The girls at the Chic Bar were drunk. Nat had bought two bottles of whiskey to celebrate her upcoming trip to Australia. Her boyfriend had paid for her visa, passport, and flight, plus sent enough money to her home in Isaan for her mother to purchase two buffalo. While all the girls at the bar were happy for Nat, they also hated her, since they wished that they had a farang boyfriend to take them away from Thailand.

“Go Australia, drink beer and eat BBQ.” Nat filled her glass to the brim. Her boyfriend worked at the post office. He was almost 40. He had never hit her the same as her Thai boyfriend. She couldn’t be more lucky.

“Have too boom-boom too.” Oom was nursing her drink. She needed to make 3000 baht to send home. Her babies were sick. “Maybe one day ten times.”

“Not with my tee-lath. He go work. Come home. I give him many beers. He fall asleep drunk. Life be too good.” Nat chucked down her glass. Her boyfriend was flying into Thailand tomorrow. She’d be gone in a week. “And I only come back for my babies. They stop be Thai. They be Australian same me.”

“And you eat too much and get fat.” Oom had seen what happens to Thai girls in Australian. They eat like farangs and get so fat their boyfriends leave them for new lady. Oom was never going to get fat. She was going to be slim forever. Her customers liked her that way as they did her little cousin Ping.

“My boyfriend like fat girl. Not like girl chicken skinny same you.” Nat and Oom were friends, but rivals too. She didn’t need anyone making her feel bad on this happy day. “You only ‘itsha’ I have boyfriend and you only have old Thai boyfriend Nai. Where Nai now?”

“Nai go home.” Oom’s boyfriend owed everyone money in Pattaya. Mafia men came to her room everyday for money. She tried to tell them that she never touch money, but the loansharks never wanted to hear excuses. they only wanted money. 500 baht every day and to finish 10000. She hated Nai now and wanted a farang to take her away from her problems.

“More go to krook.” Nat knew the police were also after Nai for selling jah-bah. “He go krook then get sick. No have luck for nothing.”

“Hoop-barg.” The mama-san told the two women. They were on the verge of having a fight and nothing looked worse on Soio 6 than two women pulling at their hair and scratching out each other’s eyes.

Neither woman wanted to shut their mouths, but Nat’s telephone vibrating within her jean skirt diverted her anger. She lookd at the number and smiled at Oom.

“My other teelath from Germany. He’s at the Dusit Thani waiting for me. He want take me to meet family. Have visa ready. I can go this week. Maybe go for this week and come back to go Australia. I have too much good luck.” Nat hugged Oom with feigned sweetness., thinking a knife in the skinny girl’s back would be so nice. “I wish you have same luck as me. I go hotel now. Have honeymoon.”

Oom and Ping watched Nat jump on the back of a motorsai taxi. Oom stood with her hands on her hips. She was more than ‘mo-ho’. She had had plenty of farang boyfriends who wanted to take her to England, France, Australia, and even America. Handsome men with money.

“Stupid girl. She think easy go Germany or Australia. Germany not easy for Thai girl. Cold, food bad, far from Thailand.”

“Good money?” Ping knew nothing about foreign countries. Two months ago the only farangs she had ever seen in her life had been on TV or at the movies. They were all ugly. Fat, big noses. and smelled like they only washed once a year.

“Maybe 10,000 baht one day. Only have to ‘boomsi’ five men one day.” Oom multiplied 10,000 baht by 30 days in the month. She would be a millionaire in four months. In one year rich as Thaksin’s mistress.

“And you want go?” Ping was scared on the bus ride from Isaan. She was scared every day in Pattaya. She wanted to go back to being a teenage girl, but there was no way she could go back home, unless she was rich. She was a ‘sophingni’. A bad girl and bad girls had no future in back home.

“No, I not want go, but Nat not go too.” Oom poured herself the rest of the whiskey. Two farangs were walking up Soi 6. Both of them were eying Ping and her. She figured both of them good for 1000 baht.

“Why Nat not go to farang country?” Ping noticed the two farangs. She read the lust in their eyes. They liked young girls. All men seemed to be the same. Thai or farang.

“Because I call Nat boyfriend in Australia and call boyfriend in Germany. I tell them about each other. They make plan to meet Nat at hotel. Tell her finish.”

“Why you do that?”

“I tired hear her talk about boyfriends. Buah.” Oom wasn’t usually so vindictive, but Nat owed her 5000 and had no plan of paying her back before heading off to Australia or Germany. She waved to the two farangs. “Hey sexy man. Buy me drink. I make you have good time with my sister.”

Ping and Oom went inside with the two farangs. A drink, a bar fine, one hour upstairs, 1000 baht each. Oom was feeling good. Ping a little sick. She hated sex with these men, but at least he was fast and gentle. He told her that he was coming back tomorrow. Oom said it was good to have clients or ‘kaks’.

“They treat you good. Maybe he fall in love with you,” she told Ping as they came down the stairs.

Walking into the bar Oom was surprised to see Nat with two men. They were her two sponsors. Each was smiling as if they were long-lost brothers. Nat pointed to Oom and said, “Funny, I see my ‘husbands’ at hotel. I almost screamed like I saw a ghost, but I not scream. I tell them I love them both. They good men. We can make love together and have good time. They can share me. Good for them. Save money.”

Nat laughed in Oom’s face. Ping grabbed her cousin’s arm. She had lost this encounter, but she’d find a way to take revenge. Oom was just that type of girl. Hard as nails and softer as a kitten. Never at the same time.