The good folks at New Asian Writing have published my 3,200-word short story "Good Girl". The story is about a police officer in Bangkok trying to save face with his friends and neighbors by dealing with his drug-addicted girl friend. It focuses on the concept that people try to ignore or take the easy way out of problems in their own community because they see it as "the polite" thing to do.It is actually based on some true events that I witnessed at the apartments I used to live at, whereby a police officer's girlfriend would run amok through the building while he was off doing his job. I'm not trying to get up on my high horse and say "Thai people ignore domestic abuse", because I did nothing to stop it either.
The protagonist, Pon, is a fictional character obviously, but he is part of a real police division in the Bangkok Metropolitan Police - Thong Lor Station. Sure, I've heard all the rumors about corruption on the force, but if I only made about 10,000 THB ($300) per month and I had to pay for my own gun and uniform, I might find some ways to make ends meet too. I try to play on this moral ambiguity by having the people involved in obvious criminal activity seem like nice guys.
Thailand's strange because everyone knows there is problems, but people try to sweep them under the rug or politely play down the severity of the issue. Why else would the Thai military hold a press conference to say that there would not be a coup?
I hope you enjoy the story, and hit me up with some feedback. Thanks to my little brother, Ben, for editing.
New Asian Writing - "Good Girl" - by Paul Salvette
2 comments:
Post a Comment