Jane Vejjajiva Read Online Free PDF Page B

Da said you had to look carefully to see if there were any jellyfish around. Kati liked jellyfish. She wished Tong could see them. She was sure he’d cry out in surprise – they certainly looked nothing like the jellyfish you’d eat in a bowl of seafood noodle soup.
    When she came out of the water, Kati hurried to tell her mother how she’d seen
    the jellyfish floating along
    with the waves. Mother said
    she liked to see them too,
    looking like parachutes in
    midair. Kati couldn’t
    understand what she meant
    so Mother found some
    photos on the internet for
    her. The jellyfish looked
    very relaxed as they swayed to and fro in the water, their upper parts like mushroom flowers seen from above, furling and unfurling. They really did look like the parachutes that soldiers use when they jump out of planes. Mother said she’d like to be a jellyfish drifting around with no particular destination. All her life she’d had clear goals and destinations, even now at the very end of her life.
    Mother’s computer was voice-activated. Uncle Kunn said Mother had prepared audio files for when she could no longer use her hands to work on the computer. She couldn’t hold a book to read so she listened to them on tape. Her friends had sent her audio books from far away. Some were children’s books and Mother would call Kati to listen to these.
    If she had the original, Kati would look at the pictures and read along with the tape. Mother liked the fact that the stories were teaching Kati English at the same time.
    But what Mother liked most was to look at the photos in her album with Kati. Almost every photo was of Kati alone, taken by Grandpa, who must have sent photos at regular intervals. Mother would ask Kati to tell her all about them, and Grandpa called these sessions ‘the behind-the-scenes show’.
    This one, though, was of Kati’s fourth-grade class teacher, Teacher Ratree. ‘Her husband is a teacher too, Mum, but he was assigned to a school in another province. Teacher Ratree applied to get transferred to join him but it’s been years now and they’re still apart. The big kids say that’s why she’s such a grump, she’s worried her husband will find a new wife. I think she’s got a nice smile but she doesn’t smile very much. Some people say it’s a good thing she hasn’t got any children but other people say if she did then maybe she wouldn’t feel so lonely. It’s weird, Mum, even during the holidays she comes to school. She never seems to go to visit her husband and no one’s ever seen him either.’
    Kati chattered on. Sometimes Mother would interrupt to ask a question like why this girl smiled so strangely. ‘Oh, Pirawan fell over. She fell off the slide and broke her jaw. She’s got to have this thing in her mouth now which makes her dribble all the time. The other kids call her “Miss Duh”. They won’t play with her. So I ask Pirawan to come and read stories with me. You can’t really chat with her, you see, because she can’t talk back.’
    While putting the photo albums away in the drawer, Kati spied a box hiding at the bottom. Inside was an album Kati had never seen before. Mother seemed reluctant to look at it and Kati thought she must be getting tired, but then Mother motioned for her to sit on the bed next to her and put the album in her lap.
    The first picture was of a baby in its mother’s arms. The bold handwriting underneath read: ‘Na-kamon Podjanawitt, February 14, 1993’.

Frangipani
    The past casts a shadow that can point to the future.
    ‘You were born after midnight so it was Valentine’s Day. Uncle Dong was so happy. I don’t know where he found the red roses but they filled the room to overflowing. I had a big fight with the nurse over it. But it was really so pretty, wherever I looked I could see only roses.’
    Mother sat quietly as though picturing the little hospital room transformed into a bower of love by Uncle Dong’s professional artistry.
    ‘Grandpa gave you the