Chapter 4 : The Wishful Heart

In a wooden octagonal pavilion in the middle of a beautiful garden, Tian is lying on a trampoline playing games on his iPad.

His mobile phone had broken the other day and to escape from Uncle Thad, sent by his mother to spy on him, he was on his way home in a taxi, racking his brains for a suitable excuse to explain to his mother.

"I met a friend, he wanted to show me his new car, so I went along with him."

Mrs Lalita stared at her son angrily and wanted to beat him up but then he said, "I tried to call my mother when the car stopped at the petrol station but the phone fell on the floor." He showed the phone to his mother, the screen of the latest smartphone was indeed cracked and cracked and a little watery.

In truth, the mother didn't believe her son 100% but when she saw that he had returned safely unharmed, she didn't bother to question him further about what had happened. But the mother scolded, Tian would never be allowed to go anywhere again and Tian endured her complaints until his eardrums felt like they getting were pierced.

He turned and stretched, then closed the game on his tablet, opened the browser and searched, his slender fingers typed in "Saengthong Foundation"

He read the information cursorily, nothing special, it was about the more he read on, the more surprised he became.

Another world, a world that people born with a golden spoon would never have been exposed to, never knew that there would be a group of young people who would volunteer to help others without asking for anything in return.

"And send pictures to promote it." As insulting as his words sounded, he believed in the truth.

The maid hurriedly handed Tian a wireless home phone, telling Tian it was Tay's call, don't be surprised why Tay had to call home, because so far, Tian hadn't had the chance to go out again.

"Hello, Phii Tay," replied Tian, annoyed." Calling to hear you complain." Tay teased Tian with a smile, he heard the other man curse back.

"Is that what you're calling about?" since Tay didn't say anything, Tian pretended to hang up.

"Wait, I wanted to say I can take a lot of days off next week, I can buy you a new phone."

"Phii? Tay's coming? Great, I'm dying of boredom." Only this doctor can help ask his mother for permission to let him out.

"But first, don't you have anything to confess to me?"

Suddenly, Tay changed the subject, even though Mrs Lalita had told him about Tian's whereabouts and there was proof, he couldn't believe that someone as smart as Tian couldn't be reached because his phone was broken?

"No, no, this." Tian stammered.

"Do you have any secrets? I hope you're not thinking of doing anything bad."

Tian clenches her lower lip and the blood comes out, it's really annoying that Tay knows him so well, "It's true that I didn't do anything, Phii Tay don't believe me if you don't believe me."

"You're so stubborn, we'll talk when I get back to Bangkok." Then Tay fell silent, as if someone had suddenly interrupted the conversation. A moment later, Tay said hurriedly: "The nurse just told me that I have a meeting with the doctor's teacher later."

"Woman, go and get ready then, Tian was about to hang up, when he looked at the page open on his iPad, he asked the question that had been on his mind.

"Phii, does it make one happy to do things for others without expecting anything in return?"

If you could have seen Tay's face on the other end of the phone, he couldn't believe it when Tian asked this question, Tay's eyes widened, like he'd heard the scariest of horror stories.

"Well, after a few moments of confusion, Tay finally came to his senses, he didn't know what Tian was thinking but he felt that at this moment, he should answer Tian seriously, not jokingly.

"It's like when I told you to do something good to donate to the orphanage but you replied that you could just donate some money, you don't have to do it yourself, Tay was silent for a while, as if trying to organize his words.

"I mean, if you don't try to do it, how will you know that doing something for others really brings happiness?

Tian pursed his lips at these words and murmured "Am I an unhappy person?" Just because he had never done anything for anyone else?

Tay smiled gently at these words, telling him "Of course not, it's just that we don't know how life is on the other side of the parallel world."

Before Tian can find his voice again, the person on the other end of the line tells Tian he has to go to a meeting.

Tian laid on the trampoline with his head in the clouds.

What is his world?

What's the other side of the world?

Tay said something incomprehensible and medical students like to think in complicated ways. Tian's fresh, handsome face was serious and contemplative.

Although he was not a selfish man, he knew only that money could bring physical happiness, what about spiritual happiness?

His light brown eyes looked around his luxurious villa, surrounded by servants ready to serve, whoever walked in felt like a castle on earth and with his parents and his high society brothers and sisters who were in the news every day, Tian sometimes felt strange, different from everyone else.

Prestige and being surrounded by others is not what Tian is looking for, looking back, instead he has lost all happiness.

Just having managed to fix a broken radio at the age of eleven and receiving a brief compliment from his brother, made him smile.

Even happier than when he got a whole set of Gundam robots from his father.

Insanity has gone mad! Tian cursed himself with his hand on his forehead, then suddenly got up and rushed into the house to change and run for exercise, trying to get rid of all the thoughts in his head, or else he would go crazy one day.

Recovering Tian has now moved back to his bedroom on the first floor, because he can now walk without help. The room is spacious with a fully equipped home cinema in the corner and includes special glasses for watching 3D movies and the latest XBox games.

Tian sat comfortably on the soft sofa with his legs stretched out towelling off his wet hair.

The expensive long-screen TV shows random images from the cable channel. Tian smiled softly, the programme is about a high society charity event, they show off their jewellery to each other and they are singing ear-splitting songs on stage.

A cheerful Tian grabs a glass of fresh orange juice to drink, instead of his usual bottled beer but when he hears the host announce someone's name, his mouth almost spits out water.

A middle-aged woman in a sweet pink silk dress with a Siamese ruby necklace with diamond beads around her neck, walked onto the stage. Causing Tian, now at home watching TV to scratch his head and ears, although it was wrong and he didn't want to laugh at his mother, how much does it cost to sing five songs at once like that?

Tian was dumbfounded, he goes to the remote control on the small glass table in front of him and presses the switch off button.

Suddenly, his hand hit a pile of old books, something he had brought back from the dilapidated house belonging to Torfan had fallen to the floor.

He had heard that it was a bad thing to bring dead people's belongings into the house, he didn't think so, Torfan wasn't really dead, because her heart was still beating in his chest.

For a while he thought he should throw them away, because he had no use for them. Until he came across a notebook with a strange design.

Tian picked them up for the first time, the notebook was wrapped in mulberry paper, beautifully decorated with brightly coloured stars of various sizes and it said, "The Legend of a Thousand Stars."

"Legend?" Is this some sort of a written fairy-tale to put a child to sleep?

Hazel eyes rolled back and forth in confusion. Open the book to find Torfan's handwriting like a teenager, round and cute, not difficult to read at all.

"Once upon a time, my life began...", as he read this, it seemed more like a story about her life. He felt that he should not continue reading Torfan's diary and as he was about to close it, a piece of paper fell out of the notebook.

No, it was a photograph.

It was a stolen photograph, it was faded. The man in the photo is tall and lanky, dressed in green camouflage, gun in hand, walking steadily up a steep slope. The crescent-shaped eyes, hidden in the shadows, are raised, looking at the first rays of sunlight rising from the dense treetops, as if he were looking at a waiting ray of hope.

At that moment, he felt his heart thumping rapidly, as if someone was hammering him and Tian fell back on the sofa in great pain.

He tried to calm down and take deep rhythmic breaths, his tense, thin body rolled over onto its back and looked up at the empty ceiling, the picture of the soldier still clutched in his hand.

Is he the man whose heart is deep in memory?

---