Bar Girl Read Online Free Page B

Bak,’ she had answered, coldly and truthfully.
    She had removed his sting. He was nothing to be afraid of anymore. No venom.
    She walked along the road that led away from her home. She walked with her head held up. Her shoulders were straight. Tears threatened the corners of her eyes but she hardened her heart against them.
    There was an air of confidence surrounding her. Her body was that of a woman and she knew far more than a young girl should know. She walked past the small dirt track that led to their allotment and the cane fields beyond. She wouldn’t go there again. Not ever.
    She had informed Ped that she was leaving and had told her cousin to look after her mother.
    ‘I’ll send you money, Ped,’ she had said. ‘But never give any to Bak. Never.’
    Her cousin had hugged her. Ped was the only person in the village that was sad to see her leave.
    ‘I’ll take care of them,’ Ped told her. The young girl had heard all the gossip. All the stories. ‘Where will you go?’
    ‘I’ll head to the town first,’ Siswan answered.
    The look of determination in her cousin’s voice, the look in her eyes, stopped Ped from asking anymore.
    ‘Remember, Ped. Nothing for Bak.’
    ‘I’ll remember,’ Ped answered.
    As she approached the pond at the edge of the village she stopped. This was a place filled with memories. Where she had played as a child. Where she and Bak had played. Even as she looked out across the still and stagnant water she thought she could hear his laughter. See him running through the mud to catch the fish he had thrown to the banks before they could wriggle their way back down the slippery slopes.
    It felt as though she was remembering someone else’s life. Not her own. She had never been there. Never laughed or smiled in the sunshine. Never splashed in the water with her brother. She closed her mind and shut off her thoughts.
    She put down her small bundle of clothes and reached up to the clasp of her necklace. Taking it off she looked into the smiling face of the silver Buddha. Her twelfth birthday present. A birthday that she would remember for the rest of her life. A birthday that had marked an ending. And a beginning.
    She balled the chain into her palm and, without further thought, threw the necklace far out into the pond. It hardly made a ripple as it sank beneath the muddy water.
    Picking up her bundle of clothes, Siswan walked along the road. Away from the village. Away from her home. Away from the memories and away from her childhood.
    She told herself that she would never again subject herself to the attentions of men. Never again would she allow them to touch her. Never again would she administer to their desires and passions.
    ‘Never again,’ she told herself, aloud.

Chapter 2
    Mike sat on the stool at the end of the bar and looked along the line of regulars. They were the same faces. They came just about every night. He sipped his whiskey. It was the same brand he always drank. The topic of conversation was the same. The music coming from the stereo was the same bland music he always played. Nothing much changed. Always the same.
    ‘What do you think, Mike?’ A voice asked, bringing him out of his spell of reverie.
    ‘What about?’ He asked, trying to concentrate. Another few whiskies and he’d be okay.
    ‘Have another drink, Mike.’ laughed one of the others. ‘You’ll wake up eventually.’
    The regulars all laughed before returning to their favourite discussion. Mike didn’t need to wake up. He knew what they were discussing and didn’t have to be focused to know that it was all bollocks anyway. They’d never learn, none of them.
    He’d been the same when he had first arrived. The land of smiles they called this corner of Asia. The land of smiles. That was a good one. It made Mike smile anyway. He’d discovered why they smiled. He reached for another whiskey.
    Twelve years he’d been here. Twelve years of drinking and sitting in this bar. He knew he drank too