The Wishing Trees (18 page)

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Ian sprinkled pepper, then salt on the fish. “Ready to have a go at it, luv?”

“It looks weird,” she answered, sipping on her watermelon smoothie.

“Too right. But that’s how they cook fish over here. And I reckon it will taste the same, or better, than any fish you had back home.”

“Just don’t give me its eyes.”

“I thought I’d eat those. Pop them into my mouth like candy. Like those little beauties that Elliott gave E.T.”

“E.T. was a lot smarter than you. He wouldn’t eat any fish eyes.”

“Well, I reckon that’s his loss.”

“Yuck.”

He smiled, cutting up the fish, then placing a piece on her plate. He also served her a scoop of steaming white rice and some grilled asparagus. “Hard to believe that all this costs less than what we’d spend at Macca’s back home.”

“Do they have Happy Meals here too?” Mattie asked, grinning.

Ian sipped on his Singha beer, remembering how he and Kate used to peel off the damp labels and stick them to the covers of books. He took a bite of the snapper, which was spicy and sweet. As he wondered what other seasonings had been added to the fish, he noticed a Western man and a Thai girl of maybe sixteen sitting in the corner. The girl was dressed in a yellow T-shirt and white shorts. Her shoulder-length black hair was unbound. By any account she was beautiful, her features soft and pleasing. Ian thought it was odd how close the man and girl were sitting together, at least until he saw him caress her leg under the table.

Ian’s pulse quickened. He’d witnessed many similar sights in Bangkok and in some of Thailand’s other large cities, but never in a place like Ko Phi Phi. The man, gray-haired and appearing to be in his late fifties, had probably come to Thailand to seek pleasure in the company of a teenage girl. Thousands of such men traveled to Thailand each year, pursuing fantasies that they could never experience back home. On their earlier trip, Kate had accosted a sex tourist who was arm in arm with two young girls, and memories of that incident flooded back to Ian. He hadn’t been as upset as Kate, but now, as he studied the girl in the yellow shirt, he thought about Mattie. There was a good chance that this girl’s parents, likely poor farmers from the north, had been duped by child traffickers. These criminals often paid a small amount of money to parents, promising jobs for their daughters in hotels or restaurants. The girls were trucked to Bangkok and forced into the sex trade. Few ever made it home.

Continuing to watch the girl, Ian thought about Mattie’s sadness at the loss of her mother. What would it be like to be so young and taken from both parents? To be made into a prostitute? His stomach began to ache as he asked himself such questions. He wondered if the girl was dead inside. Perhaps she’d only recently entered the sex trade and could still be saved.

Ian pulled an antacid from his pocket and munched on the medicine, answering a question from Mattie, but looking beyond her toward the girl. Sweat beaded on his back and dampened his shirt. He thought again about Mattie, imagining someone stealing her from him and forcing her into such a life. The thought made him angry, and his stomach clenched with increasing intensity.

The Westerner ordered a large Singha and continued to occasionally fondle the girl’s leg. Ian’s heart raced. He drank from his own beer to settle his nerves. Eating quickly, he tried to engage Mattie in conversation, even though he wasn’t really listening. She’d sense his indifference and be upset by it, but for the moment, he didn’t consider her feelings. Somehow he needed to help the girl.

Ian finished what remained of the fish and paid the bill. Mattie prepared to leave, but he wasn’t ready to go, and removed a deck of cards from his day pack and asked her if she’d like to challenge him to a game of blackjack. She looked annoyed but nodded and began to shuffle the cards. He watched the girl as they played, as Mattie beat him. A second and third antacid were consumed. He wiped sweat from his brow.

After about twenty minutes, the man handed the girl a set of keys. She got up from the table and started to make her way out of the restaurant. The man opened a fresh beer as Ian’s heart hammered away at his chest. “Let’s go, Roo,” he said quietly.

“What?”

“My stomach is throwing a bloody fit. We need to leave.”

“But, Daddy, I don’t—”

“Now, luv,” Ian said, sweeping the cards into a pile and dumping them into his pack. He took Mattie by the hand and led her from the restaurant, following the girl. She didn’t head toward the guesthouses along the beach, but toward the interior of the island, where the more worn-down bungalows resided. The girl walked with her head lowered, as if unaware of the beauty around her.

Ian glanced behind to make sure that the man wasn’t in sight. Seeing no one, he increased his speed and approached the girl, still holding Mattie’s hand. As the Thai walked past an intersection of paths, he caught up to her. “Please follow me,” he said, gesturing for her to turn to the right, toward the sea.

“What?”

“Please. Please follow me and my daughter.”

The girl glanced at Mattie, who looked back and forth between Ian and the local. Everyone was confused but Ian.

“Please,” Ian said again. “Just follow me for a moment. Just a tick.”

The girl nodded, turning to the right, away from her intended path. They walked another thirty feet and turned again.

“Daddy, what are you doing?” Mattie asked, tugging at his hand.

“Just trust me, luv. Please trust me. I’m doing what your mum would do.”

The trio proceeded for a few more minutes before Ian led the girls into a gathering of small bungalows. His heart thumped so hard it seemed to steal his strength. He understood that he was acting rashly, that his actions might lead to a confrontation that would scar Mattie. But he felt compelled to help the girl. If the man came and found them, Ian would have to deal with him. He wasn’t afraid of the stranger. Actually, he wouldn’t have minded confronting him, had they been alone. But Mattie mustn’t see or hear such an altercation.

Ian turned to the girl, feeling time rush past. “Do you miss your parents?” he asked, watching her eyes.

“What, mister?”

“Your parents? Do you want to go back to them?”

The girl shook her head. “Me have no money.”

“What if I gave you money? A heap of it. Would you go back to them?”

The girl’s eyes filled with tears. “Go back to them?”

“Right now. Would you hop on a longboat and buzz off this island? Then get on a train and go back to your family?”

The girl tried to speak but couldn’t, her tears dropping to the dirt path. She nodded, though, and Ian reached into his day pack and unzipped a secret compartment, pulling out three hundred-dollar bills and some large Thai notes. He handed the money to the girl, who still cried, but also smiled. Ian took off his Statue of Liberty baseball cap and placed it on her head. “Go to the far end of the beach,” he said, “away from where you ate dinner. Hire a longboat to take you to another island. And then tomorrow, jump on a ferry to Phuket. From there it should be no harder than hopscotch to get home. Just catch a bus or a train.”

“Why . . . why you help me?”

Ian smiled for the first time since he’d seen her. “Because I want you to be with your family. I have my beautiful daughter. I want your father to have his.”

The girl pursed her lips. “You think . . . you think he still love me?”

Ian put his hand on her shoulder. “I know he’ll still love you.”

“Thank you. Thank you, mister.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jaidee.”

“It’s been a pleasure, Jaidee. A real honor. Now go. Stay away from where that mongrel . . . Sorry . . . From where that man might walk. Go get a longboat and start the journey back to your parents.”

The girl looked at Mattie. “You so lucky,” she said, smiling, wiping away her tears. “Your father, he have good heart.”

Mattie still didn’t understand what was happening but she nodded. “Thank you.”

“Good-bye.”

Ian and Mattie said farewell and watched the girl hurry down the trail. She disappeared within seconds, and Mattie turned to her father. “Daddy, why wasn’t she with her parents? Why was she crying?”

He dropped to his knees so that he could look into Mattie’s eyes. “She was working for that man. She was . . . his guide. And she didn’t have enough money to get home. So we gave her some. And in a day or two she’ll be back with her parents.”

“Why were you worried about the man?”

“Well, he was her boss. And I told her to leave him. To go straight home. So he might be vexed about that. But there’s nothing to worry about, luv. She’s leaving and he’ll never know what happened. I guess he’ll just have to find his own bloody way back to Bangkok.”

“I hope he gets lost.”

“Me too, Roo. Me too.”

“Daddy, maybe we should go back to the beach, and see if she gets away.”

Ian thought about the prudence of returning to the beach. “How about a game of soccer?”

“With those boys?”

“That’s right.”

“And we can keep our eye out for Jaidee?”

“I reckon so.”

Mattie squeezed his hand, leading him back toward the beach. She still didn’t understand exactly what had happened but knew that they’d helped Jaidee. And this knowledge made her feel warm. As they walked past backpackers and banyan trees she began to hum, skipping along the path.

Ian found himself hoping that he’d spoken the truth, that Jaidee would find her family and be welcomed back into it. He longed to ensure such an outcome but didn’t know how. No amount of money or advice from him would help Jaidee. Her father would have to look into her eyes and want her back, despite her history and the whispers of his neighbors. He would have to see the gift of her, not the prejudices of others.

A few minutes passed before Ian and Mattie reached the beach. The boys were still playing soccer with several foreigners. Most of those playing wore no shoes or shirts. One red-haired girl kept up with the boys, sending crisp passes to her teammates. Mattie had been on soccer teams for most of her life but couldn’t remember hearing players laugh as much as the Thais did. They shrieked as they slid for the ball, stumbled in the sand, and tripped their opponents. Two bamboo poles with fishnet between them composed each goal. The ball was often sent sailing into the water, which stretched along one side of the field.

A Thai boy in shorts scored a goal, did a cartwheel in celebration, and then laughed with his friends. During this break in the action, Ian asked the locals if he and Mattie could play. The boys clapped encouragingly, placing the two of them on opposite teams. Mattie and Ian took off their sandals and were soon chasing the ball, trying to remember which of the many Thais were their teammates. At first the locals were deferential to Mattie, but once they saw that she could pass and defend, they pressed her at almost full speed. Ian was given no leniency. The Thais rushed at him whenever he had the ball, sliding out in front of him, sending him stumbling across the sand. Though Ian hadn’t played soccer for years, he had once been good, and long-discarded skills flooded back to him. And as he played, a sense of weightlessness seemed to fill him. His stomach no longer ached. He laughed along with Mattie, chasing the white bouncing ball through the sand. He collided with her and felt her push against him, giggling, trying to trip him.

Every so often, he glanced at a dozen or so distant longboats, which resembled brown bananas floating on the tranquil waters. He saw Mattie look as well, and his pride in her swelled. After fifteen or twenty minutes, just as he started to grow nervous about what might have happened to Jaidee, he saw her, wearing his green and black baseball cap, walking with a Thai man toward a longboat. He helped her into the boat, the bow of which rested at the water’s edge.

The soccer ball flew into the sea and Ian nudged Mattie, nodding toward the distant boat. She saw what he did, and a smile alighted on her face. They watched Jaidee settle near the bow. The captain proceeded to the stern, where he started the motor and began to back the vessel out into the glowing waters. The sun was setting behind the boat, and Ian tried to see which direction Jaidee was looking. He thought that she might glance toward the beach, out of fear for the man, but instead she stared toward the dropping shimmering sun. She might have been looking toward home, toward her future. Wherever her gaze traveled, it wasn’t backward, into the past.

Finding Mattie’s hand, Ian held it tight. The boat picked up speed, sent spray into the air, rose and fell on gentle swells. It headed almost directly at the sun, which was now touching the horizon, spreading its soul across the sea and sky.

Ian waved at the disappearing boat with his free hand, and Mattie waved with him. The soccer ball was kicked again to the sand. The game resumed. But Ian stood still with Mattie, holding her, watching the boat and the girl vanish into the growing darkness, into a world void of light, but not of hope.

KATE LOOKED AT HIM FROM HER BED. Her eyes, once so blue and vibrant, were bloodshot and watery. He didn’t recognize them and failed to understand how they had changed so much. They weren’t the eyes of his wife, of the woman he had fallen in love with. No, the eyes he looked at now were those of a stranger, of someone who had been wandering in a desert and finally fell into the shade.