Christmas from Hell (3)

'You don't mind giving money away to Thai friends who you meet, but when I ask for a loan you nag and nag for it back,' he complained.

'You have given away money yourself to worthy causes - you have told me so,' I said. 'Leave, if you don't like it!' I shouted.

Maiyuu responded by pulling the plug from my computer. It was going at the time.

My computer does not like sudden power outages. I have spent thousands of baht - enough to buy a new one, in fact - repairing the hard-drive after it goes into shock when the power is cut.

I flew back into his room and grabbed him. We struggled.

'K*ill me!' he shouted.

'I won't k*ill you - I want to carry on with my own life, even if you don't want yours,' I said, releasing him.

Tensions settled for about an hour, before we fell into an argument again. This time, Maiyuu said he was leaving.

The last time he threatened to go, a couple of months ago, he spent an hour packing his clothes and other belongings into rubbish bags - which then sat around our place for weeks before he decided to empty them again.

This time, he told me to keep the lot. 'I am going into the monkhood for life,' he said. 'I won't need anything there.'

I wanted to give him money before he left. 'I can leave it with the office, or give it to the temple. I cannot accept you leaving with nothing,' I said.

I told him this not because I am a generous soul, but because I didn't like the thought of him struggling alone.

He gave me back my ATM card, and his cellphone, before storming out.

now, see part 4