Bolt was elevated by the experience of meeting such a vibrant, strong Thai woman. There was something about her, which he bizarrely compared to Red Lead. They were both attractive, and good communicators. For the first time since being ‘dumped’ by his fiancée he felt liberated, at least to dream. After almost two years in captivity, Usa was a breath of reality, normality and an inspiration. She was also a vision of hope. His feelings of attraction to a woman, long submerged, had been revived.
He returned the next day as requested, with a different driver. Usa wore a long blue and turquoise dress, into which her figure fitted snugly. She had her hair pinned back. Red Lead approached him from amidst a sea of siblings as he took tea. She had some of her old swagger. She jumped on the chair next to him and meowed, touching his arm with a paw.
‘How did she do?’ Bolt asked Usa.
‘She had fight with one of the boys. He start it, she was too weak to finish it. I push them away from each other. Apart from that, she fine, very relax, very comfortable. It is cat heaven, paradise for her!’
‘She slept well?’
‘Oh, yes. Longer than her mother. But that is expected after what happen to her.’
He put Red Lead on his lap and stroked her.
‘You married?’ Usa asked.
‘No. I was engaged but I have been away too long. She married someone else.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Thank you. I’m over it. And you? You mentioned your husband …’
‘I was married to Thai captain in army.’ Her expression
tightened. ‘He was killed by Japanese fighting in north.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I hate them,’ she said with vehemence. She fought back tears.
Bolt leaned forward. He could see his guard sitting under a tree, smoking. He touched Usa’s forearm.
‘I think the Allies will defeat them,’ he said. ‘The Japanese are becoming more nervous.’
Bolt, under the watchful eye of a guard, returned every day to see Usa and Red Lead. When the bridge was nearly completed, they discussed Red Lead’s future.
‘You can leave her here,’ Usa said. ‘I look after her until the war ends. You cannot tell what the Japanese will do.’
‘If they send me to Japan, I could not take her …’
‘No, never! A Thai cat there, not good!’
‘I’ll have to think about it.’
‘This is her real home, remember?’ Usa said with a smile.
Bolt wandered around the Moei River market one evening, and bargained away his gold watch to a dealer for 300 American dollars, knowing that it was worth at least twice that.
The day before he was to be taken to Bangkok, he made a decision.
‘I can’t be sure of the future for Red Lead or me,’ he told Usa, despondently. ‘I would appreciate you taking her.’
Usa kissed him on the cheek.
‘You are a good man. I will take very good care of her. Promise. But she is no trouble. She’s stronger now. She picked out boy who attack on second day. She beat him up! After that I think she is queen of the pack. Her mother does not mind.’
‘I have money for you to—’
Usa shook her head and smiled.
‘I have thirty-three of them. She makes thirty-four. I have money from my father. It’s not a problem.’
He pressed 200 dollars into her hand.
‘Please accept it. I have some for Singapore, where they are sending me.’
Usa kissed him on the mouth, which surprised him.
Bolt cradled Red Lead in his arms, stroking her and chatting to her. She was content. She then purred and curled up on an armchair. Bolt cried lightly, wiped away tears and took the moment to leave. He hugged Usa.
‘I shall do everything I can to come back for her,’ he said, locking eyes with Usa, ‘and you.’
Usa began crying. She smiled warmly through the tears and said, ‘I want you to.’
Bolt had just bedded down on his floor mat in his one-room shack at 10 p.m. when he heard a light knock at the door. It was Usa. She embraced him. Without a word, they fell onto his bed and made passionate love through the night.