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+---- Thread: Joe's Journey, part 20: Lunch in Soi 9 (/showthread.php?tid=10923)
Joe's Journey, part 20: Lunch in Soi 9 - Haramcha - 2026-10-11
Another text ticked in from Sem. “Are you sure the location is OK?”
Joe wasn’t entirely sure what his friend meant. They were just going out for a meal, and this was the best street restaurant near their parents’ stalls. “Of course. See you soon!”
Arriving on Soi 9 felt strange in several ways. It was the first time Joe was back, and part of him felt like nothing had changed at all as his ride entered the street. The restaurant was still there, and the space that held a little gang of street dogs remained empty. Who knows, at this rate, the same dogs might even have been hanging around. Stranger was the act of arriving into the soi by car. Thinking back, this was likely the first time Joe had done so, and a part of him was hoping that neither his father nor his sister would witness his arrival.
Stepping out into the scorching sun, Joe took a moment to look around. Just then, he saw three people walking out from the pavement and onto the street a little further down. Joe’s younger sister pointed at him and waved, prompting his dad to also lift a hand in greeting. Once they caught up, they greeted an auntie who showed them a pair of metal tables surrounded by plastic chairs of a type that Joe had mostly seen in gardens since moving to Hungary. Four menus were dropped on the tables, and the group ordered a number of dishes to be shared among them in the heat. This wasn’t the first time Joe had eaten at this little street restaurant, but the couple of times he’d been here before had also been on special occasions, such as when his school football team had qualified for the regional championships, and when his sister Pim had been accepted into the middle school she’d been aiming for. It seemed like this place would remain that way, a sort of place of celebration.
The group took their time chatting away as their bellies gradually filled. Tok nudged Pim to tell Joe and Sem about her recent exam results; apparently, she had done significantly better than Joe had a few years prior. Other than that, the three made themselves more of an audience as they requested tales from Joe’s adventures overseas. They asked about the animals he’d seen during his time in Africa, and about the food in Hungary. The sort of things that they hadn’t found the time to talk about at the hotel before the match. That part really was the strangest of all: even though he was right here, in his hometown and next to his family and friends, Joe hardly had a moment to spend with them. And not necessarily because he didn’t have time to spare. Rather, it was a matter of how the players were allowed to move around. There was a strict schedule. Other than training, tactics meetings, team meals, and of course the match itself, they were supposed to rest. For Joe, that meant spending time catching up with friends and family, but the club staff held opinions that differed from his, instead urging the players to stay at the hotel. This was an eternal field of battle, for many of the players would much prefer sightseeing when they were fortunate enough to travel around the world, but doing so risked tiring them out. Joe had been allowed to make an exception and spend a couple of hours with his family on this one afternoon. Sem, being in the neighbourhood, had joined them.
Following the meal, the four had decided to walk down to the corner of Soi 10 and Soi 11 where Tok’s stall usually stood in front of 7/Eleven. There really hadn’t been too much change. The parking lot on the left was still mostly empty behind a tarnished green gate, and although a couple of shops had changed, the building on the right-hand side was the same as it had been two years earlier. Occupied by the conversation, Joe forgot to check if Leo, the street dog he’d been afraid of when he had first walked this part of the street on his own, was still there.
After making the five-minute walk down to the usual corner, Joe was greeted by what felt like every uncle and auntie in the neighbourhood. It was as though there were even more than he could remember, yet the moment he laid eyes upon any of them, their names returned to him. This was his second home, and Tok’s element where he quickly took charge, practically parading his son to his friends in jest.
Having met everyone for such a short time only served to strengthen Joe’s determination. He had to come back in a few weeks when the season was officially over. After all, it felt so strange getting to say hi to a couple dozen of people he knew, only to have to leave before he really got to talk to any of them. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t even had the pleasure of greeting his own friends. Even if he’d been able to give a few of them tickets to the match, all he knew about their experience with the match came from Sem’s retelling of things.
After returning to the hotel, the team had shared dinner, and Joe was back in the room he shared with Sei, which at this point was halfway filled with various snacks he’d been given to bring back to Hungary, however he was supposed to accomplish such a feat. When he’d tried telling Tok that he would be back soon, he’d insisted that he bring them. “Then just give them as souvenirs to your friends!” he’d argued. It wasn’t too clear whether that was because he was very insistent that Joe share his culture with his teammates and whatever other friends Tok imagined him to have, or if it was just a matter of being unwilling to store them for the time that would pass before Joe’s return to Thailand a few weeks later.
At first, Joe had kept the fact that he would be spending his summer holidays here from Tok so he could surprise him by showing up at his door, but given the limited time they’d spent together, he’d let the secret slip. At least seeing Tok try his best to pretend that it wasn’t a big deal in front of his friends had made for a funny moment of its own. Managing the first few steps of pretence a little too well had backfired on Tok, as one of his drinking buddies remarked on his apparent disinterest in his own son, the great football star, and his willingness to spend a grand fortune on flying across the world just to see his dear father, a remark that, however much of a joke it was intended as, had made Tok appear just poorly enough that he’d struggled between showing excitement at his son’s holiday plans and the cool façade that he had decided was part of fatherhood. It was just a little reminiscent of a teenager denying their interest in someone they felt attracted to in front of their friends, simultaneously trying to not be so dismissive as to lose their chances with said person.
Boarding the airplane, all that remained now was a few days of meetings, PR duties that Joe knew little about, and then he would finally be able to spend real time with friends and family. Not to mention all of the foods that were going to be on the menu with loosened restrictions.