Chapter 2
Asleep
With his wife and children on the lawn, the dad came over and sat on the bench next to mine. He laid down and stretched his Adida clad feet toward me, his short-cropped dark hair and bearded head put to rest on the metal arm of the bench.
With his eyes closed, his head resting on the bench, the children were instantly interested. They came tiptoeing quietly over whispering in a conspiratorial manner. Carrying soft green leaves they had gathered from the lawn, they began to gently brush his short hair, his beard, his eyes. Feigning sleep he eventually gave in to their gentle strokes. Then, because of their quiet caring, he really did fall asleep. The girl went back to her mother and returned to her father with an actual comb. They tended, again, to his eyebrows, his beard and his hair.
As he slept he dreamt the dreams that only fathers can have; being leaf-groomed and combed by their offspring.
He crossed his feet with his ankles. His knees spread out away from his hips. This afforded me the best sight of his under chin and nostrils, upper closed eyes and eyebrows that his kids continued to brush and fondle.
His shorts billowed out at one leg. My view went up his inner thigh. The sight was too precious to linger on for long for fear of being found out.
Public Displays
All of this loving attention didn’t go unnoticed by the Chinese family. They stood off in a group cooing, staring and pointing openly at the children and father. It was just too much for them, this public display of affection. In addition to egging each other on, all four of them inched their way over to the sleeping frenchman. After their group intrusion and with cell phones out in full force, they zoomed in and out capturing the moment to share on Facebook and Instagram back in China.
I thought about them and this blatant invasion of privacy. I wondered too, if what I’m doing – putting his down on paper – is really any worse.
The children could see their father was asleep. Tired of the inattention they went back to their mother.
Breaking Rules
A park attendant came over and tapped the father awake. Apparently there was no sleeping on park benches and even his foreign sleeping beauty couldn’t save him from the rules. He sat on his bench a bit annoyed, the French not liking other people’s rules. He pulled out a French travel guide that he began to look into. With her children, the mother went and sat on the stonewall by the river. There, her children continued to tend to her, combing and braiding contentedly, as the French are prone to do.
The Mighty River
All of this happened in the evening sun by the Mother Of All Rivers, the mighty Chao Phraya.
