Dad discovers child is normal, breathes sigh of relief

After a careful examination, I am pleased to report that Ball looks and sounds quite normal.

His Mum’s suggestion the other day that he might not be all there was just mother’s talk, I have concluded.

What a relief!

I visited him twice yesterday: once, for an hour in the afternoon, and again after midnight, when we were joined by his girlfriend Jay and a gay colleague of hers from work.

On the afternoon visit, we sat in his mother’s bedroom, playing with his baby sister, Fresh. Mum was trying to sleep; idle taxi-driver Lort, his mother's partner, was already out to the world.

I watched his behaviour. Nothing out of the ordinary. He wore flimsy cotton shorts, and a T-shirt.

As I played with Fresh, Ball watched TV, flipping between the football, a gameshow, and news coverage about the red shirt protest in Bangkok.

By last night, when I saw him again, he had changed into a new outfit: a matching red top and bottom, decorated with teddy bears, which looked like a pyjama suit.

Moments after I arrived, he excused himself to visit a friend. Still wearing his pyjamas, he wandered outside to see Boy, a regular at carer R’s ya dong stand.

Ball hasn’t been to R’s ya dong stand for the last two nights, and hopes to stay away as long as he can.

‘Relatives on my Dad’s side have pleaded with me to stop,' he said.

‘They say ya dong builds up in the liver and is no good for the body.’

Girlfriend Jay is delighted with Ball’s progress. ‘It’s been two nights so far...he’s doing really well,’ she told me.

Jay turned up with her gay friend from the supermarket.

She excused herself, and changed from her black supermarket outfit into casual gear, including a skimpy pair of shorts.

I detected no signs that Ball was not the full baht, as his mother had suggested. In fact, he behaves like many other teens.

He gives as good as he gets from his girlfriend Jay, who is excitable and talks too much, and enjoys teasing.

He also held his own against Jay’s gay friend Ton, who enjoyed playing up to Ball’s jealous streak.

‘Jay and I are lovers...but only as girlfriends,’ said Ton, hugging Jay to his chest.

Ball pouted.

Jay suggested visiting the local store to replenish the drinks supply, but Ball was having none of it.

‘If you take a step outdoors wearing that revealing outfit, you’ll get a free kick,’ he said.

He was joking, but looked serious. Jay kissed him, and stroked his head for caring.

Holding a cigarette at a jaunty angle, gay Ton turned to me.

‘Do you have any farang friends who can care for me? he asked. ‘How about you...are you free?’

‘He already has an owner,’ said Jay. ‘The farang’s not available.’

I stayed for an hour. Jay and Ball asked me to carry on with them a little longer, but my body had given up.

‘Let Mali go...he’s worked hard, and needs his sleep,’ said Ball protectively. He patted me on the leg.

‘Tomorrow, we can talk,’ he said, giving me a serious look.

Moments earlier, he told me again about how much he wants to change.

‘Drinking ya dong every night, I was starting to feel run-down. Today I played football with friends, and ran around. I felt so much better.’

‘Good boy!’ I enthused.

Ball noticed how happy I felt for him, and smiled.

‘Tomorrow, I will see you at home. We don’t have to visit the ya dong stand,’ I told him.

Spending time with Ball at his place is proving to be much easier than I thought.

I had assumed Jay would be unwelcoming, or that other family members would get in the way.

Far from it. We are enjoying more fun together at his place than ever we did at the nasty ya dong alleyway, with its dogs, garbage collectors, and noisy teens racing about on bikes.