I – Set the Stage

"Non long hai chok" means sleeping in a coffin. This Thai ritual has become increasingly popular in the last few years. It involves participants lying in coffins while monks perform death rites on them as if they already passed away.

"So here we are?" said Revy looking about. "Fuckin', with a capital A, Dutch. What did we do to deserve this?"

The look on her face would have made the Florida mafia loosen their bowels all over again if today had been that bygone day. But the malevolence was lost on Dutch.

"I told Rock he was in charge of employee affairs this week," Dutch said."Its' good business practice. Take it in stride, he's calling the shots. And we're going to do it together, as a team. No one backs out."

"What's that, Dutch?" exclaimed Revy. "Ya know, I'm sorta going deaf what with me having to save our asses all the time without ear protection. If we're going to talk about employee stuff what kind of benefits are we gonna get, cause this ain't one of them. And I'm sure Benny didn't hear a fuckin' thing."

"Trying not to," said Benny.

Perhaps the practiced serenity cracked. One could never tell. Dutch wore sunglasses, all the time. Which he probably was regretting since they were in a dimly lit chamber beneath the K̄ĥāng l̀āng temple somewhere south of downtown in Roanapur.

"How about I do employee relations starting now?" Revy said. "Ye-llow Flag, Ye-llow Flag. Who want's to go to the Yellow Flag? There's more truth at the bottom of an empty glass than anything we'll find here."

"Two thousand baht," said Rock entering the chamber. "It should only have been eight hundred. I checked out prices first."

"Sounds like a rip-off to me," Revy said. "Now, who's with me? Yellow Flag?"

"I had some words with the head monk," said Rock. "Told him we were hardly Roanapur's latest fresh meat..."

Benny was standing too close to Revy for her comfort. She elbowed him hard in the ribs. "See? The dumbass is starting to pick up on how I do things."

"... and he said," Rock raised his voice. "...the price cannot and will not be changed on account of meat – whether it's fresh or stale. All four of you are farang, none of you are presumably Buddhist, and then of course – the special accomodations. Limited edition. The only rule: you have to fall asleep.."

"Sometimes I meditate," gurgled Benny, clutching his side. "And I used to have an old paperback by Ram Dass. And Jane does the most amazing..."

"Shut up Benny," Revy said loudly. "Fuck it. Rock... This idea of yours... I mean, flying metal balls and midget aliens would be right at home in this creep show of yours. We could do the Snake Temple instead. So, the sooner we get done... the better."

"We are in Thailand," said Rock. He held himself in the determined way they all knew so well from past experience. There was no exit for any of them from this moment forward. "Yet in all this time we've never actually been in Thailand. We never get out of the city, we never see the sites, never experience the culture. Raise your eyes up from the ground and look about. Just this once."

Rock began to swing the door shut, then hesitated as the sonorous tones of the monks daily chant filtered down the hallway.

"Buddham saranam gacchami,

Dhammam saranam gacchami,

Sangham saranam gacchami,

Dutiyampi ...

Tatiyampi …"

Rock closed the door. There followed a silence as deep as layered dust. The four stood apart from each other.

"We're not tourists," Revy said finally. "And this ain't culture."

Her tone was oddly defeated and the uttered phrase so lacking the usual obscenity where it should have been that all three of her fellow crew-mates looked askance. Revy stared down at her untied shoelaces as if they were suddenly important.

More important than the four open coffins.