Mai at the Predators' Ball Read Free Page B

sister from Arizona for instance, we never even knew she had one; when they got near the water, Yinn reminded them they had to be back at the saloon before ten, it was still a night like any other, drama over Fatalité or not, Robbie said, things have to stay on the rails, that’s Yinn, order through and through, and he makes no secret of it, he has a mother somewhere too, he conceals nothing but confides nothing said Petites Cendres, the Gulf of Siam, the Andaman Sea, all lost in the silence of water said Robbie, a Korean mother, a military father, two brothers in California yet he reveals so little said Petites Cendres, a goddess in the Temple of Obscure Divinities he thought to himself, well he wasn’t going to confide in that blabbermouth Robbie, so another numbing monologue comes out of him, better pray as Jason asked for the peaceful repose of Fatalité’s soul, but none of it means anything said Robbie, I mean what does any of us know about it right, this is a big deal considering Fatalité liked such simple things, like eating and drinking, a helluva big deal, I bet if he knew he’d never have left Arizona, really just food and drink anywhere, even the sauna, leg up to get some attention, remember that Petites Cendres, Yinn’s mother, Mom or Mama Yinn, used to say bow slightly when talking to a lady and be polite, oh she wasn’t happy about his marriage to Jason, just a worthless scrap of paper, what a pain and Yinn with his heart broken three times already she’d say over and over, three boys, three hurts, and this dissolute Jason drinking too much on Friday nights, immoderate in his sense of order and justice though, Yinn’s idea was to treat everyone, rich or poor, to a meal on Sundays, but not every night for God’s sake said his mother, what on earth is he thinking, marriage for love and being sad next day because he’s fooled around on you, now is love really such a good reason, she asks her son some days, he’s forgotten about his soldier father who dumped me with three boys and a pittance, Yinn learned to sew because I had to make all their clothes, he even designed them for his dolls, and his older brothers just laughed at him; and even as a kid he had those long eyelashes over that special blue, like his father’s eyes, not really blue or green or grey but his own colour, oh those eyes, and what eyes to cloak his soul and shield him from everyone when he set about dressing and undressing his dolls, and I always kept a lookout for fabrics and cloths I could find inexpensively in the stores — already a makeup artist, he had to be powdering, adding glitter to the cheeks of his dolls, outlining their long lashes — and I told him don’t listen to your brothers, you’ve always been the sweetest, the most gentle, so don’t listen to them my Thai prince, you are so very gifted, and don’t ever forget we have nothing, that your mother does sewing for the rich, nothing, we have nothing at all, between us our work will get us through this, and now here he is getting married to Jason, I mean of course love may be a good enough reason, you are going to get hurt, and what will I do my exile boy in your pain, we never complained of our hunger, looking at me in silence with those eyes suddenly downcast in that way you know so well, not at all like the other boys, more distant, removed from an ancient civilization that no longer survives, and now he wants to please Jason whose wife he is, femme fatale in jeans that fit too tight and crush all that nature has given him, knee-high boots, a black bra and a white vest over it, knotted at the stomach, all just to please Jason, forgetting perhaps how he used to dress, a true prince though we may have been poor, no, love alone is not enough reason to get married, that’s what I’m always telling him, this was how Yinn’s mother went on about her cabaret-star boy as she stitched his clothes for the show, stringing pearl necklaces, guiding him as she once had