the Thai woman was at her elbow, ushering her down the side of the house to a shaded garden at the back.
‘The cleaner comes today,’ she said by way of explanation.
‘It’s easier if we stay out of her way.’
Jayne nodded, though she neither saw nor heard any movement inside the house.
‘My parents are not home,’ Mayuree added. ‘My mother thinks my father is visiting relatives, but he is really attending cockfights at a Mon village near the Burma border.’ She allowed a tiny smile. ‘My mother has gone to the temple.
She’s been going twice every day since Kob…since he was taken from me. I think she’s trying to build up merit to pacify the phi am of the grandson she rejected.’
‘Phi am?’
‘She’s been having trouble breathing. She thinks Kob’s ghost is haunting her, sitting on her chest as she sleeps.’
‘So you haven’t told her he’s alive?’
‘Sister, to be honest, I’m not sure I dare believe it.’
‘Oh, he’s alive all right,’ Jayne said.
She put a photo of Kob on the table between them, the same one she’d already mailed to Mayuree.
‘This is not all we have,’ she said. ‘I’ve been investigating an adoption scam connected to the New Life Children’s Centre.’
Mayuree nodded. They’d gone over this on the phone.
‘I had reason to believe Kob was handed over to an American couple. Last night I traced them to a hotel in Bangkok near the US Embassy. And Kob was with them. I saw him with my own eyes.’
‘And he was okay?’
‘He was fine.’
‘That’s wonderful—’ Mayuree began. ‘But why are you telling me this? Why haven’t you brought my son back to me? Where’s my baby now?’
‘Still with the Americans.’
‘Didn’t you explain to them—’
‘Of course I did.’
‘And?’
‘They didn’t believe me. They thought I was trying to blackmail them.’
Mayuree buried her face in her hands and shook her head.
‘They’ve applied for a visa to take him to America,’ Jayne said. ‘The embassy is closed for Chinese New Year until tomorrow. We still have time to get to them. But you have to confront them, Mayuree. You’re the only one who can get Kob back.’
Mayuree thought about her little son in the arms of strangers and felt sia jai. ‘Sorry’ in English, but much stronger in Thai. Not merely sorry. The heart was altogether lost.
‘We’ll take the bus to Bangkok today,’ Jayne was saying.
‘You need to bring as much evidence as you can—things that belonged to Kob, photos of the two of you together, messages addressed to both of you—anything that helps prove you’re his mother.’
Mayuree thought of her bag tumbling from the motorbike as she left Pattaya, splitting open as it hit the ground. Her heart sank further.
She took her hands away from her face and looked at Jayne. ‘I’m not sure I have anything left.’
‘It doesn’t matter. Your family and friends can swear that you’re Kob’s mother and didn’t consent to his adoption.
I know a lawyer who can help with that stuff free-of-charge.
The most important thing is for you and Kob to be reunited.
No one will be able to refute your claims once they see the two of you together.’
They sat in the dappled sunlight of the garden for a moment without speaking.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Mayuree said, staring at the ground.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean maybe Kob’s already forgotten me. I wasn’t a good mother to him. I left him with strangers. I didn’t protect him. I lost him.
‘That’s not true—’
Mayuree cut her off. ‘You don’t understand, Khun Jayne. You don’t know me. Kob is better off where he is now. He’s destined for a rich country with two parents to care for him. Laew teh duang. Thai people believe it always comes down to fate.’
Mayuree didn’t look up but she heard her farang companion groan and mutter something in English.
‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ Jayne asked.
‘Please.’
Jayne lit a cigarette, drew back and exhaled in a long, smoky sigh.
‘Look, maybe I’m just a farang who doesn’t understand Thai culture. But with all due respect, I think what you just said is bullshit.’
The English expletive gave Mayuree a jolt. She raised her head. Jayne was seated in profile to her, colour in her cheeks.
‘You love your son, sister, and he loves you. I know you tried to spend time with him, resisted the pressure to give him up. I saw your apartment in Pattaya and the effort you made to keep it clean and welcoming for him. I know the long hours you worked in order to build a future for him.’
She turned to face Mayuree.
‘I don’t know you well but I know enough. You’re a good mother, Mayuree, and Kob’s rightful place is with you.
And if you’re going to call it fate, make sure you’ve read it correctly that it’s your fate to let someone steal Kob away rather than stand up and fight for him.’
She butted out her unfinished cigarette.
Mayuree struggled to contain her emotions. No one had ever told her she was a good mother. She felt the strong beat of a heart she thought was lost.
‘This lawyer who will help me free-of-charge. Is that because she’s no good?’
For the first time since she arrived, Jayne smiled.
‘On the contrary, people like you and me could never afford her fees. She owes me a favour. So you’ll come to Bangkok with me?’
‘Can you give me a few hours?’
Jayne glanced at her watch. ‘Think you can make the three o’clock bus?’
Mayuree nodded.
Jayne took out her phone, hesitated.
‘There’s one other thing I need to know, sister,’ she said. ‘Where’s Sumet?’