Where Am I?

Wednesday

WEDNESDAY

It's almost eleven am before Arthit emerges from his bed, shoving a hand through greasy hair and wiping sleep from his eyes and sticky drool from around his mouth.

"Almost thirty.." he whispers to himself as he stares at his pale face in the mirror, clear evidence of the night's drinking plastered all over it, "Damn Bright! Damn Tootah! I should have left with Prem.."

As he thinks about his friend, a vague memory of being outside Bright's bar washes over him and he struggles to remember.

He grips his hair as though it might help and a few shadowy thoughts shrug out.

A figure, maybe male. A voice, or.. words?

Someone he knew?

He reaches out to flip on the shower and gets in before it's warmed up properly, shrieking slightly at the initial blast of icy water, dancing from foot to foot under the spray until it starts to heat up.

It helps though, the cool water, because immediately his head clears a decent amount and he can recall the bar a little better - remembers helping Bright to flip the bar stools over and collecting the glasses at the end of the night.

"I wasn't that drunk then, if he trusted me to help," Arthit mutters as he lathers his hair with shampoo.

He soaps his hair and then his body, rubbing hard at his armpits and groin to remove the smell of stale sweat, then reaches for his face wash and gives his skin a proper cleanse.

"No more drinking." He mumbles to himself as he spreads the charcoal scrub in his hands. "No more visions of men who I used to.."

He pauses as a solid image flashes in his head.

His hand slips against the glass shower door, inky scrub spreading over it.

The image is clear. It's defined.

"Kongpob?"

The black scrub melts away under the shower spray as Arthit lifts his hands to tug at his hair and tap at his head.

"Kongpob? Did I see Kongpob? Really?"

Arthit groans and his head thunks against the tiles, water cascading over his hair, "Damn.. I can't have seen him.. My stupid brain. Shut up!! It's been forever, why am I still so obsessed with him?!"

——————

"I'm telling you, I saw Kongpob."

Arthit lowers his head to the table again and rests his forehead against the cool metal. Beneath him, the chains rattle ominously where they hold his chair to the floor - it's a clear sign that the people who are usually seated here have violent tendencies and that either the chair, or the person, needs to be tethered to the ground.

The police officer frowns at him again, "You've told me that, Mr Rojnapat. I simply asked where your proof is. Mr Suthiluck is a very important and well-known man, many people have already called with tip-offs, hoping to cash in on the reward that has been offered by his family."

Arthit lifts his head and stares at the young woman seated opposite him, "Reward?" He mumbles.

"Yes, sir, the family has offered an undetermined yet substantial reward for the safe return of their son, you're surely not pretending that you don't know about that are you?"

"Are you implying that I'm lying because I'm trying to cheat Kongpob's family out of their money?" Arthit is unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice and his fist tightens on his lap.

"Well, you wouldn't be the first." She replies, ruefully.

Arthit frowns and repeats himself, "I saw Kongpob. Honestly. I saw him, and truly I'm not interested in any reward. Look, please, listen to me..."

—————

"They didn't believe me, Knott!" Arthit moans as he rests against the wooden top of Bright's bar, anger still tightly coiled in his chest where it has grown fiercer since the police officer had dismissed him and suggested that he go home and sleep off his hangover.

"You've said." Knott replies carefully, "But I don't know how I can help."

"Go back with me and tell them that you saw him too?" Arthit suggests weakly, aware that it's a long shot even if he is talking to his best friend.

"Ahh, well, I can't. Firstly, it would be lying." Knott shakes his head and then continues, "And secondly, I went home way before you, Arthit, and I left with Tob, if they checked Bright's CCTV, they'd know I wasn't telling the truth."

Arthit frowns sadly, aware that his friend is right.

But then his brain clicks into gear and his eyes light up, "CCTV!" He yells!

—————————————————————

He ends up dragging Knott into the back room where Bright is up to his elbows in sudsy water, cleaning the beer taps and all the silverware ready for the night's business.

"Hey Bright, you've got CCTV outside right? For the drunks?"

Bright grins, "Sure do, would be an idiot not to, it's great for when they do things like have a wee in the street and then I can rub their faces in it when they come back, show them what they got up to! Let me tell you about this one time when.."

He trails off as he takes in Arthit's serious expression, "Oh, you actually need it for something?"

Arthit nods and Bright waves his hand towards the corner of the room where a rickety table holds a TV and some kind of recording device.

"Go for it, though it's only got yesterday's cos I usually tape over it each night unless something exciting happens, okay?"

Arthit nods again and rushes for the TV, grabbing the remotes and quickly figuring out how it all works.

Knott and Bright start a hushed conversation that includes both his and Kongpob's names, and Arthit lets it wash away into background noise as he focuses on the screen before him.

His eyes blur a little as has to fast forward through a busy street, multiple taxis, tuk tuks, bikes, office workers tripping across the TV as he scrolls.

Then, as the time tips past midnight, he starts to see the listing walks of drunks as they exit Bright's bar. Watches Prem sneak out for a cigarette; Tob and Knott head home wrapped in each other's arms; Tootah and the blonde man wobbling after them.

Then, finally, he sees himself.

He walks out of Bright's bar looking pretty normal, he thinks. The tell tale signs that he's drunk are only the way his arms are shaking slightly and how his steps are more carefully taken.

There's no sound on the tape, but he sees himself drag out his phone and dial a number, sees himself speak into it forcefully, something he really can't remember - he mentally reminds himself to check his phone records - and then, he frowns as TV Arthit looks straight forward, eyes wide in shock.

For a second, a man appears at the very edge of the screen, slightly blurry, pixelated badly. He's maybe a little taller than Arthit, slimmer perhaps. His face is washed out in the black and white, but Arthit is certain who it is.

"Kongpob!" He exclaims.

Bright and Knott crowd the screen beside him, pointy elbows knocking into him as they try to make out the figure in the image.

"Really? Are you sure? I mean, it's been eight years and he doesn't look quite like the guy we knew then.." Knott says, voice wavering as Arthit rewinds the tape over again.

"More like a terrible computer game character.." Bright interrupts as he leans in. His nose is almost touching the TV as he exclaims, "But.. What's the reward, did you say, Arthit? And do we get it just for providing evidence? Cos I really think this counts! That's almost certainly him!"

Bright's voice is suddenly very excited as he reaches for the remote and pauses the image.

He clicks a couple of buttons and the camera zooms in on Kongpob's face, "What's he saying?"

"No clue," Arthit whispers, reaching out a finger to touch the screen as Bright pauses it on Kong's face. "I'm sorry Kongpob," he whispers, "I really can't remember.."