ต่อนี้เป็นเรื่องสั้นภาษาอังกฤษที่ผมแปลและเขียนใหม่จากเรื่องสั้นเก่า ๆที่ผมเคยเขียนเมื่อสิบสองปีก่อน ต้องขออภัยในความอ่อนด้อยของสำนวนหรือความถูกต้องของหลักไวยากรณ์ด้วยครับ นึกว่าอ่านเอาสนุก ๆ ก็แล้วกัน ส่วนที่นำเสนอเป็นตอนเพราะกลัวคนอ่านจะขี้เกียจอ่าน



                           Your fate is death (ดวงถึงฆาต)


                                                  1    


"The fate is death.Your fate is death.You must certainly be dead"

The voice owner whom the young man sees only the grizzled hair ,mumbling over his palm.Briefly ,the old fortune-teller withdraws the magnifying glass, and raises his head to see the cusmtomer's pale face.The words "fate" and "death" pierce through the young man's ears to the brain and, the coward brain tells him to have a goose bump.

"I think you are a big liar,or perhaps a con artist."

The old man becomes furious.He halts his hand nearly throwing the magnifying glass to the young man's face ,for fear of retaliation.

"Cha cha cha , How dare you accuse me like this ! Just now, who the hell said that all my previous predictions were absolutely correct ?"

The young man shows a gesture of repentance.

"Sorry ,I was just too on edge.Will I really die ? How will I die ?"

"It's your mouth that counts.Perhaps some day you will have a brawl with the punks in nightclub because you drunkenly look for trouble.You might then be fatally stabbed or shot at the belly.Young man ,there's still a light at the end of the tunnel.A merit from your previous life, or your guardian angel, is now trying to abate this horrid fate.You must be henceforth extremely careful about living for three months.Luckily you will die in old age like many crooked politicians."

The young man signs but still winces.

"Can you perform the rite to abate the fate ,sir  ?"

"No, just follow the Buddha's teaching: be self-aware in every breath you take.But don't forget to pay me ninety-nine baht,no check please"

The young man absent-mindedly hands exorbitant fee and leaves the codger whose office is only the mat under the tamarind tree at Sanam Luang.He is walking so abstractedly that he forgets to do his favourite routine- relish the comfortable ambience of this historical place. During dusk ,the folks enjoy sprawling on the rented mat to watch the kites swinging back and forth with the cooling breeze.The saliva rousing odour from the roast squid stall attracts the small kids.The sky is glowing with the orange beam only defiled by the stripe of grey clouds.

"Am I going to die ?"

With this question ,his life is like squating on the invisible ticking bomb.So the way to defuse it is shrouded with mystery.



                       2

Boonting ,the aspiring twenty-something man, left his mother ,his girlfriend and the thatched house in the area always quoted as the most imperverished in the Northeast to Bangkok.It was almost five months that he had nourished the dream of so-called rag-to-riches with no flinching.Similar to his many fellows ,Boonting assumed that his thick skull was full of awesome ideas that would catapult him to be a millionaire or perhaps a billionnaire within several years.There was no doubt that his menial jobs were nothing but the castle in the air.

Boonting used to be a dish watcher of a luxurious restaurant near Chao Paya river.Four months later , the manager told all employees bluntly that they could work here ,but there would not be any salary .The restaurant owner was facing the bankruptcy ,and planning to commit suicide.The next job for the illiterate like Boonting was to work at a skyscraper construction site.Moving to and fro ,with two buckets full of cement in both hands ,he managed through the scaffold and felt glad that his dream was still alive.

Unfortunately , one month later ,while the skyscraper owner was walking to supervise the construction.Boonting's ex-boss jumped from the top of 35-storey building and crushed his present boss to death.The project had not come to the sudden halt, but then ,the late boss's next of kin stroke the workers with the thunderbolt by laying off most of them -of cousrse Booting had no  exception.With the meagre compensation , the unemployed young man still had enough time to shed the tears on a pillow in the squalid rented room ,thinking of his mother and his girlfriend (or more precisely , his girlfriend and his mother.) He then contemplated going back to his hometown but...

"How do I have a nerve to go back ? my neighbors must have laughed their heads off, when seeing me staggering on the rutted road with the sour face.They must have asked "So where is your million baht ? where is your luxury Benz ? you the braggart !"... and  worst of all , if the bus I am travelling with happens to collide with another one or fall into the deep valley ,Am I going to die ?"

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จากคุณ : Johann sebastian Bach - [ 5 ก.ค. 52 10:24:18 ]