Maiyuu saves a bundle, farang gets the push

Some good news from boyfriend Maiyuu. He has been saving B1,000 a month for his dental needs. He says he wants to replace his teeth with false ones, but as the procedure is expensive, he needs to save a bundle of money first.

‘I keep the money in my room, but I am not showing you,’ he said.

I knew he was saving, but I didn’t know he had saved so much. According to Maiyuu, the total has reached more than B10,000, as he has been saving more than a year now.

Good on him! As reader Nanette argued in a response to yesterday’s post, homemaker Maiyuu is entitled to put aside some money for his own needs.

In fact, now that I know he has some kind of financial cushion behind him, I feel much better about our future.

I am the financial provider. If I was to fall under a bus tomorrow, he would still cope, at least for as long as it took him to find some work.

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I dropped in to see my little one with the not-so-shining future – Mr Ball.

I had just finished work, but did not get to the ya dong stand in time. As I arrived on foot, Carer R had just packed up his shop.

He and Mr Ball had kept each other company for most of the night.

The pair of them had just left the shop, and were about to thread their way through dark alleyways back to his place about 2 minutes' walk away.

Mr Ball was wheeling his baby sister in a pram, and gave me a friendly greeting.

'Hi, Mr M!'

Ball was a little unsteady on his feet, but did not look too worse for wear.

I asked Carer R how his night went; he suggested I try again tomorrow.

‘Go home and get some rest,’ R suggested.

I knew what that meant: R was going back to Ball’s place to try his hand at gambling, and did not want me around to watch.

I had called Ball’s mother earlier in the evening. She was hard at work, crouched over some board game.

Occasionally carer R likes to throw hit hat in the ring too, but for my own sake discourages me from being present.

Such activity is illegal in Thailand, even in the privacy of Thais’ own homes.

When Mum gets down to it, she locks the front door, or at least shuts the bedroom door, to make sure no one from the alleyway outside can see what she and her friends are doing.

If I was present in the room when the police turned up, I would be out of a job. Carer R knows this, so for my own protection tells me to go home instead.

I wanted to talk to Ball, rub his back for him, or at least look at him for a moment, but I had missed my chance.

He looked care-free and happy, as he usually does when he's had a few.

But I know that by the time he wakes, all his old worries will be back, furrowing his teenage brow.

Never mind. I will try again today.