Private Dancer Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Thank you for everything you do,” she said.
    I gave her a thousand baht so that she could buy more whisky for her family and friends. Her face fell. “What's wrong?” I asked.
    “Whisky very expensive,” she said. “My family drink a lot.”
    I gave her another five thousand baht. She waied me. I got into the taxi. “Great party, Pete,”
    said Nigel.
    “Yeah,” I said. We drove off. Joy stood on the pavement, waving until we were out of sight.
    From COOKING ACROSS SOUTH-EAST ASIA Edited by PETE RAYMOND TOM YAM GUNG (Spicy prawn soup)
    One pint light fish stock 8 ounces raw prawns, peeled and deveined 8 ounces sliced button mushrooms 1 tablespoon chopped fresh lemongrass or 1 teaspoon dried lemongrass 1 spring onion cut into small lengths 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 teaspoons vegetable oil 2 tablespoons fish sauce 1 fresh green chilli, seeded and sliced 2 teaspoons chilli paste 1/2 teaspoon palm sugar 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander freshly ground black pepper Place the vegetable oil and the prawn shells in a wok and fry until they change colour. Add the fish stock and simmer for twenty minutes, before straining and discarding the shells. Return the stock to the wok and add the mushrooms, lemongrass, fish sauce, lemon juice, chillies and sugar, and simmer for two minutes on a low heat.
    Add the prawns and simmer for three to four minutes or until the prawns change colour. Serve garnished with the spring onions and coriander and add black pepper to taste.
    JOY We all had a great time and I had a hangover for two days afterwards. We didn't finish until seven o'clock in the morning, and that was only because we ran out of money. We switched to Thai whisky after Pete and Nigel went because that's cheaper, but we ordered more food because everyone was hungry again, and Bird had some marijuana and we started smoking that.
    Everyone loved the gold that Pete had bought for me and made jokes about the fact that it was made up of hearts. They reckoned I'd stolen Pete's heart and they thought it was really funny that he'd gone so early. They wanted to know how much money the party had cost, and how much money Pete earned. I said he earned millions of baht every year and I showed them the bill. They were all impressed, even Sunan, and Sunan has a lot of money.
    Park waited outside until Pete and Nigel went. I saw him sitting on his motorcycle when I went out to get a taxi for the farangs and he started pulling faces, trying to make me laugh. I met Park the first week I worked in Zombie. He's one of the DJs, he's twenty-five and he comes from Udon Thani. His sister works in Spicy-a-go-go and she's become quite a good friend of mine.
    Park's really good-looking and he's got a great body. He and his friends work out at a gym during the day and they're always comparing muscles. It's really funny when they get competitive about their looks, they're as bad as girls sometimes. His stomach is really hard, like a turtle's shell, and his skin is really smooth. He was going out with another dancer when he met me but he chucked her and said he wanted to go out with me instead. At first I said no but he kept after me,
    pestering me until I said okay. The reason I said no was because he had a bit of a reputation.
    Mon warned me about him, she said that Park made a bee-line for any new girl if she was pretty and young, but he told me that I was different, that he really liked me. He didn't try anything on the first time we went out, either. We went for a meal after work. He didn't have any money so I had to pay, but I didn't mind that. The DJs earn even less than the waitresses, and besides, I'd been short time with an old Swiss guy and he'd been really generous so I had two thousand baht.
    Park made me laugh a lot, he told me lots of stories about the crazy things that happened in the bars, and he told me about his family.
    I didn't sleep with him until the second date, and it was amazing. He was so gentle with me,
    not rough like