New Year’s Eve 2007 Pattaya
A large beer and liquor distributor has its depot at the end of my soi. Heavy lorries, pick-up trucks and 125cc motorcycles with sidecars exited with thousands of beers every minute. Pattaya had a thrist on the last night of the year from Jomtien to Naklua. Thai and farang tourists were flocking into the city for a final drunk.
“What are you doing tonight?” Sam royalle asked at the 2nd Road sauna. He had been out the previous night with our friends and couldn’t remember coming home. His skin exuded a sheen of excess alcohol.
“Nothing.” I had avoided the debauch and recalled falling asleep before the TV during a Star Trek ENTERPRISE marathon. The mozzies had a party with my feet during my unconscious state and I was scrubbing the red splotches with salt. Several Thai women left the sauna, obviously thinking the red spots were something worse.
“Sounds good to me.” I had worked in nightclubs through the 70s, 80s, and 90s. My fellow workers referred to 12/31 as ‘amateur’s night’ and the same stupid behavior of fights, accidents, and stupid conversations holds as true for Pattaya as it did in new York, London, Paris, or LA. “I’m giving it a miss. My wife is going out with her friends though, so I get to care back of my daughter. We’re going to watch the fireworks from my garden.”
“Have a party.” Sam was a family man and understood kids came first.
My wife left the house at 8:30 without any good-byes. Angie didn’t care,. She and I were playing rodeo on the bed. We had a glass of Pepsi and watched some more Star Trek. It put both of us to sleep before 10. And I was dead sober.
I heard the fireworks and tried to open my eyes.
Not a chance.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
What has happened to my wickedness?
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