Thirty-Three Teeth

Getting Warmer

Before the Silver City trip, Siri stopped off at the morgue to see whether Dtui had made an appearance. All he found was Geung sweeping grooves into the concrete floor. At the hospital administration office, Siri called Phosy and by a one-in-a-hundred chance found him at his desk. He told Siri about the appointment he’d completely forgotten the previous evening with Dr. Vansana. He also told him to call back if Dtui still hadn’t shown up by five. It was already nearly four.

There was one more stop before Silver City. He arrived at the ugly shanty behind the high wall of the national stadium and walked along the narrow dirt lane, wading through a flock of newborn chicks. At Dtui’s banana-leaf door, he called out Manoluk’s name before going in.

“Ooh, come in, Doctor. Haven’t seen you for ages.”

Dtui’s mother lay as always on the thin mattress in the center of the room. The head of the standing fan cluttered and groaned back and forth but did a poor job of lowering the temperature in the stuffy slum. She’d never looked well in all the time Siri had known her, but she’d looked a lot worse than she did today. He didn’t want to distress her by discussing Dtui’s disappearance.

“Good health, Mrs. Manoluk. How you feeling?”

“Just fine,” she lied. “What brings you?”

“I was visiting the family of one of our deceased around here,” he lied back. “Thought I’d drop in and see how you’re doing.”

He reached into his shoulder bag for his traveling doctor kit.

“Actually, I haven’t been in the morgue all day. I hope Dtui’s looking after the show for me.”

“Must be, Doctor. She left here bright and early this morning. Can’t think where else she’d be, unless she took off across the river.”

This was a long-standing joke in Vientiane. If so-and-so was late or his brother missed a day at work, they’d talk about him taking a swim to Thailand. It was only partly said in jest, as there were very few of the population of 150,000 who hadn’t given it a thought.

“No plans to go and have her hair done, manicure?”

“Goodness me, no. Can you imagine Dtui with a permanent wave?”

Damn. So, whatever came up was sudden and unplanned. Before leaving, as was his habit, he gave the old woman a checkup. They chatted, and he left some herbal tea to help her sleep. There were the constant cries of babies, the yelling of neighbors, the dogs. He wasn’t sure tea would help her sleep through that. He really needed to get her into a better place.