Mekong Delta
by Andrew Passey
Chapter 6
It was evening a couple of days later and I sat outside the main mall thinking about heading back to the camp. I knew Hung's patience would be running out. After all, I was now clearly better. Not that I was ill in the first place but he didn't know. I was sort of resigned to being fucked by him and I knew putting it off was making the thought of it worse.
I let me mind wander to that last night with Dinh where I'd had sex with him. I remembered him saying he wanted to be able to remember a good memory with me rather than all the other bad experiences. Now I was faced with being fucked by Hung and I wished I'd let Dinh do it to me first. However a lot of my life had been filled with pain and regret so I'd handle it. I got myself together and was just waiting for my hard dick to deflate before leaving.
I absentmindedly glanced into the pizza restaurant just inside the entrance at the Mall.. It's glass windows gave the diners an amazing view.......of the car park. It was fairly quiet as usual but I noticed there were a couple of westerners in there which was a surprise. I hadn't really seen any white faces in my time in Ben Tre. You saw some around Can Tho but usually in groups getting on to boats to show them around the quieter parts of the Delta. Ben Tre had less of a tourism feel to it although there were hotels so I assumed people visited occasionally.
Admittedly I tried to avoid going to the places tourists might go anyway. Hung had been encouraged to make sure we avoided begging from westerners in case it pissed off the authorities. Didn't want some tourist losing their temper and posting angry comments online about hassle from streetboys. That could lead to a clamp down which was the last thing we wanted.
As I looked closer at the westerners I could see it was a woman and I guess her son. He looked maybe ever so slightly older than me but it was hard to tell as he was sitting down. They both saw me looking and turned away when they saw me looking at them. Then the boy turned to look at me and smiled with a wave. His Mum said something and he turned back but then a few minutes later he pointed at a piece of pizza and then me. I guess he was offering me a slice.
I'd never actually had pizza apart from once at a school friend's birthday party in Can Tho. I was hungry so I nodded with a smile. Soon after that they got up and I guess his Mum went to pay as he came out of the pizza restaurant on his own. He offered me the slice. I took it off and greedily wolfed it down in one go..
"Blimey you must have been hungry!" He said in English.
"Thanks. Yes I was. First food of the day. Not much food around when you live on the streets," I said. My English wasn't perfect but it was good enough to communicate with him. I'd studied hard after all and I knew it was certainly at a level where I could work in the tourist industry. It was nice to be able to use it properly rather than just practising in lessons.
The boy was well dressed and so was his mum. Well compared to what I was used to. They clearly had money if they were eating out and buying nice clothes. I wondered if they gave me some then maybe, just maybe I could persuade Hung that my mouth would be enough next time it was time to pay up.
The boy looked around and saw his Mum was still waiting to pay. Despite the lack of a queue it was clearly taking longer than he expected. He shrugged and clearly decided to make conversation. "So you live on the streets? But you speak english well. What's your name?" He asked.
"I'm Phuc," I said, which he giggled at slightly and said he was Dan.
"You know your name means to have sex in English?" He asked, smirking at me. It wasn't the first time I'd heard that so I ignored him although I decided if I could get payback and embarrass him I would,
"How long are you here for? I can show you round this town.....for a price," I said instantly hustling.
"Hmm I'm not sure. Is there much to see? Doesn't seem like it!" He didn't seem that interested and who could blame him. Ben Tre wasn't exactly the most tourist site filled town. Pretty much anything historic had been blown up by the Americans in the war. There was a memorial to the old town with a famous quote. Something like "We had to destroy the town to save it.". That made no fucking sense to me but it did mean there wasn't much to see for a tourist. That didn't stop me lying to try and get some money though!
"There's a lot!" I said, "but it depends on money as always. How large is your dong?" I asked.
He blushed and muttered "Big enough for my age I guess but not sure that's relevant,"
I giggled as I realised he'd misunderstood me. I must have left a keyword out of the sentence. I knew dong was a slang word for dick in the West. At school we always used to amuse ourselves in english using the word dong in sentences inappropriately.
I smiled at the boy "Dong is our currency! Surely you know that? I wanted to know how much dong you have. I can show you around but it will cost you!"
He still looked embarrassed "Sorry I thought you were asking....anyway doesn't matter....I did know that but we mostly pay for stuff in dollars. How much dong do you want to show me around?" He asked.
"How much do you want to give me? I can handle a few inches," I said with a wink and pushing my luck. I knew it was inappropriate and silly. However it amused me how much he was blushing and I felt like I'd got some revenge for him taking the piss out of my name. He also looked really cute when he blushed like that. For the first time since Dinh I felt a stirring in my balls that was more than just a simple need to get off. I reckoned a few inches from him would be better than Hung's monster! Not that it was on the cards but it did amuse me.
He was clearly unimpressed by my joke and ignored it, "I've gotta go. My Mum is coming to take me back to the hotel. Give me a price now or go away," he said getting annoyed. I began to think I'd played it badly with my smutty innuendo. I had to act fast.
"Erm, 10 dollars? For half a day," I said optimistically. It was a good amount although I had no idea if it was too much or too little.
He smiled slightly."I can probably manage that. Meet me at the Riverside Resort at say 10am and you can show me round," He said then headed off as his Mum came off and they got into a Grab taxi. They left the car park and I was left there feeling thoughtful. I'd earned ten dollars but now I had to work out what the fuck to show him tomorrow.
I walked back to the boys and Hung called me over. "So...tomorrow morning I was thinking we should go on a "mission" and pick up where we left off," He said.
I smiled at him, "Ah Hung. I can't. I've got better news." I said and explained about my talk with Dan.
"Phuc! You know you aren't supposed to beg from westerners!" He said looking annoyed.
"I wasn't begging! He asked me to show him around the town. I'm being a tour guide for the day!. For ten dollars! That's probably more than we make on our best day!" I said proudly.
Hung looked at me appraisingly, "Hmmm well good point. Ok well keep him happy and see if you can squeeze more money out of him. Now get some sleep and make sure you're clean and as well dressed as you can be tomorrow. In fact rinse those dusty clothes in the river now. They'll dry by morning." I did as I was told and fell asleep excited about the next day. It would be a chance to earn money and practice my English...
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
