Richard Stevenson - The 38 Million Dollar Smile

“But the deed is practically done,” Griswold said. “I’ve already accumulated controlling shares in Algonquin Steel. They are in my name now, but unless I intervene the shares will pass over to Khun Anant and his group at noon tomorrow, and the consortium will begin work on the Sayadaw U project immediately.”

Pugh said, “These valuable shares of stock are going through Khun Anant? Oh, Khun Gary, I don’t know.”

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Now Griswold twitched. “But this is all for the propagation of the Four Noble Truths. How could Anant dare to interfere with such a worthy endeavor?”

Pugh shrugged. “Hypocrisy, as I believe I have mentioned previously, is not unknown among Buddhists. Do you really believe that Christians and Jews have a monopoly?”

Griswold looked at Pugh and then at me and then back at Pugh. Finally, he said, “I’ll talk to Ellen and Gary first thing in the morning. Just to cover all the bases here. Can you set that up?”

“Of course,” Pugh said. “Tomorrow is Friday, April eighteenth, an auspicious day by anyone’s reckoning.”

“But my plan is to go ahead with the project,” Griswold said. “Whatever Ellen and Bill might have to tell me about Sheila and her death, it’s really too late to back out of the Sayadaw U project. I’ll explain it all to Bill and Sheila and try to make them understand. Anyway, they have been such staunch supporters of so much in America and the world that is greedy and destructive, they really do need to have their souls cleansed even if they have not committed murder directly. Which I am not yet convinced that they have not.”

I said, “You’re going to ruin their lives because they’re Republicans, Griswold? That’s harsh.”

“Oh, I don’t think so at all. No, unless Bill and Ellen can tell me something I don’t already know about themselves and me and the lives all of us have led, I really see no reason to postpone the Sayadaw project at all. Also, I can’t quite bring myself to believe that Khun Anant would attempt to cheat me.

That strikes me as extremely unlikely. Khun Pongsak has vouched for him, after all.”

I said, “You mean Pongsak, the soothsayer who you just bribed?”

Griswold nodded feebly, and you didn’t have to believe in astral and planetary influences on human events to grasp that Friday was going to be memorable.

The plan was for Nitrate to pick Ellen and Bill up at the Oriental at seven Friday morning before the morning traffic became too grisly. We would all have breakfast together by the pool, and then Bill, Ellen, and Gary would go sit under the banyan tree in the back of the garden and hash out their differences. Then Griswold would either proceed with his turning over Algonquin Steel to Anant na Ayudhaya at midday for the Sayadaw project, or he would do something else.

All that began to fall apart at six ten. That’s when Nitrate drove back through the gate at the safe house ten minutes after he had departed. He told Pugh, who told Timmy and me, that roadblocks had been set up by the army — all over Bangkok, apparently — and nobody in the city was going anywhere.

Public transportation didn’t seem to be running either. Minutes later, Pugh’s cell phone began to ring. Pugh’s crew started monitoring Bangkok television and radio stations. No official word had yet come from anyone, including the king. But everyone in the city seemed to have concluded that a military takeover of Thailand’s democratically elected government was under way.

Griswold came down from his room and looked almost cheerful. A nurse had been in to change his dressings and bandages, and he appeared less beat-up and bedraggled than he had a day earlier.

The air hadn’t yet turned hot and soggy, so we all gathered by the pool for tea and fruit. Pugh had somebody walk over to the Topmost and come back with some rice and a bag of bacon.

I tried to phone Ellen and Bill at the Oriental to alert them that no one would be picking them up anytime soon. But by then the cell phone circuits were all jammed and I was unable to get through. The landline at the safe house wasn’t working either. The hotel staff would no doubt cheerfully explain to Ellen and Bill about the coup, an occasional feature of the Land of Smiles.

Griswold beamed. “Khun Anant is as good as his word.

General Yodying will be history by the end of the day, and we’ll all be safe and free to resume our lives. Isn’t that great?”

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Timmy said, “What will become of Yodying? Will he be prosecuted for corruption?”

“Perhaps,” Griswold said. “Or he may flee the country. That sort of thing happens.”

Pugh said, “He might fly to Singapore and visit his money.”

Kawee, Mango and Miss Nongnat came outside and joined us. They were all antiregime and were delighted to see the scoundrels getting heaved out.

Kawee said, “His Majesty the King, he save us one more time. I love my king!”

“Won’t there be any resistance?” I asked. “The regime must have some support or they wouldn’t have been elected.”

“Pro-regime crowds will march around yelling and waving signs,” Pugh said. “But they won’t challenge the army. As soon as an official announcement comes from the palace endorsing the coup, people will go home and have some rice and burn incense and light candles and watch soap operas. Then in six months or so, new elections will produce another coalition of crooks to run the country in cooperation with the banks and the soothsayers and the tourism board. And the endless Thai cycle of political birth, death and rebirth will resume. It’s all reassuring, if you really think about it. It works quite as well as the political setup in, say, New Jersey, is my impression.”

“It works,” Griswold said, “because Buddhists understand and accept that nothing is permanent. Change is the only reality, and Thais accept that truth and even embrace it. This attunement with life’s deepest reality is why I love this country, and it is why this time I will never again make the mistake of leaving Thailand.”

Pugh said, “Good luck, Mr. Gary. Just don’t neglect to do your visa runs.”

Griswold said, “I really am sorry I won’t be able to speak with Ellen and Bill before the Algonquin Steel takeover and the commencement of the Sayadaw project. I think I might have been able to help them understand that it’s best for all the Griswolds just to move on. Business isn’t permanent. Family history isn’t permanent. The only thing permanent is the spirit of the Enlightened One and his teachings and, of course, the Sangha that perpetuates his teachings.”

Pugh said, “I share your sentiments, Khun Gary, and I am deeply disappointed that apparently I will not have the opportunity to observe, even from a distance, your explaining these matters to your older brother and your ex-wife. That would have been a sight to behold.”

“Well,” Griswold said, “those necessary explanations will have to take place in retrospect.”

“It’s bound to be dramatic either way.”

By three in the afternoon, no official announcement had been made of a change of government. Speculation was rampant on the radio stations and television news channels as to what this might mean. Did the king change his mind? Was the aged king perhaps unwell, or worse? At three ten, Pugh’s operatives, who had been out and about, began to filter back to the safe house. They all reported that the roadblocks were being removed and the military trucks and troop carriers were disappearing. Public transportation was soon up and running.

Radio and television began to report that the roadblocks and military operations were merely part of an “exercise” and that, contrary to widespread rumor, no coup had taken place.