KAMPOT COTTAGE

PART 1

They stood at the corner of a bustling street in the city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and together watched the orange rays of dusky sunlight pierce holes in the mighty Mekong River. A gentle breeze was being held captive by a powerful and relentless humidity. The aroma of spicy street food reminded Ava that she had forgotten to eat dinner- again. The street hummed around them at brake neck speed, elephants, robe clad monks, taxis, motos and humans, most of them children, all occupying their space in time and tide. 

“Ava look...” came Aiden’s voice, interrupting them from their collective trances. Within eyeshot a group of kids sat on a dusty footpath taking a break from their evening shift of book- selling. They propped and stacked their raggedy old books up in towering piles making a fort type structure with them. Complete with old rubbish bags, scraps of old tyres and bottle tops they were building another city perhaps, a safer one, one free from child labour, sex tourists and all life's bad things.

The children beckoned the couple over- smiling with black teeth and waving with blacker hands. Pi Seth, the joker and self-appointed leader of the young bunch boomed out across the street “Gooooood morninnnnng Mr. Casper!”- his friendly pet name for the white skinned Aiden. The other kids dived into exaggerated hysterics, high fiving and fist bumping in approval at their friend’s joke. These street kids knew Aidan and his wife Ava were visitors but not tourists. They had seen them many times over the years. They had seen and heard them conversing in Khmer while at the market eating noodles and sipping coffee, attempting small talk with the vendors. 

Ava really wanted to go to sit with the children one last time, to sit, laugh and play their old fashioned games again but she couldn’t move. Her feet felt like two big oak trees rooted to the spot so she beamed over a smile instead. The kids were in their moment and she was in hers. She inhaled and then exhaled somewhat wearily.  The city lit up, a lurid neon monster waking with a jolt , ready for action after a hot day’s slumber. A kaleiscope of brash lights, signs for ‘live girls’ and ‘cool beer’  and ‘big secrets’ replaced the innocence of daylight.  The Asian night always arrives in quickly, without delay. 

“Ava, our taxi is here.” Aiden loaded the rucksacks into the small car boot. "We go to the airport now,” he ordered gently to the taxi driver, “time to go home, thank you.” “You come back to Cambodia sometimes?” quizzed the driver through his rear view mirror. Aiden managed  a smile at how funny the word sometime sounded with an s tacked to the end. He managed to mumble “I hope so” before the wave of an enormous sob crashed into him, big tears flowed and he was helpless to stop them. He cried more easily than his wife. They both knew what faced them at home and leaving this city so soon to be jolted back into their childless reality was a little more than he could take. Ava turned her head to steal another look at the kids. Studying their faces she felt the trickle of a salty tear slide under her chin. She brushed it away instantly with her hand and coughed away the urge to bawl too.  Stoic was now her first, middle and last name. She had cried all the tears she was ever going to cry by now regarding not being a mother. She had accepted it, or so she thought. 

The taxi melted in to the night and they were gone.