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Planes were always meditative for Ebony Forsyth. They rumbled and shook until she felt her skin peel off into a new creature ready to explore the foreign tastes of new soil. She closes her eyes and tries to let herself shed her skin but her stomach protests with strange acrobatics. This expedition is different. This time the two seats next to her are filled with strangers instead of her parents. Ebony has completely left the familiar crib of her hometown, the protective bars formed from stretching mountains. As the wheels touch down onto the runway she is officially alone. She is in Thailand.
Stumbling off the plane and into the dusty Bangkok streets, Ebony drags her starving, sleep-deprived body to the nearest hotel and collapses. Her heavy head is filled with a new contemplation of night sounds that weave themselves into an unknown lullaby. A lullaby she longs to learn.
Ebony walks through the morning Bangkok streets and looks up at the beautiful crumbling buildings standing like grand ladies coyly lifting up the hem of their dresses, revealing temptations. As she enters Kohson Road, thousands of Thai faces surround her and she lowers her wide brimmed hat closer to her porcelain skin, tucking her red hair underneath it. Deep brown eyes meet her celery green ones, she feels self-conscious but walks on. Winking gems gleam in the hot sun and colourful silks beg to be wrapped around a willing body. They strut and preen, dancing in front of her, as the storekeepers whisper promises into her ears.
Ebony’s head spins with the hyperactive energy and she finds a quiet bench near a group of children. They sell their worn toys with a sad vigor as they watch, with hungry eyes, their prized possessions drift away from them. Hungry bellies come before play. Their expressions coincide with the attainment of the much-needed money. Round coins match their innocent eyes and the childhood games are taken away by adult responsibility.
It doesn’t take long for Ebony to be approached by a young boy with gangly limbs that have been inherited, but not fully enjoyed yet. His deep eyes bore into hers, “Would you like to buy game?” he states in halting English, holding out a wooden engraved box.
She melts under his words into something pliable to his open hands, “ I would love to,” she answers shoving bills into his hands, “but I don’t know how to play this game. Can you teach me?”
The boy nods vigorously, grabs her hand and motions his friends to follow. He leads Ebony through the maze of shouts, laughter and bodies intimately close yet so unaware of each other. They reach a playground, with its paint peeling and structure lying about covered in graffiti. Ebony feels she has walked into a gravesite of lost childhoods, the souls of laughter imperceptible in the light breeze. There are still children there, holding onto the coat tails of a certain joy only they can understand. Their voices echo and are quickly carried away.
Ebony is surrounded by brown skin and awkward bodies as her newfound friend waves over some more children from the playground. They hurry over and once their eyes catch the game they squeal and jump up and down. The boy gives her an excited grin as a hush grows over the group. He opens the box with reverence. The children can hardly contain their glee. Laying out the wooden board and carved animal pieces, Ebony expects something like Snakes and Ladders. She soon discovers she is very, very wrong.
So starts the silliest, most unrelated game Ebony had ever played. The theme is you roll the dice and move your animal onto one of the squares carved onto the board, there written in a language unknown to Ebony is a penalty you must perform. Soon there is off key singing and animal noises coming from the small group of children and a young woman. Their rising voices expand as night swallows them whole. Dances are danced, songs are sung and the penalties grow more absurd by the minute. Their laughter brings the playground back to life. The peeling paint looks clean and new again and the metal shines in the moonlight as fireflies dance, suspended in the joy of awakened young hearts.
The night grows darker. Eyelids grow heavy and heads nod off as the children disperse in groups of two or three. They shed their skins of dancers, singers and animals and walk off into the dark as children. Soon the two left are Ebony and the young boy.
He hands her the game with joyful eyes but unwilling hands but she pushes it away, “ No, you keep it. I will come back and play with your friends again.” Ebony promises as she bends down, putting a hand on his shoulder. His eyes fill up and he gives her a beautiful, complex grin that the night cuts up and makes into stars that are scattered across the sky.