In the Golden Triangle

Chapter 10: One Shared Brain Cell

The gold band settled around Joom's ring finger flashed as he dealt the cards. He shuffled the thin deck and began collecting his portion of cards. With pursed lips he began organizing the cards in his hand.

Teh leaned into Chokh and nodded at Joom's hand. "Is...is that Lt. Colonel Khamsi's ring?"

The bespectacled boy looked up and eyed the ring as Joom used his thumbs to shift the cards around. "Maybe? How can you tell?"

He shook his head and picked up his own set of cards, fanning them out without looking at them. "It looks familiar."

"Looks like any other gold band."

Teh narrowed his eyes as he looked over the cards in his hand. "No, there's definitely something familiar about it. I've never seen him wear it before."

Chokh had lost interest in the conversation and instead focused on the cards he had been dealt. He knew he would lose anyway but he was determined to at least try.

The ring probably meant nothing. It was Joom, after all. But Teh could have sworn he had seen that same gold ring sitting between Lt. Colonel Khamsi's hairy knuckles. How could Joom have taken the ring from the Lt. Colonel without him noticing? Or did he willingly give the ring to Joom? And if so, why?

Of course, no one had ever seen Lt. Colonel Khamsi's wife. Could it be possible that Joom and Lt. Colonel Khamsi were together? No. That's absurd. Teh shook his entire body to clear the thought from his head.

Joom was an enigma though. Maybe that's why he never shared anything about himself...

"Hey Joom?" Teh said suddenly.

The older man looked up at him from across the metal barrel they were playing cards on. The three men had dragged whatever chairs or crates to the barrel situated under the shade of a small tree. A radio was leaning against the tree and occasionally they could make out a song through the static. Joom had taken off his uniform jacket and was sitting in a plain black t-shirt. He was a fine looking, thickly built man with a wonderful head of hair.

But more than his features, it was his myriad of facial expressions that got people. One moment he was as joyful and carefree as a child and then next his face looked like a thunderstorm coming over the horizon.

Teh had spent the first three months at the BPU trying to figure out anything about Joom. The only thing he knew for certain was that Joom was a male.

And somedays he wasn't even sure about that.

Chokh swore he saw him naked in the shower once, but the boy had been too shy to examine him closely. Teh refused to believe anything about Joom until he could verify it.

This was proving difficult. No one even knew Joom's last name.

"Have you traveled much?" Teh asked trying to feign indifference.

Joom shrugged. "Some."

"I would like to travel. What about you, Chokh?"

Chokh looked up from studying his cards. "Not really. What would I do?"

Teh sighed and looked back at Joom. "Where was your favorite place to travel?"

He tapped his cards on the barrel and thought for a moment. "Dubai."

"You've been to Dubai?"

"No."

Joom resumed looking at his cards. Teh seethed and cuffed Chokh when he heard him chuckling. "What are you laughing about, fish boy?"