Krasue

Dark short Thai story. Part One.

Krasue

A PIERCING SCREAM cracked the bedroom mirror.

'Honey, what's wrong?' asked Billy, panting as his fingers searched for his wife's hand.

Khmer expletives yelled at him, none he understood. Breathing too fast, the young expectant mother regained her composure. Her chest lifted and fell gently in time with her oxygen intake.

'Where am I?' Nipa said as she looked around the bedroom.

'Babe, you are okay. We are at home, in bed, calm down. You are sweating. It must have been a nightmare,' said the shaken young husband.

He flicked the bedside lamp on.

'Christ, it is blood. What happened?' he asked.

'I, I, I can't talk…' she coughed more blood.

'Keep still. What is that?' he asked, pointing to a cord hanging from the corner of her mouth. She coughed again, this time spewing streams of red. The thread remained as if stuck deep in her stomach. The visible end swung limply.

The girl bent double, head between her knees made more difficult as the six-month-old lump was in the way.

'Let me look,' Billy said as he touched the blood-soaked shoelace like a boy tugging a worm from its muddy home.

Gently pulling, releasing its deep grip, it slid painfully up and out of her throat. Another stream of vomit soaked her husband.

'Got it!' he called, examining the item as a stamp collector sees a Penny Black.

Nipa rolled on her back and rubbed her unborn baby bump.

Billy held his prize to the light, 'It looks like uncooked bacon rind, a huge one. What the hell have you been eating?'

At seven AM, Billy left his wife to her troubled sleep in their Nong Bo Village in northern Thailand. He went to check on their livestock. Clucking and grunts accompanied him. Passing the spiky bamboo fence surrounding their property, he wondered, 'Why have we got such an ugly and useless fence?'

He quickened his pace to the chicken hut. Sensing something was wrong, he sprinted. 

'Oh no,' he wailed.

His prize cockerel was gutted open, spread and pinned on the fence post. The beautiful comb has gone, along with the rest of the head.

'I loved that bird,' he cried.

The usual pleasure of Billy's morning ritual, his early inspection of their farm, drinking a mug of Nescafe, relaxing before easing into the day's work, ruined. He often daydreamed about the night he met the love of his life. Three years before, he had fallen head over heels for a gorgeous and vivacious nightclub hostess; they dated for the rest of his holiday, then returning to England, they enjoyed a long-distance romance; he proposed via Skype; she left the club; they married at her father's farm. Billy bought a farm nearby. They settled and began married life together. She became pregnant. What could be better?

'How are you feeling?' Billy asked his wife as she slumped next to him at the table, shattered. Her coffee skin was milky; the night had drained her colour.

'Yeah, a bit sleepy. At least baby slept well,' Nipa answered as she prepared rice soup for breakfast.

'Hold the breakfast; I think we should go to the doctor. We have an appointment; we don't want to be late.'

'I need to eat; I am starving,' she said, dipping sticky rice into last night's curry.

'Do you want to know the baby's sex yet?' Billy asked, excited to find out.

'It's a boy,' she answered bluntly.

Billy, puzzled by her answer, decided not to question her. That could wait. He also wanted to learn more about his and their neighbour's fences. That, too, could wait. His wife's breakfast could not. He remained in front of his laptop.

'Come on, Wi-Fi, don't let me down,' he said. Their connection was rarely reliable.

He checked Google.

'Krasue fears spikes as they get their entrails tangled!' My God, now I've heard it all,' he chuckled, not understanding the text. 

Once more, he ducked the chance to query things.

'That can wait,' he said to himself.

'Good morning, have you come for your check-up?' asked the doctor's receptionist.

'Yes, we need to ask him something else,' said Nipa.

'Your appointment was booked for a scan and consultation. Is that correct?'

'I know, but we need to see him about something else too, if possible?'

The receptionist showed them in.

'Hello, no problem with junior, I trust?' said the doctor.

The doctor looked increasingly worried as they explained what had happened the night before. Changing the subject, he stated, 'The baby's heartbeat is strong. The scan is fine. You have nothing to worry about regarding the baby. I can see if it is a boy or a girl. Do you want to see?' 

'It is a boy,' said Nipa.

'Yes, how are you so sure,' he asked.

Nipa just smiled. 

Billy asked, 'What about the blood last night?'

'I can't see where it came from. No cuts in her mouth or throat. Any stomach pain?'

'None, doc,' answered Nipa.

'I don't suppose you kept any of the blood or the curious thread?' asked the doctor.

'No, we cleaned up and threw away the other thing,' answered Billy.

'I'll run some tests, roll up your sleeve, please,' the doctor said.

'Fantastic, a son,' said Billy as they returned to their truck.

'Yes,' said an unsmiling Nipa.

Billy studied her blank face, riveted straight ahead. He decided not to ask what was worrying her. They bumped along the track to their home.

'Hungry?' she asked solemnly.

'What is the problem? I thought you would be happy; you haven't even phoned your dad to tell him.'

'You couldn't understand,' she stormed inside, leaving her husband to check the remaining chickens. 

'Your lunch is on the table; I'm going for a nap,' she called from the stairs.

Billy had eaten much of the fiery, sometimes weird North-Eastern food, but they had never served him live maggots.

'What the hell is this?'

Insulted, he stormed up the stairs.

'Don't pretend you are asleep; you've just got into bed,' he said as he shook her.

Her eyes opened wide, staring sightlessly. The baby bulge moved, rocking from side to side.

Shocked, he forgot his anger. 

'What's the matter?' he yelled, touching her forehead. 'Christ, you are burning up.'

He patted his pockets, 'Where is it?' panicked, he hunted for his phone.

'Did you enjoy your lunch?' she asked brightly.

Her calmness stunned him for a minute before he could speak.

'Are you sure you are okay?' he asked again, feeling her temperature.

'Yeah, I'm fine. How long did I sleep? Better get on.'

She leapt from the bed and sauntered downstairs.

'Oh, you haven't touched your 'larb'?'

Larb was one of her dishes he loved.

'No, it was…' he looked over her shoulder at his lunch.

'I thought you liked the way I prepared that dish?'

'I do, but it had… Never mind.'

He played with the dish without seeing maggots before pushing it to one side.

'The chicks were fine; I'll check on the pigs now,' he said, hopping out the back door.

'You wanted to know about our fences?' she asked.

'Yes, true, but how did you know?'

'If you don't like them, rip them down,' she said.

He sensed something was wrong. The pigs were unusually quiet. He quickened his pace. Speechless, he approached the mess nailed to the gatepost, once a boar, now a blood-coated carcass of rotten and stinking pork. Flies buzzed in a cloud—the prized father of dozens of piglets pinned on its back slit from throat to the anus. The guts are missing from the fetid bulk.

'Call the police; somebody has killed Arsene, our boar!'

'Don't worry, dear, these things happen,' she said, beaming.

That evening, eating on their patio, Billy decided the time was right to get some answers.

'You seem different. Have I upset you?' he asked.

'No, dear, you are perfect.'

'Is something wrong with the baby?'

'No dear, everything is fine,' answered Nipa.

'Did you mean what you said about the fence?'

She turned glaring, red in the face, 'Yes, get rid of the damn thing.'

'Um, okay,' he stammered.

Instantly her mood changed, 'Would you like some mango?' she asked sweetly.

The next morning, Billy set about ripping down the ugly, pointless fence he hated; pointless, as it does no useful purpose, but not pointless, as it offers nothing but points. He chuckled to himself, losing concentration.

'Shit, shit, shit!' screamed Billy as thorns embedded in his thigh.

Limping back to the house, Nipa hid her mouth as she beamed.

'Oh, darling, what has happened?' she asked.

'It is pretty obvious, isn't it?'

She sat him down, gently pulling the points from his leg.

'Steady, that hurts,' wailed Billy.

She smiled, putting splinters aside. She sucked on the wound loudly, like a child with her first lolly.

'What the hell are you doing?' asked Billy.

She said, 'Traditional Thai healing,' and licked her lips between slurps.

A battered Honda motorcycle rumbled up to the house. An ageing man jumped off, fuming.

'Now, what are you doing? First, you married a foreigner, and now you're removing protection for the entire village,' bellowed Nipa's ageing father in the Khmer language.

He threw his half-smoked roll-up cigarette to the ground, 'Get it fixed!'

'What did your dad want?' asked Billy. 'He didn't seem happy. Did you tell him it's a boy?'

'He was checking how the baby is and delighted the family has another male,' she lied sweetly.

The sun dipped below the horizon. Billy limped as he lit a fire and burnt the fence remains with some dried leaves he had swept up. Nipa took a mug of coffee out to him.

'Thanks, babe. Can you see the lights near our entrance?'

'Yes, it is my father and other villagers.'

'How can you see them? I only see movement and dull lights?'

'I've been eating my carrots,' she laughed.

'What do they want? Why don't they come in?'

'I'll find out,' she said as she walked the long driveway.

Billy went back to his raking. A car's horn sounded as a vehicle turned into their entrance. It stopped near the fire but kept the engine running. 

'Oh, it's you, doc. Any problem?' asked Billy.

 'The villagers have been calling me; they want me to talk with you about your fence.'

'Really?'

'Yes, they worry there is a Krasue nearby,' said the doctor.

'A what? I thought that was a joke.'

'Where shall I start?' queried the doctor.

'Do you want to come in, and have a drink?' asked Billy.

'Oh no, thanks. I won't be too long.'

'Okay, tell me.'

'There is a belief around these parts, not only here but also in Lao, Cambodia, throughout Thailand and into Malaysia. Usually, but not always, a female spirit leaves her body and searches for another place to live. She or it needs blood, rotting flesh or intestines to survive on,' said the doctor rushing his words.

'I read something on the web. You mean like a vampire?'

End of Part One

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