Read Online That Savage Water by Matthew R. Loney - Free Book Online Page B

tonight. That’s the wrong sound, Carl, isn’t it?
    I said it sounded different from other nights, but nothing so bad it could have torn us apart in our sleep or changed what we were planning on doing that night. At least not before the boat came. Probably not before the boat came.
    Anchored offshore between our island and that of Ko Yao shone the lights of the army boat, a full-sized troop carrier squatting in the water of the channel. It sat there, fat and omnipotent, its radar spinning silently on top like it knew something we didn’t. On its deck, dim outlines of soldiers paused by the railings with mouths full of cigarettes and quick Thai. They congregated in groups, coughed and adjusted their hats, staring out onto the beach of Ko Yao and probably up the whole Malay Peninsula all the way to Bangkok.
    ï£§Must be flooded by now – Bosh stared at the island, bobbing his head to the dull thud of the techno beat that carried over – I hope you got the stuff hidden well, Carl. They’ve brought in the army. They mean business.
    I said – It’s fine. We won’t get searched. There are ten thousand people on that beach, no one’s going to bother us.
    Bosh said – You can tell those army boys are aching for a catch of drugged-up farang. Remember how they strip-search in Thailand, Miles? Want me to show you?
    Miles said – Fuck off.
    ï£§They don’t change gloves, see. They bend you over, grease your crack with jelly and stick it in you, same glove as the guy before.
    Miles kept shaving the coconut.
    ï£§Looking for drugs and weapons mostly. You never heard of that? That’s how they do it here.
    Bosh nodded his head with the techno beat again. It drifted over the water like the muffled cough of a clock. Miles dug the tip of the machete into the sand and stood up. Hairs from the coconut stuck to his shorts.
    ï£§I’m going to check for the boat – he said, and walked off towards the boulders.
    ï£§If you don’t come back, what’ll we tell your folks? – Bosh hollered at Miles’ back – Should we tell ’em you fucked a twelve-year-old then gave her the wrong currency as payment? – He began to laugh – Remember, Carl? Should we tell ’em that, Miles? Huh? Want us to pass that on to the family? Christ, what a shit-dick.
    Miles disappeared over the line of boulders that cut down the beach from the jungle into the water. Bosh laughed as he picked up the machete.
    ï£§Remember that, Carl? Tried to give her riel instead of baht and she just stood there and the kid wouldn’t take it! And the kid’s mother was watching all the time from the corner trying to teach her how to take what she’d earned, but she was too shy after the whole thing so she just stood there not taking it. And Miles looking like he just wanted to get the hell out of there, but the kid won’t take the money!
    ï£§I know the story – I said.
    ï£§So he sets the bills down at her feet and goes to leave, but her mother comes walking over…
    ï£§I know the story.
    ï£§â€¦and picks up the bills and says, what did she say, Carl, come on.
    ï£§Fuck off.
    ï£§What’d she say! Come on, she picks up the bills and says what?
    ï£§You’re a miserable cunt, you know that, Bosh?
    ï£§What’d she say!
    ï£§You’re a cunt, Bosh. A real cunt.
    ï£§She picks up the bills and says… – Bosh bent over double, trying to speak between his laughter – ‘Dis Thailand, assho’! – then he exploded like a dropped drawer of cutlery. Maniacally he hacked at the sand with the machete and the jungle buzz rose through the thick screen of air until every vibration landed on our skin like caterpillars dancing back to their cocoons.
    Across the water, the shore of Ko Yao blazed like a fiery horizon that sent electric ripples out as far as the hull of the army boat. A dozen soldiers on deck leaned over the