airports, bad moods, muppets, and students

It had been a bad day for Stevo. At 12:15 he stood outside the airport, unsure where the bus from Hong Kong would drop off the arriving teacher. Verbally assaulted by touts, pointed at by the unenlightened, tired, and nearly out of cigarettes, he stood alone under a street light, much like his loner-hero Phillip Marlowe.

liamcobig.jpg
Pick out Liam and win a prize

The new teacher’s flight had been delayed for more than an hour because of a typhoon. Stevo had waited in another part of the city, hours earlier, at the ferry terminal. The newest edition arrived too late for the ferry and instead took the bus. Twenty hours of wakefulness did little to improve Stevo’s mood.

He lit his last cigarette, kicked a stone on the sidewalk, and paced like a 1950s father outside a hospital delivery room, cursing his job, his salary, his adopted country, and The Muppets.

A voice from the dark: Ta shi wo de yingwen laoshi! (He’s my English teacher!)

Stevo was only vaguely in Chinese mode. He had turned off that part of his brain to silence the touts.

A mother and son walked into the light. The boy was dressed in shorts and a bright shirt. Stevo had not seen him in anything but his school uniform.

“Hello,” called the small lad in a too big voice.

Stevo’s surprise was evident as he couldn’t recall the boy’s name, even though said student had been one of his favorites. He managed only a “Why, you!” and a slap on the back as the pair passed by. From the corner of his eye he saw the boy’s mother smile.

His mood improved, marginally. Instead of thinking dark thoughts and wishing pain upon puppets, he thought of Liam, his classmates and fun November afternoons.

8 Comments Add yours

  1. Robin says:

    Kids have a way of extracting bad moods.

    I like that photo. It makes me smile.

  2. ybonesy says:

    Liam is either the one making the cross eyes or the one holding his hands above that little monkey.

    Great post!

  3. david b says:

    A sad sad tale…

    …but an awesome, awesome photo.

  4. amuirin says:

    But… but…

    what did the muppets do?

    How could anyone hate the muppets?

  5. david b says:

    You don’t know? By god she doesn’t know!

  6. Jackie says:

    Did the mother bring you back a pack of cigarettes? Because that would have been a Christmas miracle or somethin’…

  7. fish says:

    i couldn’t find a perfect place to put this on your blog, but i just had to tell you that i am going to thailand soon, flights booked (that’s all) starting in bangkok for a couple days and then public transportation southward for about a little over a week and a half (start fast, end slow). i am still not clear on what touts are, and wonder if i will run into any in my new travels. in this odd way i look forward to purchasing a thailand brand cig and smoking it inbetween unexpected moments of “stress” while voyaging, some of the best breaths are when you miss a train, it took you over a hour to get the ticket in the first place, because of language barriers, you sit at the train platform, watching your train leave, you notice at least four people eyeing your luggage as you drop it in disbelief, you get more pissed because now you think you could have eaten something for breakfast after all, and now it is time to find another train, maybe a new destination, a safer place to sit while hugging your backpack, some kind of train shop food, and enjoying a local cig…

    ahhhhhhhhhhhh…….

  8. ybonesy says:

    Liam is the boy with the hoodie.

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