Chantira’s story Part 2
November 13, 2007
In her mid twenties, at the suggestion of a neighbour, Chantira entered the town’s busiest brothel. She still had the face and body of a child and proved popular with the clients. She was able to buy herself a house and one for her mother, erect a pillar in the village temple and ‘lend’ a large sum to one of her brothers who swindled her out of it. She was afraid of farangs and would always hide if a Western customer appeared, until one day she saw one who looked kind. They hit it off and she gave up work to live with him. Her last day the manager called her in and asked her with great concern why she was leaving. Was she not happy there, was there anything he could do, was she sure about this farang and so on. At first all went well; they were both quiet people and friends thought they made an ideal couple. Her 6 year old nephew made a very perceptive comment on her: “How is it,” he asked “that Auntie has no knowledge but so many ideas?” For ten years nobody could have asked for a more loving or attentive wife. But her husband said he felt suffocated by her love and eventually left her. She went back to her mother’s house, trying hard to conceal her disappointment. Three months later her mother died and she opened a little shop where she works from 6 am till late every day to make a dollar or two profit. She looks after stray cats as she says they stop her brooding on things.
