Narong drove home in silence. All the way back to the town Sirinya stared out at the river and thought about the prisoners. How malnourished and ill they looked, how they were dressed in rags, and how their captors brutalised and beat them. Her own problems – her boredom at being confined to the shophouse, her longing for her home village, her difficulties with Narong – all faded into insignificance beside the dreadful plight of those men. She wondered if there was something she could do to relieve their suffering. Would she be able to smuggle them some food? There looked to be hundreds of them, perhaps thousands. She sighed. It was hopeless. Even if she could take them a few pieces of fruit, it would not be a fraction of what they needed.
Narong turned the car into Saeng Chuto Road and drew up outside Chalong’s shop. He switched off the engine and turned to her.
‘I’m sorry for the way I behaved back there, Siri,’ he began, a pleading look in his eyes. ‘It was wrong of me. I don’t know what I was thinking.’
She stared at him. She had all but forgotten his bitter outbursts, the terrifying drive along the river.
‘Don’t worry about it. Forget it,’ she said absently, reaching for the door handle.
‘Will I see you again?’ he asked.
‘I’m not sure.’
She got out and walked towards the front door without saying goodbye. She could feel Narong’s wounded gaze on her back all the way but she didn’t turn round. As she let herself inside she heard the engine start up and the car move away along the street.
The shop was closed and the shutters down. There was no sign of Malee or Piak. She went up the stairs. The door to the apartment was locked. She put her ear to the wood. There were murmured voices coming from inside. She knocked firmly three times and the voices fell silent. After a few moments she heard Chalong’s voice.
‘Who is it?’
‘It’s me, Sirinya.’
She heard the bolt being pulled back and Chalong opened the door. She stepped inside. Around the table in the middle of the room six or seven men were seated. They all turned to look at her. There was a bottle of Thai whisky on the table and they each had tumblers in front of them. She noticed Somsak on the far side of the table, and recognised a few members of the town council, the headmaster of the school, the local doctor. In the middle of the table a map was spread out.
‘Go upstairs please, Siri,’ said Chalong in a firm voice. ‘Your aunt and Malee are up there. We won’t be long.’
She wanted to ask what was happening. Why the locked door, the air of secrecy? But it was clear that her Uncle was in no mood for questions. She remained silent and turned back towards the stairs.
Piak and Malee sat together in Piak’s bedroom. The wireless on the dressing table was playing Thai folk music. Piak sat in a chair in the corner, sewing. Malee was sprawled on the bed engrossed in a glossy magazine.
‘What’s happening downstairs?’ she asked. Malee shrugged and turned back to her magazine. ‘We don’t know. Father won’t tell us. He just asked us to come up here.’
‘Well, Somsak is down there too. Didn’t he say anything?’
‘No. He said it was secret and I wasn’t to tell anyone about the meeting.’
Piak put down her sewing. ‘It’s best if you don’t ask, Siri,’ she said, with an anxious look. ‘Your uncle will tell us what we need to know.’
‘I bet it’s about the Japanese occupation. Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know?’
Piak shook her head. ‘It’s best not to ask,’ she repeated with pursed lips.
‘There are hundreds of prisoners in the area now,’ said Sirinya. ‘They’re building a camp in Uncle’s field. And they’re clearing the jungle too. Out of town, along the river. Gangs of them. They’re clearing a track for the railway they’re going to build all the way to Burma. It’s dreadful. They’re being driven like slaves.’
Piak said nothing, just frowned at Sirinya and picked at her blouse anxiously. Malee didn’t look up from her reading.
‘Well, don’t you care?’ Sirinya burst out, ‘I can’t believe you can just sit by and ignore it. It’s happening right here in our hometown.’
‘How do you know they’re clearing the jungle?’ asked Malee.
‘Narong drove me out there. He wanted to drive all the way to Bangkok but I refused to go.’
‘I thought you weren’t going to see him anymore,’ said Malee, closing her magazine and sitting up, finally showing some interest in what Sirinya had to say.
‘I’m not. It doesn’t matter anyway. What’s important is the prisoners. We should try to do something for them.’
‘Oh, Siri. When will you learn,’ said Piak. ‘These things are bigger than us. You can’t solve all the world’s problems.’
‘I know that, but I can’t just stand by.’
‘Sometimes there are things that happen that are out of our control. You have to accept that.’
‘I’ll speak to Uncle about it. He’ll know what to do.’
Impatiently she crossed the room to the front window and looked down at the street below. The headmaster was just emerging from the front door. He hurried away from the shop and down the road furtively. From where she stood she could see the pale bald patch on the top of his head. She wondered where the others had got to, and realised that they must have left the building by the back door.
The door to the room opened and Chalong stood there. He looked gravely at the three of them, then came and sat on a stool beside Piak.
‘Sirinya, please could you leave the room for a moment. I have something to say to Malee.’
Malee looked up in surprise.
‘Why, Father?’ she said, but Sirinya walked to the door quickly. She knew better than to challenge her uncle.
She waited in her own room restlessly. She lay on the bed and tried to read, but the words on the page of her book slid past her eyes. She put it down and wandered to the window, staring out at the street below. She glanced over at the Kempeitai’s house. There was a truck parked in front and she watched some officers get out of it and walk towards the shophouse. Two others emerged and they all bowed to each other elaborately before going on their way. She was about to turn away from the window when she saw something that made her grip the windowsill and her mouth drop open in surprise.
‘What the …?’
A young woman, dressed in a tight-fitting black dress and high-heeled shoes was walking quickly with tiny steps along the pavement. When she drew level with the Kempeitai’s house she turned towards it and tottered up to the door. Malee couldn’t be sure, but it looked suspiciously like Ratana, a girl she and Malee had been at school with. The girl went up the front steps and rang the bell. Almost instantly the door opened and a soldier appeared in the doorway. He took the girl’s hand and pulled her into the house. Sirinya stared as the door slammed. She could hardly believe what she’d just seen. A Thai woman fraternising with Japanese soldiers! Could it have been Ratana? She hoped not. She knew the family was poor. The father had died when Ratana was young and the mother ran a laundry. Ratana had always been precocious, making eyes at the boys from an early age, flaunting her well-developed figure in the schoolyard. Sirinya could imagine why she’d gone to the house, but she didn’t want to think about it. Not now, at least.
She heard Malee run to the next bedroom and slam the door. After a few minutes, she went out and tapped on the door. There was no answer. She could hear Malee’s sobs coming from inside the room. She opened the door quietly and went over to sit on the bed beside her cousin.
‘What’s the matter? What did you father say?’
Malee looked at her with tears in eyes that were already red from crying.
‘It’s Somsak. He has to go away.’
‘Away? But where to?’
‘I don’t know, that’s just it. Father won’t say exactly. He just said it was in the north of the country, near the Burmese border.’
‘Why, Malee? Did he say why?’
‘He told me some things, but I can’t tell you, Siri. He swore me to secrecy. I am not to breathe a word. Not to anyone.’
Sirinya swallowed. She felt stung, excluded. They were a family, and although Malee was their daughter, Piak and Chalong had been like parents to Sirinya while she had stayed in their house. They had shared everything and had had no secrets before. She could not understand it. It was not like Chalong to behave like this.
‘But he will come back won’t he? He won’t be going for ever, surely?’
‘I don’t know. He might not. Something dreadful could happen to him …’
Malee flung herself down again and resumed her sobbing. Sirinya stroked her hair and tried to comfort her as best she could. After a time Malee’s sobs subsided and her breathing became even. She seemed to have cried herself to sleep.
Sirinya crept out of the room and went downstairs to the living room. Her uncle sat at the table, frowning with concentration, poring over the map, smoking a cheroot.
‘Sirinya!’ he said, beckoning her to come and sit beside him.
‘Uncle. Malee says that Somsak has to go away. Is it true?’
‘It’s true my child,’ he said.
‘Can you tell me why? I wouldn’t tell anyone, I promise.’
He took his cigarette out of his mouth and placed it on the ashtray.
‘Listen to me,’ he said, looking into her eyes. ‘I’m going to tell you this once, then I’m not going to mention it again if I can help it,’ he said. ‘Can I trust you to keep a secret, Siri?’
She nodded.
‘A man came to see me earlier today,’ Chalong continued. ‘He’s a contact of mine from Bangkok. He told me about two resistance movements working underground against the Japanese. There’s the V Organisation, who are trying to help prisoners, and there’s also the Free Thai Movement. Thailand needs to stand up against the occupation, and those of us who want to fight for our freedom must do what we can to help. They want volunteers to watch the Japanese – report on their movements and the activities of troops. Others will be actively engaged in sabotage, mainly in the north where the Japanese are stationing troops. That’s where Somsak comes in.’
Sirinya stared at him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean he has to go away from here, to a camp in the jungle up in the north of the country. He’s going to train with the guerrillas.’
‘Poor Malee,’ murmured Sirinya.
‘She was very upset. And I understand that, but I told her. I said, you must put your own wishes aside my dear. There is a war on. He is young and strong and he wants to fight. The country needs men like him. I’m afraid she blames me, Sirinya. But I told her as gently as I could that it’s not just me. It is Somsak himself. He wants to go. I’m sure he’ll tell her the same thing himself.’
‘Uncle, do you know about the prisoners?’ said Sirinya.
He nodded. ‘I know that there are thousands of them being brought here, that many of them are ill or malnourished, and they are being put to work to build this railway. It’s a crazy idea.’
‘They are being driven like slaves,’ said Sirinya. ‘Isn’t there something we can do to help them, Uncle? Couldn’t I try to take some food to the camp?’
He shook his head emphatically.
‘That would be very dangerous. Please don’t do that, Siri. You could be risking your life and risking exposing the movement.’
‘But Uncle …’
He held up his hand. ‘I will think about it. I’m sure there will be something we can do. I agree with what you say. We can’t just sit by and let this happen right on our doorstep. Just give me a little time to think.’