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+---- Thread: Joe's Journey, part 23: Unbearable heat (/showthread.php?tid=11180)
Joe's Journey, part 23: Unbearable heat - Haramcha - 2026-11-08
“So, how about we go get something to eat?” Joe asked Sem.
“Let’s do it! I’ll just wrap up, gimme 10 minutes.”
After surprising Sem at the gym where he was now employed, Joe had joined in and actually done a few drills at the gym. Might as well pass time by getting something useful done, even during vacation time. After all, it beat joining his dad and his friends who would just be sitting around getting drunk by their stalls. Besides, getting to see his best friend at work was sort of entertaining in its own way. Last time they’d spent any serious amount of time together, they were both students, with Joe on the precipice of leaving Bangkok to join Victoria Falls Eagles. Since then, he’d not only gone through a year at the academy, but also made his debut for Rapid Magyar, even playing a full season as a regular for the Hungarians. On Sem’s part, he’d gone from being a jokester of a teenager to being, well, still the same, but now also with an adult atmosphere about him. An atmosphere that became particularly apparent during his work, which he clearly took a lot more seriously than school.
While waiting, Joe arranged with his sister Pim so that they could pick her up after school before meeting up with their dad and having a meal all four of them.
A plethora of mostly empty dishes covered the table. Tok, Joe’s dad, had signalled for the bill a few moments ago, after they had all concluded that they weren’t able to squeeze in any further calories.
“Can I scan?” Joe asked the waitress who came by with the bill, with reference to the QR code payment that is customary in most restaurants and shops around Bangkok. The waitress nodded.
“Over by the register, please.”
They had eaten in a small restaurant near the Mahanakhon Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Thailand. There was something unique about sitting in a small, largely wooden building only a couple of meters tall, just a dozen-or-so meters from a building boasting a massive 314 meters in height. That wasn’t the reason they’d chosen this place, however. It was rather that a couple of Pim’s classmates had spoken about having come here with their parents, and it being right between the gym at which Sem worked and the corner where Tok’s fruit stall stood.
After paying, they parted for the time being. Tok needed to finish packing up the stall, and Joe had to go pick up his luggage at the hotel, before heading back to their home on the other side of the river, while Sem went to meet up with his family.
The old house felt different to how it had always been, somehow or other. It was unlikely that anything had changed, but it just felt so hot, even in the evening. It was as though nobody had ever taken notice of the heat until it suddenly overwhelmed Joe on this occasion.
“Isn’t it quite hot today?” he asked without much thought behind it.
After a short pause, his sister gave the outdoor temperature, as if to say that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Tok turned on the electric fan and faced it towards Joe without uttering a word.
It had quietened down. Pim and Tok had gone to their respective rooms. Joe had shared his room with Pim before moving overseas, but as things had been rearranged while he was gone, it seemed most sensible for him to stay in the living room, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. After all, Pim was now a teenage girl and likely did not want her privacy taken away by the return of her brother. Besides, the fan was in the living room and would serve Joe well in combatting the heat.
Lying on the mattress on the floor, Joe used the dim light to observe a small lizard on the wall. It sat mostly still, but would occasionally move rapidly across the wall as though it were possessed by a prisoner on the run. Eventually, he noticed another. The noise from the electric fan kept him awake. Or so he theorised anyway. At first, it had been the heat, now the fan, soon the lizards. What did they eat, anyway? Joe had always been told they took care of the insects, but were there really that many mosquitoes, flies and whatever else inside of their house? After all, it was not as though they lived on a farm or anything like that.
They ate a simple breakfast. Rice, a plain soup with a few vegetables in it, and a few pieces of chicken that had been leftover the day before Joe had showed up.
“So, how’s it feel to be back home, Joe?” Pim asked.
“It’s great! Struggled to sleep, though.”
“Did you, now?” Tok interjected. “What was wrong, was it the mattress?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe the heat or something,” Joe answered and elaborated. “Although it’s never been a problem in the past.”
“That may be, but you’re less used to it now, isn’t that right?”
It probably was. Hungary got hot, sure, but at least he had an air conditioning system in his hotel room. This was the first time he’d been sweating seriously in his sleep in who knows how long.
Having recently arrived and not slept too well, Joe was urged by Tok to stay at home while he went and set up his stall for the day. After all, he’d been running it single-handedly for almost two years now, so surely Joe’s assistance was not required. He could just stay at home and get some rest.
Problem was, however, that it got gradually warmer as the day got going, and only an hour-or-so after Tok had left, it seemed clear to Joe that he wasn’t going to get any more sleep, instead deciding to sit in front of the fan for a while and watch TV.
There was something calming about watching TV in Thai. It wasn’t as though he’d ever found himself missing this activity while overseas, but the familiarity of everything touched a note. The language, the mannerisms, it just hit the right spot. What was being shown wasn’t actually all that interesting. News broadcasts and the like aside, Joe found a cooking show to watch.
It hadn’t ever been a big pastime of the household; Tok was rarely home too long, and the kids had mostly been out playing with the neighbourhood children, or watched by a neighbour or a friend of Tok’s. Instead, they’d occasionally get together and watch a movie. Even then, watching shows that weren’t actually very interesting now urged nostalgia to come forth within Joe. Maybe he should look into getting access to Thai television in Hungary for when he felt a little homesick.