A Boy

I saw the boy. It was almost 11 pm. A busy and seemingly joyful Saturday night.

A boy asked me for 1 dollar when I was having my first beer in Siem Reap. As usual, I offered a meal instead of money. It was fried beef with rice I remember. I even needed to tell him to slow down his munching. I poured some iced tea for him. "Thank you" said him with a mouth full of rice and with a satisfying and innocent face. That reminded me of my nephew drinking a cold soda.

Within minutes, he left the plastic plate empty and a heartfelt Thank You to me.

Back he came, a while later. He handed to me a leaflet of a newly-opened night market. I took that as a gift and replied with my Thank You.

I saw him again tonight, with a sleeping baby strung with a blanket to his wee body, holding an empty nursing bottle. He approached a table of Westerners, shaking and showing the empty bottle.

What could he get tonight?

9.Aug. 2008 at In Touch