The Greatest Lie Part 15

Our last trip to Thailand had been in December, when the tropical warmth and blue skies had been a pleasant relief from the unrelenting Arctic cold of St. Paul, where I was attending the University of Minnesota. June is the second month of summer monsoon season in southern Thailand: dense humidity mounts over the day, relieved by afternoon downpours that frequently turn to thunderstorms. Even the locals seemed listless beneath the slate-gray skies; the previously vibrant streets of Phuket were sullen and quiet in the early morning rush hour.

We dropped our luggage at our hotel and walked in a jet-lagged stupor toward a row of 'tuk-tuks,' the local three-wheel open-air motorbike taxis. We bargained with the drivers over the fare to Dr. Sanguan's Phuket Plastic Surgery Center, made a deal with one, and set off down the waterlogged streets.

A crowd of gray-green-uniformed police had gathered on the corner near the Center. As we approached, we saw to our horror that the cloth on the ground they were standing around barely covered a crumpled, bullet-riddled corpse, sprawled on the sidewalk by a dumpling stall in a bloody rain puddle.

I had seen plenty of violence during my last trip to Phuket, but I was shocked by the casual brutality of the scene: the cops snacking on the last batch of dumplings the fallen street vendor had just cooked.

My disgust escalated to rage when I recognized the dead vendor's stall as that of Mama Meo, an aging ethnic Hmong who had dealt on the side. Her dumplings had been a staple of our diet during our last stay at the Center, but she had also been a lowly foot soldier in a Thai drug-dealing empire.

I was horrified at the brutal end that this gap-toothed, smiling elder and kinswoman of Tran's had suffered. Impotent rage boiled within me, and I blurted out to the cops, "Just because she's dead doesn't give you the right to steal her dumplings."

One of the cops understood me and replied angrily, "Shut up, farang katoey somsee, or you'll be 'ying ting' yourself."