Geoff Ryman - The King’s Last Song

Normally Prak has a sweet temper, but not today. He glowers and his breath smells of beer. ‘Wait outside. If your friends are here they will come out for you.’

‘What’s happened? Who was kidnapped?’ William asks.

‘I don’t know,’ says Prak and stomps away.

If all the tourists leave, there will be no money. No money for anybody.

One of the other motoboys eyes William. William thinks of himself as a businessman. He lays claim to the patch outside the Phimeanakas. He pays a commission to Mrs Bou – and all the other Phimeanakas motoboys pay him.

This is Mons. Mons is older than William and doesn’t like paying him money or being trapped as a motoboy. He pretends to be friendly, but everything he says has hidden teeth.

‘So you have no more UN friends,’ says Mons.

‘Neither have you.’

‘Oh, I have plenty of business today. I drive people to the airport.’

‘Do you know who got kidnapped?’

‘It is a terrible thing. Grandfather Frenchman. Your mentor!’ Mons looks glum but he says it loudly, for everyone to hear. The other motoboys look sullen and confused.

‘You can drive a tourist back to the airport only once,’ William replies in a quiet voice. ‘And when all the other tourists stay away, you’ll see. This is bad for you, too.’

The other motoboys hang their heads.

William turns to the foreigners, smiles, takes off his baseball cap, dips and bows. He tries his Japanese on some Asian tourists and gets business. He’s unsure about some of the Europeans. He tries German; they turn out to be Italian, but they understand ‘Five dollars, five dollars to airport.’

‘I have suitcases,’ says a man in strange English. William organizes two motorcycles for him, ten dollars, but it’s still cheaper than a taxi. ‘I’m sorry,’ William says. ‘Today taxis will be hard to find.’

The man nods and smiles, grateful for anything. He’s from Iran. William gets his name and asks about the government. ‘Is the religion Islam?’ he asks.

He gets business for all the motoboys and pointedly leaves Mons until last.

Luc, he thinks. Of all the people they could have done this to. Those idiots! The foreigners bring money, they come here to help us! Why are they doing this? What will it do to Cambodia?

The US special quota for garments will end soon. The garment industry brings 250,000 jobs and when it goes, what will replace it? All we have is tourism!

William feels the trickle of dreams washing away. I won’t get my new bike. I won’t be able to help aunty buy her new house. The land we were hoping to sell for development – twelve thousand dollars we were told we would get for it – maybe that won’t sell. I won’t have the UN archaeologists to talk to, to find out about things.

He remembers one of Luc’s students insisting to Mrs Bou that William was a colleague, not a motoboy. He got William inside the pink marble dining room of the Phimeanakas and up the stairs into the social area. It was large enough to unfold huge photographs of Angkor taken from airplanes.

One photograph covered seven hundred square kilometres. It used a kind of radar to penetrate the ground one dot at a time, and a computer joined up the dots. The signals had bounced off a satellite in space. Luc’s student explained geosynchronous orbits to him. William’s head jerked back with shock and pleasure. What a wonderful idea.

The machine is always falling, but the ground falls away at the same pace. So it always stays above the same spot of ground. Who would do things like that for him now?

Luc had bought him a mobile phone. He simply passed it to him one day outside the guesthouse. ‘This is so we can telephone you whenever we need you.’

William had stood in silence, stroking the phone. He didn’t want to show strong emotion. He was embarrassed, and fearful of doing something unseemly like crying.

A mobile telephone made him part of the world. His friends could telephone from Japan, from Australia and say, William, we are coming, please organize a trip. William, we are at the airport, can you come and fetch us?

William was silent for so long, wary of speaking, that Luc had become worried that he’d done something wrong. ‘I’ve paid for the sim card and for fifty dollars’ worth of calls. But you’ll have to show up with your family ID card to collect them.’

Finally William had something neutral to say. ‘I know the people in the shop.’ He coughed and still did not dare look at Grandfather Luc. He was horribly aware that he had said nothing polite, not a word of thanks. The beautiful numbers were illuminated from within.

Nobody had ever done such a thing for him before. Not unasked, not something so perfect for William. Luc must have known it was perfect for him without having to be told.

William coughed again, trying to find words. Finally he’d said, still not looking up. ‘This is a very good action. This is a thing that is full of merit.’

Then he was able to look up and bow and sompiah respect and thanks. ‘Luc, I am so lucky that you are my friend. I tell my aunt about you. She says you must be a very good man. I am so unhappy whenever you go away.’

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