Can You Be My Personal Guide?

I pretended not to see him while others left the scene. It’s not that I was into his look or style. It was obvious that he and his look and style had been enemies for ages. I was at a bus-stop with my mom. I normally didn't want to be with her but she wanted to be with me. This time she didn’t when she saw this guy.

A bunch of construction guys who often annoyed me whenever they saw me disappeared. I must bite my tongue to stop myself from exchanging words with them. They tried to get my attention by saying hello repeatedly. It annoyed me so bad that I wanted to ask them if their mother was a telephone so they kept saying hello to me. I needed mom for this reason – to stop them from being saucy with me.

Those people were not scared by the guy’s look, but they couldn’t speak English. We Thais are afraid of nothing, but speaking English.

At my second office nobody spoke English. But one phase everybody knew very well was "Hold on please". Once a foreigner called us, a girl answered it. She said "Hold on please." before putting him through another girl who said and did the same thing. His line was put through the whole department until it’s transferred to the last girl. But he didn’t wait for her to say it. He said goodbye before slamming the phone down.

At the bus-stop the man approached me. He introduced himself as a man from Pakistan and he expected me to introduce myself. I sat still. I chose to be rude in this situation. I didn’t want to know anything about him, so why should I tell him about myself. Losing face, he changed the subject. He said he’s going to a shopping mall on the outskirts of Bangkok. He asked me if I could be his personal guide. I said no I couldn’t.

He asked me which bus number he must take. I simply replied ‘24’. He asked me if I worked for XXX company. I said yes. He asked me which division. I said ‘Overseas Training’. A bus no. 24 was coming. He saw it too. He said thanks honey before getting on the bus. But it’s not the end of the story. It’s true the bus number was 24, but this one was not running to his destination. It would go half way before running back to the terminal station.

He was standing near the automatic door. I was trying to wave him down like crazy. He thought that I was so sad to see him leaving without me by his side, he looked at me and blew millions kisses to me until the bus was out of my sight.

The following morning I told my supervisor the story. Her desk faced the office door and I sat with my back to the door. Suddenly, she lowered her voice and told me not to look back. I asked her why. She said she thought that guy was here and he’s looking for me. I asked her what I should do. She said the only safe place for me that she could think of was under her desk.

I said it’s messy with her hundred shoes, food bags and stuff. She said if I wanted to survive I must hide there because she believed he’s here to take revenge on me for sending him to the wrong bus. I argued it’s his pure stupidity. She told me to go down now as he’s entering our office and looking around.

I had no choice if it’s the only safe place for me. My supervisor said she would report the situation closely. She said I should be safe as long as nobody greeted him. Suddenly, she exclaimed "Shit..." I asked her why. She said a guy was approaching him to offer help after he had attended an English course.

The wanted to use what he had learned. My supervisor reported that the Paki guy said "Personal" and the Thai guy said "Follow me." The Paki looked confused but followed the Thai guy who took him to another guy called Mr. Prasert. Mr. Prasert kept asking what while the Paki guy kept saying no and leaving furiously.

Obviously, the Thai guy wasn’t familiar with the accent and as a beginning learner he assumed the Paki guy was here to see Mr. Prasert