How she smiled like Kali, my barroom nymph. In the 16 weeks, I lived there, I didn’t venture far outside Prathai, my latest hometown. My friends, colleagues, and neighbors, Ashely and Sarah, were forever off galivanting. They were two ebullient girls from the USA. Two churning sources of wonder at the strange beauty that surrounded them. They spent their youth with wisdom and decisiveness that never failed to impress me. They were very well-rounded individuals. I looked at them in awe, at times. Sure, they looked out for me, didn’t they? Like you would a drunken old Aunty. They accepted me as a friend and equal though I was two decades further down the road than they were. They enjoyed the leftfield gushings of my Irishness and I was only to happy to make with the witticisms.
