How is it…. (3)

It is now 22 years ago that I met the Thai T. We lived together for 10 years and with her I have a 20-year-old son who has been living with me for 9 years now. With a clear conscience I can say that with her nothing is (still) what it seems. Read the story of Lung Ruud.

In the meantime I was busy with my work, was busy selling my house in the south of the country and keeping track of it during the weekends until the sale was completed. My social weekend life mainly took place there. I had done an intensive job merging 2 companies and had not counted on having to move again.

I came to North Holland because - like a colleague of mine - "the cumpanie" liked to see me come there. To be honest, I wasn't waiting for that. In the few years before that I had just built up a nice social circle in the “suje”, with friends, acquaintances, the pub and fitness twice a week. But I was ambitious, driven, fast boy, with fast car, senior status and so I went…….. A challenge was waiting for me. I was fine… right?

I had started with the tennis lessons a) because I couldn't do that well and b) because the tennis class was also a way to build up a private network again. In the weeks that followed it remained mostly dry - we played tennis on the outdoor courts - on Tuesday evenings. So the tennis lessons continued and I progressed steadily, just like the rest of the class, who also had a lot of fun. There came a Tuesday evening when it stormed and sleet fell and the lesson was cancelled. After all, it was already well into November and I -on the way back home- again stopped in front of the massage parlor ……

Ringed the doorbell and surprise, T opened the door and she recognized me immediately and I said to come for her. Another blow and greeting and that smile. I only read the book “soft as silk, flexible as bamboo” by Sjon Hauser years later…..
The girls in the living room jumped up again, fanned and saw that I was planning to go upstairs with T and wished me a nice time. Upstairs the ritual of paying, showering and fetching water was repeated. “You drink na-am”, good thing she remembered that, I became more and more surprised.

After the shower ritual, wrapped in a towel, I lay down on the mattress and T came back a few minutes later from the ab name and with the na-am began the foot massage. In the meantime she asked me the same questions she had asked the previous time. I thought these repetitions were due to the fact that maybe we didn't really understand each other last time. T asked things like “you have never been to Thailand”, You have no wife or girlfriend. No was my answer. I know you 42 years but have no your name. I told her my name and she tasted my name on her tongue and found it difficult because of the U in it.

T also asked, where do you live, have big family, what work do you do? I kept the answers somewhat vague. Small family, live in Haarlem and working in sales…… I didn't know what to do with the demand. Was it curiosity, professional interest or just to pass the time. I didn't come out well… She herself said that she hadn't been to Thailand for a long time and that it was so difficult to earn enough money for the family, her son or to keep it for a ticket. Apart from fellow massage girls and two girlfriends, T had no one here. But those friends were also busy with work and a family. Sometimes she also slept in the drawing room, but only when she was very tired and it got late. That didn't happen that often because few customers came, according to T's story back then…..

At the end of the day, the Mama-San -Zo T- was regularly unable to pay the girls. With some frequency she left before closing time and went to the casino in Zandvoort. There she gambled away the day's proceeds and more. All those things were kind of casually dropped in that funny language that T used. If she had said then, with the same diction, that she had killed someone, I think I would have responded with “okay”…