An Angel with a Gun Page 17

  “What do you want to do now, Sa-teven?”

  I realized for the first time that Angel really respected me. She was asking me what to do. Nobody had ever asked for my opinion in all my life. Nobody had ever asked me before ‘what did I want to do?” I realized that, without meaning to, I had become the leader that day. If I had ever had any responsibility before then I hadn’t realized it. But now I did and it sort of filled me with pride. I suddenly had the power to make decisions and it gave me a rush. This must be how dictators feel all the time. Well, until somebody shoots them in the head.

  “We need to eliminate the bad guys in the cars first. Then we need to make sure that they have Pom in the warehouse. Is there any way that we could get to the back of the warehouse?”

  Som shook her head.

  “Sorry, Sa-teven. The warehouse have no back door.”

  “What about a skylight?”

  “What skylight mean?”

  “Is there a window in the roof?”

  “I’m not sure.” Som shrugged her shoulders. I could see that she had no intention of climbing up on the warehouse roof to check. My mind flashed back to Porn, the old lady from the village who was doubled over and walked with sticks. She would have been up on the roof like a shot.

  Suddenly I was aware of all the faces just looking at me. They were waiting for a decision.

  “OK Som. Can the girls take out all the bad guys sitting in the cars?”

  “You want us to kill them?”

  “Well, either that or get them to promise not to alert the people in the warehouse.”

  “I think better we kill them. More easy and I think they break promise anyway.”

  “We don’t know what communications they have so we need to hit them all at the same time.”

  “No problem, Sa-teven. We can do like this.”

  Angel, some of the other ladyboys and myself were going to try and get to the bottom of the cul de sac and see if we could break into a car. We thought that at least then we would be behind them when they brought Pom out, to show us that she was alive.

  As we moved into position near to the targets, life around us in Bangkok went on as usual. The boats of all shapes and sizes went up and down the river with people eating, shopping or sightseeing. Traffic inched its way along under a baking sun. Motorbikes taking shortcuts along the pavements were dodging between the food sellers and tourists. People were waiting for buses and finding shade wherever they could.

  When a ladyboy looks like a beautiful sexily dressed woman and she knocks on your car window asking for a light, it’s very difficult to ignore her. When her friend is laughing and giggling, blowing kisses and flirting, it becomes even harder. The girls approached the gangster’s cars in twos. The gangsters still didn’t really know who they were looking for and two pretty ladies knocking on the car windows broke up the boredom for the tattooed mafia men. The three cars were approached at the same time. There was a lot of smiling and cleavage. The windows came down. Lighters were clicked and offered. Guns came out and brains were blown all over the inside of the cars. Pockets were searched and emptied. The enemy was reduced.

  I was with Angel. I pulled the mobile from my pocket. Angel pulled her revolver, checked it and tucked it into the front of her denim shorts. I rang the only number on the mobile. It rang a few times and then the East European voice that I now knew so well spoke to me.

  “Have you got my drugs?”

  “Yes. Have you got my girlfriend?”

  “Yes. I have her. Where are you Steven West?”

  “I’m at the top of the cul-de-sac where your warehouse is. I’m on the corner with the road that runs along the riverside. I’m standing a few feet away from one of your cars with two of your men inside. I’m surprised that they didn’t call you to let you know. I walked past the other two cars as well.”

  My Albanian enemy hung up and then suddenly the mobile phones that the girls had collected from the dead gangsters started ringing. We let them ring until they stopped. My mobile started ringing.

  “Hello.”

  “I underestimated you, Mr. West.”

  “You have probably tried to ring your Albanian café too for more back up. I’m happy to tell you that there isn’t any. It’s just you and whoever you have in the warehouse with you and me and whoever I have out here with me. You want your drugs and I want my girlfriend. Now, I suggest that you bring her outside and let me see her and we can do the swap.”

  I closed the phone and I stood with Angel at the top of the cul-de-sac, looking towards the warehouse and with my back to the river. We just waited. It seemed to take the longest of times before the black roller shutter door started to slowly clunk and grind open as one of the gangsters inside the warehouse pulled on the heavy metal chain. When the steel roller shutter was all the way up nothing happened. There was no movement and no sign of anybody coming out. But then, just as I was starting to think about going in, a group of men came out. There were five of them and they surrounded Pom. She had her hands tied together and she looked scared, very scared. I saw one of the men who was holding Pom use his other hand to dial on a mobile. He was wearing tight jeans and a white shirt undone to his belly button and he had a smart blue jacket on. I thought that he had a face like a weasel. It was sort of thin and pointed. The mobile in my hand started to ring and I answered the man standing at the other end of the street.

  “You can see the girl. Where are my drugs?”

  I looked around and I could see Som sitting behind the steering wheel in the stolen white Honda Civic. I waved her forward. She started the car and drove it slowly to the junction where I was standing with Angel. She stopped and I told her to open the boot. I held up one of the packages.

  “I can see it. Tell the girl to reverse the car down the street with the boot open. The boot had better be full of those packages.”

  “When she reverses the car down the street she will stop it and she walks back up here with Pom.”

  “Once I have checked one of the packages.”

  “Okay.”

  I told Som to leave the boot open and reverse down the cul-de-sac towards the warehouse. She manoeuvred the car and slowly reversed it down the dead end street. The girls hiding on the back seat opened the windows. They were ready. The car stopped and one of the men started walking towards it. The other girls were already hiding in a parked car just past the warehouse. They were ready too. As the man moved towards the Honda Civic they burst out of the parked car and opened fire. The girls in the Honda Civic leaned out of the car and opened fire. The gangsters were caught in the cross fire. They only managed to fire off a couple of shots before it was all over. Pom had fallen to the ground in a heap, but she hadn’t been hit and she was OK. The girls took the wallets, phones and gold jewellery from the dead gangsters. One of the girls pulled a rusted drain pipe from off the warehouse wall and placed it under a car nearest to the warehouse door and she ran the pipe into the warehouse. She used a knife to puncture the vehicle’s petrol tank and the fuel dripped down into the pipe and ran along it into the warehouse. She tossed a match inside and it caught fire with a loud whoosh. She tossed in the Russian hand grenade as she walked back along the street with the rest of the girls. Six seconds later it exploded.

  The girls went back to Som’s house on the motorbikes and Angel gave Pom and myself a lift back to Pom’s boyfriend’s house. Angel didn’t say anything as she drove along. I wanted to talk to Pom, but other than asking her if she was alright, I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Pom didn’t say anything, but she did put her head on my shoulder as she gently sobbed. I thought that this was a good sign. I took it as a sign that she really loved me and I felt happy. I thought that we could go back to her boyfriend’s house and she could get her stuff while I explained to them that me and Pom were going to start a new life toget
her. I was sure that they would be happy for us. Love will always find a way and we were going to have a happy ending and live happily ever after. I think that is the way all stories should end.

  We pulled up outside the huge gates that almost hid the house from the road. I got out of the car with Pom and pressed the intercom button. Angel wound the window down.

  “Tee rak, do you want me to wait for you?”

  “No thanks Angel. We’ll get a taxi after we’ve told them what we plan to do. You can have my share of the drug money. Thank you for everything Angel. You are a good lady and I’m happy that you don’t have cancer.”

  “I love you, Sa-teven.”

  I put my finger up to my lips to stop Angel from speaking and I hoped that Pom hadn’t heard her. I think that I had got away with it.

  A voice answered the intercom and Pom told them that it was us. The gates slid open and we walked up the driveway to the house. The boyfriend and his parents were waiting for us. I had walked up the driveway holding Pom’s hand, but she released it and ran to her boyfriend when we were nearly at the house. He ran to meet her and he picked her up and swung her around before he kissed her. Wow! He was going to be really upset when we told him what we were planning to do.

  His parents also came down to meet us and they too embraced and hugged Pom. It was a sort of group hug that didn’t include me. I waited until they had all stopped kissing and crying before I broke the news.

  “OK Pom. Do you want to go and get your stuff together? I’ll explain to them what’s happening.”

  “Explain what, Sa-teven? What do you mean?”

  “I’ll explain about me and you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’ll explain that you love me more than him and that I’m going to ask you to marry me. I’ll tell them that we are going to live somewhere and spend the rest of our lives together.”

  “Yes, I love you Sa-teven. I have loved you ever since I was a little girl, but I not love you like that. I love you because I think you are the kindest monk in the whole world. You change everybody’s life when you come to Khanchanaburi. Everybody love you. Yes, I love you more than anybody, but I not love you same like husband. I love Tuk.”

  She squeezed her other boyfriend’s hand. I’m guessing that his name was Tuk.

  “So you don’t want to marry me?”

  “No. I never think like this. You change my whole life and make everything better for me, but I never think about you in this way.”

  “But you just said that you love me!”

  “Yes. I will always love you, but not in the same way as you think.”

  “Do you want to just think about marrying me?”

  “I am going to marry Tuk. I love him and he loves me.”

  “I love you too. I always have loved you Pom.”

  “I’m sorry, Sa-teven.”

  “I gave up being a monk for you. I came to look for you because your grandmother, Porn, told me that you loved me.”

  “She is an old lady. She should not say like this. She not know anything. I’m sorry she speak like this.”

  “So, that’s it then? A definite no!”

  “No, Sa-teven. I’m very sorry, but thank you for saving my life.”

  “Oh! That’s okay.”

  I looked around at the faces looking back at me. They had looks on their faces that I had seen all my life - looks of sympathy, disbelief, embarrassment and pity. It slowly dawned on me that I had got it all wrong again. Pom didn’t love me at all. She was in love with her boyfriend. She was going to marry him and I was going to spend the rest of my life just like I had always spent it - alone and on my own. I looked down and kicked some gravel off the driveway. I didn’t really know what else to do.

  “Have you got a brush? I’ll sweep this gravel off the driveway for you.”

  The boyfriend’s mum shook her head.

  “That’s OK, thank you. We’ll do it later.”

  “I don’t really know what to say now. I feel a bit silly really.”

  “Maybe you had better just leave now.” The boyfriend’s father spoke quietly and his words seemed very wise. He put a friendly hand on my shoulder and I knew that he was right. It was time for me to leave. I turned around and started to walk back down the long driveway. I could hear footsteps running up behind me. It was Pom. She grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek.

  “Thank you for everything you do in my life, Sa-teven. I will always love you. Bye.”

  She kissed me on the cheek again and she walked back to her new family. I watched them all walk inside the big house, before I turned back and walked towards the huge gate, which was now closed shut. It was only when I got to the gate that I realized that there was no intercom to ask them to open the gate and let me out. I didn’t really want to walk all the way back up towards the house. I didn’t want to see them again. I was crying too much. I decided to climb over the gate. It wasn’t easy but eventually, after several attempts, I did it and I slid down the other side.

  I was happy and a bit surprised to see Angel sitting on the other side of the road in the stolen white Honda. She looked like she had been crying too. But when she saw me she burst out laughing and jumped out of the car. She ran across to me and hugged me.

  “What are you still doing here?”

  “I waiting for you, you silly man. I love you and you love me too, but you just too stupid to know yet.”

  “You love me?”

  “Yes. I love you with all my heart. You make me happy in my heart every day. What can I do?”

  “You love me even though I’m not handsome or clever?”

  “I love you too much. You not handsome, but you beautiful inside.”

  I couldn’t think of a flaw in her argument. I didn’t really know what I looked like inside, but it might be beautiful. Angel seemed to think so.

  “Do you love me enough to stay with me?”

  “Yes. This is what I want.”

  “I mean a very long time.”

  “I stay with you forever, tee rak.”

  “Even though I can’t take care of you very well?”

  “We take care of each other. Just you and me and the baby.”

  “We are going to adopt a baby?”

  “Not adopt. We are going to have our own.”

  Angel grabbed my hand and put it on her tummy.

  “We make baby already. Baby inside me now.”

  I couldn’t really feel anything, but then again I didn’t know what I was supposed to be feeling. I couldn’t feel anything inside Angel, but I could feel something inside myself. A wonderful warm feeling washed over me.

  “Is it my baby?”

  “Yes. Of course! You are going to be a daddy.”

  “Wow! Do you think I am clever enough to be a daddy?”

  “Yes, tee rak. You will be perfect daddy. Baby will learn so much from you. Baby will learn to be a good person and I can teach everything else. We can do everything together.”

  “OK. You make it sound easy.”

  “Do you think you can love me, Sa-teven?”

  “Yes! I already do.”

  “Can you love me the same way that you love Pom?”

  “Yes. I already do. I got mixed up with Pom. I didn’t realize that you can love people in different ways. I already love you Angel. I think we are good together. Do you want to marry me?”

  “Yes, tee rak. I want very much.”

  Angel wrapped herself around me and we kissed. I realized in that kiss that nobody had ever really loved me before. It was a wonderful feeling.

  Chapter 8

  The future was Bright after all!

  We got back to Som’s house and met up with the rest of the girls. The cash, wallets,
mobiles and watches taken from the dead gangsters had already been shared out by the time we arrived back at the house. There was a feeling of something more than just excitement and it was hanging heavily over us all. We were like soldiers. We had been to war and we had won. This excitement was what soldiers must feel after winning a battle. Everyone was laughing and smiling on adrenaline and high spirits. Angel told everyone about the baby and told them that we were going to get married. It was like lighting the blue touch paper. As can so easily happen in Thailand, a party just seemed to break out. The feelings and love showered on us were warm and sincere. These were lovely people and they were our friends. The party went on most of the night.

  When Angel and myself eventually ended up lying next to each other on a space we found on the floor, she asked me about how I knew so much about the Albanian gangsters and where their café was. I told her all about my friend Pin, the ghost who I had first met back in Phuket all those years ago. Angel didn’t say anything, she just listened. I think that she believed me because she never asked me about Pin again, but after that night she always lit a candle for Pin and kept her in her prayers. I think that she decided Pin was looking after us and she was a friendly ghost.

  We fell asleep in each other’s arms. I felt happy and relieved that it was all over. I felt as if I had got my life back. I had someone who loved me and we were going to get married and have a baby.

  Within a few days the drugs had been sold. Angel and the ladyboy who had brought the Russian hand grenade with her took charge of selling the drugs and they got a good price. Well Angel told me that they did, I wouldn’t really know what a good price was. We all got equal shares and suddenly Angel and I had big money. We got married in a registry office in Bangkok after I got some papers from the British Embassy. All of Angel’s friends and family came along and we all stayed in a hotel not far from the embassy. If I had any friends or family then I’m sure that they would have come along too. I didn’t have anybody really, just Angel, but she was the only person who I needed. We decided to move to the Pattaya area. We bought a house and a bar. Angel made a spirit house for Pin out in the garden and she prays to her every day. I think we both owe Pin a lot.