Chapter 13 : Flying Kite

Dr. Wasan, who had offered to take the volunteer teacher into town, shouted from outside the hut, Tian hurriedly stuffed his switched off mobile phone and charger, along with his notebook and pen, into his rucksack bag and sprang up in response.

"It's done, let's go."

Wasan saw Tian walking down the stairs in local clothes, carrying a modern backpack and laughed fearlessly.

"You're wearing this, aren't you?"

The challenged Tian looked down at his outfit and shrugged unconcernedly, "This style is fine…", in fact he was in a hurry and was afraid of getting into town too late, the shops selling crafts were closing. But the man in the car was in no mood to enjoy. The thin figure squeezing the cushion with his hand, almost cracked when he reached the unobstructed bend, as surely as if the steering wheel had been turned a little off, there was hope of falling into a pothole.

Tian lifted his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he himself is known as the Royal Road Racer but is still no faster driver than Dr Nam's rollercoaster.

"Dr. Nam, a little slower will do."

"Eh, we're in a hurry, aren't we?" He said as he expertly stepped on the clutch to change gears and then turned the wheel and then overtook the minivan in front of him, so much so that Tian, who was sitting next to him, gulped his slimy saliva and said.

"In a hurry to get into town, not in a hurry to die!"

"I have a good amulet, guaranteed invincible…", Wasan turned around and smiled, unlike Tian who looked like he'd been poisoned, blinking happily, he wasn't joking, he was really scared!

The military jeep with the distinctive military plate on the front was reduced from two hours to an hour and a half to arrive safely in Chiangrai. Tian breathed a long, surreptitious sigh of relief, working miracles to be reborn, he didn't want to visit that hell so soon.

"Let's go to the market later, there are many shops to choose from." Said the driver as the car hit a red light at a large intersection.

"OK, so where's Dr. Nam going to do his job?"

Wasan grinned as if he knew that he was hiding something and said: "You don't want me to know the secret, do you?"

"I don't have any secrets." He's not lying... Not at all… but a lot

Young doctor nodded: "Yes, secrets…", he turned and looked solemnly into those beautiful eyes.

"The secret of the heart.

Tian was a little dazed before his mind ran, his smooth, beautiful face was twisted as if he had suffered a serious mental injury.

"This soldier, does he teach perverted knowledge too? The captain is another man--" Tian swore the last words. He said them softly but the other man heard them clearly.

"Of course! Captain Phupha of the Thai army said it before, ''the man he had never said that to anyone before."

It seemed funny but Tian didn't laugh, "What did Dr. Nam mean by that?"

The tone sounded serious, so much so that Dr Wasan had to stop making fun, he was smart, knew what was appropriate and what wasn't, what was between two people should be between them, an outsider like him certainly wouldn't interfere. Since the tight-lipped best friend doesn't want the other person to know anything, he shouldn't say anything himself.

"It's nothing, I'm just kidding."

Tian didn't look deeper, he just turned and stared blankly out of the car, it took many minutes before he spoke.

"I thought Dr Nam and the captain were…", Tian stammered, "Are a couple."

Suddenly, the big jeep braked suddenly, so that the man inside leaned forward with his head down, the cursed honking of the horn from the car behind brought the young doctor to his senses, hastily shifts gears, hits the accelerator and drives on.

"Are you serious?" Wasan asked awkwardly. Tian, dressed as an Akha, ducked his head in response, "Phii... I was thinking." Then he thought he should answer seriously, right? "Yes." His voice became even fainter.

The medic straightened his back and with a breath he said: "I'm seeing someone, I'm getting married next year."

"A girlfriend?"

"A woman, beautiful too, a doctor at a children's hospital in Bangkok."

"The captain expressed his heartbreak..."

Wasan wanted to laugh and shoot the car but had to restrain himself, "Are you sad?"

"No. I just–I just... just..." Swear he wanted to shout out that it wasn't! But the words stuck in his throat.

The jeep drive went silent until it came to a stop on a busy city pavement.

Wasan hand went to the keys, turns off the engine and calls out to the man sitting next to him, staring out in disbelief, wondering what he's thinking.

"Tian..."

The owner of the name turned around, looking as if he had just woken up from a flashback, "Eh?"

"Are you disgusted by big men like Ai Phupha?"

Tian was silent for a moment, as if he is organising his words, "Disgusted, in what way?"

"What do you think of me and Captain Phupha together--" the medic gave the most genuine looking but mutually intelligible smile until the other man felt nervous.

"As acquaintances, I'm not disgusted but if in another position, I, I don't know." That would be the most correct answer right now. Tian moved to get out of the car but before taking a step, he didn't look back and said.

"I apologise in advance to you since I was the one who started this, forget about it." Because it is not for a man to say that and then immediately jumped out of the car, lifting his slender hand to ruffle his hair back and forth, showing that much confusion had arisen in his mind.

Wasan hastily jumped out of the car, repeating: "After one hour, come to the car and find me, I'll take you to the equipment shop you want!" He didn't reply to the slender figure that quickly walked away but from such a short distance, he was sure Tian would have heard him.

Unsure if it was a powerful stimulus or not, the young doctor massaged the temples of the brain aching with other people's love story, the best friend was a remorseful than anyone else, he knew which sexual preference he had and with the guilt of his late parents, Phupha decided to leave the glamour of Bangkok, determined to serve his country and then die as a single man at the border.

Dr. Nam thought it was wrong, God is merciful to send white, soft, delicate meat to the forest for hibernating tigers to crouch and make the hungry and salivating tigers watch from afar and salivate for what? If Tian felt nothing, just a small itchy ache but if he felt his heart beat only faster in unison.

Tian walked along as if he didn't care about anyone until he saw a game shop in a commercial building that offered internet services, so he immediately walked straight in. The teenager sitting behind the computer screen at the shop counter, stood up when he saw the new customer. He looked searchingly at the clothes that seemed to have come out of the forest and then asked with disgust.

"Which mountain did you come down from?" The question was asked in a not so soft voice, causing the people sitting in the shop, men and women alike to cover their mouths in contempt and laugh.

It was the first time he had realised what it was like to be looked at with contempt because of the disparity in social status, in the past he might have asked his friends to bring in a shop and burn it down and then slowly take the money over his head as a gag fee but now he saw no advantage in doing that, except for wasting money.

Thin lips twitched in a smile, then leaned against the counter near the child who was watching the shop, "A mountain man like your father, what a brute! Don't be a sourpuss." For the low voice was cold, not in keeping with the blazing words that had just emerged, making the listener feel hot and cold.

"What's Phii doing here?"

"I'm here to use the Internet," said Tian, playing the role of a villain with consummate skill and continuing to intimidate "... Let me plug in and charge my phone.

"Please, Phii… sit wherever you like, the socket is under the computer desk." the teenager rushed to please like a scared lover.

"Thank you, brother--" Tian, who had the appearance of a mountain man, turned to the computer tables lined up in the shop and then, sensing all the eyes of the people staring in the dark, deliberately exclaimed.

"Look at him… what a badass! Is doing modelling?" And just like that, the whole area fell into silence, like a graveyard. Tian grinned triumphantly and then found a hidden corner to do his business.

Tian bent down, plugged the phone charger into the wall socket under the table within a few minutes, the expensive designer phone turned on, he chose to dial the number to call a friend who knows he's there and uses the waiting time, his hands are tapping on the keyboard to get information on kite making.

The phone rang for a long time before someone pressed the answer.

"You asshole… Ai Tian."

The ex-officer's son held the phone up and away and cursed: "Ha ha, Tull, speak softly, my ears are going to explode."

"Asshole, where have you been, it's been almost two weeks, I can't get hold of you, I thought you'd been killed and buried in the forest in Burma."

He's only been here two weeks, why does he think it's been so long?

"There's no phone signal in the mountains, I've just been able to get down into town--" replied Tian.

"Sincerely, have you really gone to the mountains to volunteer as a teacher? I thought you'd stay up for three days and then you'd be forced to go home."

Bastard Tull was right, in fact, he'd even been trying to pack his bags and go home since the first night but after he'd gritted his teeth for a while, he began to think that, if compared to the good intentions of the villagers, it really wasn't much of a hardship.

"I could have stayed there instead of here listening to your scolding…", he replied irritably, "I called you to ask about home. I think it's strange, normally I go for a few hours and I will get calls from home but I've been missing for weeks and they didn't get in touch and I've only left a letter for them to read, I don't believe my parents would understand."

"And do you think a philanthropist like your father couldn't find you?" The accomplice's friend asked rhetorically.

"I think so, fuck, I thought it was strange that no one came after me."

"That means your father was the one who let you get there."

Why did the man on the other end of the line seem so confident? "Have my father's men arrived?"

"Oh my God! No!" The raspy voice rang out in a rush, so much so that Tian gave a puzzled scrap of skin.

"Are you sure?"

When he pressed further, the other man immediately sighed, "What do you care! Since no one will follow, that's what you want, what else do you want?"

"I don't want anything, that's it, I'll keep looking for information..." Before pretending to hang up the phone, he heard his friend's voice interrupt him.

"Find your sister's information, I can help you, I'm free now."

Tian laughed at this, "I'm teaching the hill tribe kids how to fly kites, can you help?"

"Masturbation?"

[masturbation, a common slang term in Thailand for flying the kite or the act of flying the wind etc.]

"Fucking bastard! Fuck--" Tull spat out in both Thai and English.

"Eh, fuck you, I'm talking about teaching kids to fly kites, wind etc, wind etc that fly into the sky." After that, he was scolded by his friend in Bangkok and hung up the phone himself.

With a smile of satisfaction that Tian had been able to relieve some of the pressure, he moved his mouse, concentrating on finding the details of his method of making the kite and the necessary equipment and then jotting down the useful bits in a prepared notebook.

When it is almost time for the appointment, Tian gathers his things and goes to the counter to pay for the internet access, the child who had previously looked after the shop almost let him use the internet for free and then he rushed back to the car park where Dr. Wasan is waiting.

The enthusiastic teacher tried to make a simple wind flying kite etc. using the equipment that Dr. Nam had paid for, following the instructions on the website. The main equipment consisted of kite paper, latex bottles and twine, in the personal wind etc., he used the material found in the house, sharpened the branches around and then replaced the frame, because in fact, it was necessary to use lighter weight bamboo.

He tried to make it for most of the night until he was satisfied and then fell asleep immediately until the sun peeked at his butt in the morning. Because he woke up late, Tian had to wash his face and brush his teeth with cold water and quickly changed his clothes at the speed of light.

He then immediately took all his equipment to school.

Before he arrived, the students had finished flying the flag and were still sitting in the classroom waiting for him, when he saw the tall officer in khaki collar and camouflage and two scouts carrying the bamboo poles to be stacked in front of him, he suddenly stopped.

Captain Phupha looked up into the depressed eyes and asked: "What do you mean by looking at me like that? You're going to use these bamboos, aren't you? I'll sharpen them for you later."

"No need…", Tian replied stiffly, while pounding on the equipment, he was inexplicably frustrated by yesterday's events, even though the captain and Dr. Nam weren't in love, that didn't mean the captain was gay and liked him, Tian shrugged his shoulders and walked into the small classroom ignoring the people standing there.

"I can't believe it." said the scout who had seen the new volunteer teacher from the day of the reception until today, "I didn't think the teacher could be here."

Phupha raised an eyebrow, "Now what?"

"I think he should be able to stay for a long time."

The captain was silent for a moment, then smiled slightly, "Even if he wanted to stay, he couldn't, he had a long future ahead of him, he shouldn't be hiding in this barren place."

"That's right, he still looks young."

"Yes, he hasn't even finished university yet--" Phupha repeated in order to tell himself.

"It's a shame, the kids and people here seem to like him…" Phupha did not continue the conversation, bent his head and carefully cut the burrs of the bamboo with a sharp Swiss knife until they were smooth. At lunch break, he came with a lunchbox for the young master's volunteer teacher, it was a simple dish, just like the leftover eggs and garlic fried pork from last night and Tian sat around eating, scooping up the black dried eggs with a spoon, while his face twisted.

"Are you sure you can eat them like this for dipping?"

"Oops! The teacher doesn't know anything, like this, they call it delicious, racial taste…", the scout laughs.

"I'll try to believe it." He's been starving since the morning when his stomach was empty, fearing that his plate would be soaked with hard-boiled eggs, even if it was soaked in petrol he's willing to swallow hard, Tian shoved the rice into his mouth and chewed happily without having to wait politely as before.

"Have you ever made a kite before?" asked Phupha suspiciously, squinted at by slender eyes.

"I've always been at an international school, I've only just found out how wind and other paper works." replied Tian honestly, as he finished his lunch with a large bottle of water.

Phupha furrows his bushy eyebrows, "So what are you going to teach the kids?"

"It doesn't look too hard, I tried to do it last night and it still looks the same."

"What about the way to fly it?" Captain Phupha was sweating, he was beginning to see the shadow of disaster faintly.

"I watched it on YouTube, one only needs to run for a while and the wind will blow the kite up." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Phupha tried to raise his hand to grab his aching head.

"Anyway, you've never played with a flying kite."

"Never." The thin lips twitched and smiled, excitedly, "But often jerked off in the shade."

Phupha looked playful, then stretched out next to Tian who was sitting cross-legged, "You're really good, shall we go fly kites together?"

As the meaning of the words is explained, Tian's white face flushes red and the teacher jumps up and takes a step back. He is not shy to talk about it in private but as the angular face approaches him, he feels his heart palpitate.

"I, I'd better go and get things ready first!" and turned and ran away to the loud jeers of the three soldiers.

When the clock pointed to the number 1, it was exactly one o'clock in the afternoon. The Akha children rush back to their place, waiting for the teacher to reveal what they are going to do for the day and Tian, dressed in his traditional hand-woven cotton dress, turned to the blackboard and draws something, the first drawing that came out is of intersecting straight lines in the form of a cross and then drags the edges to connect them.

Tian turned around and smiled with satisfaction, "Let's make a 'kite'".

"What's a kite?" the children ask with a shout.

"It's something that floats in the sky. Let's try it first, we'll see for ourselves." he said, then asked the group to sit in a circle around themselves and began to explain briefly how to make it.

Tian took two pieces of bamboo, sharpened to a thin point and about a foot long and crossed them over each other in the shape of a cross, he waited for the hill tribe children to follow them all and then asked Phupha to cut the twine, the twine was divided to give the rope and helps to tie it to the cross of the wooden cross, so that it stays in place and does not come out. Once done, he goes to help the children, tying the string to the end of the wooden frame to form the edge of the kite until it is on all sides.

Tian took out a variety of colourful paper kite wings, then set down a simple wind frame, measured out about the size of a sheet of paper, cut around it with scissors, and the necessary helper handed him a bottle of latex. At the same time squatting down ready to apply the glue to the now excited pupils.

"You need to apply less glue--" shouted Tian, as he looked at the pattern.

"Why?"

"I saw it in the instructional video, he even used incense sticks, so I think it has to do with the weight of the kite, the glue is the weight. An object floating in the air supported by the wind has to be as light as possible, if you apply a thick layer, apart from being heavy, it will also dry out slowly. Worse still, the kite paper may rot completely."

Phupha smiled when saying something he is good at, he seems a different person, there is no passion in his eyes, only determination.

"So how come heavy planes can take off?"

"The kite uses its wings to support its full weight. Its wings are specially designed, the upper part is curved, when the wind hits it quickly, it flows rapidly towards the tail. But the bottom, where the wind passes more slowly, so there is high pressure, causes lift on the wing of the aircraft."

"But the lift that is generated must first have thrust, because the faster the forward thrust, the faster the air flows through the wing and this also makes the lift greater." The thrust of the aircraft is the engine, as for the wind etc, it is the string we run and pull up. Tian frowned, he tried to translate the technical words simply but it looked as if it was more confusing. When he glanced at the other man, his nerves immediately jerked.

"Hey, you tricked me into talking, didn't you!" The man who made the explanation smiled with a cheeky twinkle in his eye, one wanted to scoop it up and pop it in a glass ball!

"I'm not fooling you." Phupha cleared his throat, he felt overwhelmed when the young master saw himself smiling, "It's a pleasure to watch you talk."

What kind of happiness? Does he look happy when he talks or is he happy when he sees him talk? Tian quickly buries his head and folds the kite paper over the edge of the shelf in silence.

By now the colourful kite is complete, only one last step remains. The teacher asked the children to cut out the paper and to decorate their kites as easily as possible with magic markers and finally to tie the twine to the bottom and top of the frame and then to make a tangled spindle with a short cut bamboo tube.

While waiting for the children to decorate the kite as they wish, Tian turned around and made something of his own but he had to make the wind etc. a little more difficult than that.

Tian, an engineering student, also crossed the bamboo frames together but in order to make the wing pole longer and thinner than the central pole, he chose the horizontal pole and then tied the strings together. Tian starts by tying a knot at the end of one side of the bamboo wing, then bends it down and ties the other end of the rope tightly around the head of the bamboo shaft, doing this for both wings.

"This is a puffer kite--" said Phupha, sitting cross-legged next to the inventor's teacher.

"Do you know that just by looking at the frame?" Tian said, not sure whether to sound sarcastic or complimentary.

"I'm a countryman, I've played with these things since I was a child but I've never tried to make them myself," Phupha said as he took some bamboo to make a wind frame.

Tian chose a sheet of bright orange kite paper to wrap the frame around and then cut the yellow paper into strips to make tassels on the ends of the wings. Because the instructions say that the tassels help to make the blowfish more balanced and easier to control. He turned to look at the tall man who had disappeared to who knows where and saw that Phupha had also finished the wind etc.

The choice of a white paper wrapped frame, simple and dull in keeping with his character.

Suddenly, Tian seems to remember something, he looks to his right and left. Then with a wicked grin, his slender hand grabs a red magic marker that has been left lying around to draw on someone else's wind kite etc.

Starting with a well-defined face, fierce eyes, grinning lips, followed by long, sharp teeth, Tian looks up at the whole picture, stifling a smile of satisfaction while drawing the wavy lines that pile up around his mouth, followed by a simple topknot. Now, even for those who see it, the answer to the question of what the picture is is perfectly correct.

Obviously a temple man! He smiled until his eyes narrowed." That's a beautiful painting", a low, familiar voice, said loudly from the side. "Don't want to brag, I always get A's in craftsmanship. Wow!" he said proudly and then moved away in surprise.

Phupha stood behind him with his arms crossed, not to mention the tight face of the temple rakshasa that is clearly visible on the kite, "How dare you take someone else's stuff and paint it for fun?"

"Don't you know the soul of the word artist... Art has no boundaries. You can draw on a wall, you can also draw on a kite."

"Strong words--" Phupha shook his head at the defendant who had spoken with his tongue in his cheek and said: "Time to go, the children are waiting in line, I will take you to play in Phabandao's yard later."

"OK, replied Tian hastily, while immediately grabbing his brightly coloured puffer kite and rushing out.

Phupha, who is pretending to be a fierce looking captain, bends down to pick up the wind kites of the A-level student artwork etc.

As soon as he looked at the deliberately long and clearly drawn giant teeth of the rakshasa, he couldn't help but laugh.

Such ferocity, should he be caught and spanked or should he be spanked with his mouth?

The group of volunteer teachers, students and three soldiers walked about two kilometres from the school to the courtyard in Phabandao, the same name as the village. It was an open space with patches of grass on the ground and because the place was higher than the surrounding valley, the wind was blowing very hard.

Tian stood shivering in the hot sun, unlike the schoolchildren who are happy because they are used to this cold weather.

The scout pulled pieces of dried leaves and threw them high up to observe the wind, then reported back to his superiors.

Phupha walked back to the volunteer teacher and said: "Run against the wind, the wind kite will go with the wind." But then he stopped and lowered his voice and said.

"Wait, you've never played this before."

"I told you I watched it on YouTube, saw them flying the kite, it was easy."

Phupha almost held his head, teaching others but hasn't really played once himself, can he? "Then I'll explain it to you and to the children."

Phupha shouts for the children to pair up, one holds the end of the string, the other holds the wind kites etc. On the signal, the one with the kite threw the wind kites etc. up and the one with the end of the string ran against the wind.

When running, if you start to feel resistance from the wind, slowly loosen the string until the wind rises to a certain height and does not fall of its own accord, then periodically and slowly jerk the string to support the wind to float with the wind.

It's easier said than done but when you do it, everything goes to hell. The children in the mountain section run and climb, trying to pull the wind kites out of the ground until some of them collapse. Tian saw the situation and then scratched his hair out and it looked like it was harder than he thought.

"No one knows how to fly a kite on the first try, don't be shy about trying it out for a while," Phupha said, which seemed to comfort the volunteer teacher who was trying to invite the students to play with the kite, even though he had never tried it himself.

"Then please help me put the wind kites up higher, you must have a rhythm when you run," the engineering student said nervously, he gave the bright orange blowfish wind kite to the officer and so on, holding the bamboo tube wrapped in twine himself.

As the two young men stand at the right distance from each other, Phupha begins to count "One, two, three, run!" With that he puts the wind up. Tian runs out until he feels the rope tighten in his hand, and suddenly he hears Phupha shouting.

"Loosen the rope, that's it, that's enough, run faster than that!" Tian accelerated his pace to run faster and turned to look at the wind he had started in but still floating low and unstable, he started to get tired, as his heart is not as healthy as most, as the pace started to relax, the brightly coloured wind etc slowly fell.

"Tian!", shaking his arms high, jerking the string to stop it from falling, the kite is about to rise to a certain height and will not fall of its own accord.

Tian gritted his teeth and kept running as the other man shouted. He raises his long, thin arms and periodically jerks the kite string in his hands until the brightly coloured blowfish finally floats high and plays with the sun.

Although clear sweat dripped down his face and back from his forehead until his shirt was soaked through, it did not diminish the glow of the wide smile on his smooth face.

The innocent laughter, like that of the Akha children around him, rekindled a fire that should have been extinguished inside. Phupha shook his head vigorously to calm himself and then stepped in to help the young master support the wind as it swirled through the air.

He turns behind the slender figure and then leans back a little as he reaches out to hold the line attached to the brightly coloured wind, etc.

"Have you ever been in a tug-of-war? If our opponent pulled a rope towards him, you have to lean back, in order to use our weight to build up resistance. But if the rope is pulled too much, we have to relax slowly, because if we pull the rope until the resistance is over the limit, the rope will pull the kite down." The low tone of the instruction in his ear makes the listener's heart pound, more tired than if he had just been running.

"I can see why the children can't pull up the wind kites." Tian spoke sarcastically to remove the embarrassment. "After all, long legs like mine are tired of running like a dog panting in the sun, how can short legs like the kids do that?"

"You make a much bigger wind scramble than the children do, it usually takes a lot of strength." Phupha pointed to show Tian the colourful squares of wind etc. that had started to raise the flag one after another with the help of the two scouts "The simple model of wind etc. can be raised after a short run, see?"

The slender eyes looked at the man who caught his body from behind, they were so close that he felt strange, "You... You can also raise the kite." he repelled implicitly, it seemed Phupha understood, he dropped his arm around himself.

A few minutes later, the uniquely designed white puffer fish wind etc. floats effortlessly into the sky, although its owner has only run a few steps and this causes jealousy in another man.

"You're deliberately making me run out of breath! What is this? Less than five metres and the wind rises." said Tian, glaring angrily at the enemy who was operating the wind and so on up nearby.

Phupha turned around expressionlessly, after hearing this, he almost wants to hit his knee, "others call it personal skill.

"Hungry, all right. I'm a city boy and I'm just passing my teenage years, how can I keep up with you as a child living in the country." Honestly, that's calling the other person old.

"Do you know how old I am?"

"If you say twenty-something, let me eat grass instead of rice."

"Then I won't tell you." Phupha smiled at the corners of his mouth, when he saw the talkative teacher's face tilted up, suggesting he didn't want to know. He leaned down, whispered in his ear, "The older the ginger, the sweeter the ginger, do you know?"

Tian suddenly turned around with a red face and exclaims, "I know but the older you get the more casual you are!"

And immediately pulled the kite away, leaving the tall, tinnitus-stricken figure standing alone.

---