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Samantha

Fifty-one … fifty-two … fifty-three. Samantha counted each step as she made her way slowly up the narrow stone steps of the Temple of Dawn. She’d covered the first twenty steps with ease as her eyes had absorbed the detail on the temple walls on each side of the staircase. Tiny seashells, fragments of glass and coloured porcelain placed into spiralling flowers and intricate patterns stretched across every inch of the walls surrounding the temple. Stone sculptures of ancient Chinese soldiers and mythical tiger-like beasts stood in rows around the centre of the vast stone structure.

It was like nothing she’d ever seen before, although she’d had the same thought yesterday when they’d wandered the grounds of the Grand Palace, and again in the evening when they’d entered the ramshackle streets of China Town, the only part of the city that hadn’t succumbed to modernisation.

She’d always loved London’s old white-stone buildings mixed in with the sleek glass of modern architecture, but now it seemed stuffy and dull compared to the dazzling colour and creativity of Bangkok’s history.

A group negotiating their way down the steps bustled past. Samantha shuffled closer to the railing and stopped, relieved to have a momentary break from the burning pain shooting out from her knees and up her thighs. It didn’t help that each stone step was at least three times the height of a normal step, making it feel more like climbing a very long ladder.

Her eyes followed the group as they continued down towards the river, lapping at the edges of the temple, now far below, and she wasn’t even halfway. Samantha forced her legs to begin climbing again and focused her gaze towards the top of the central prang, where Lizzie, Jaddi and Ben continued up, eager to reach the viewing platform before the sun began its descent.

Sweat cloaked Samantha’s skin under her long-sleeved T-shirt, one of the only garments from her backpack she hadn’t thrown away. All of the cotton vests and shorts she’d packed in England now felt thick and uncomfortable in the heat. Replacing them with the lighter clothes, sold in the markets for next to nothing, had helped with adjusting to Bangkok’s humidity over the past three days. Except when they visited the temples, and had to adhere to dress codes that required the majority of their skin to be covered.

As Samantha continued to ascend, the air began to clear. A breeze blew over her face and neck. It was the first hint of cool she’d felt since leaving the temperature-controlled room in the hospital. Lizzie had bounced back from her seizure almost instantly. The only reminder that it had happened at all were the purple bruises on Lizzie’s shoulders and legs. That, and Samantha’s memory of it, which played on loop in her mind the moment her head hit the pillow each night. Neither Lizzie nor Jaddi had spoken about it since, and Lizzie had been quick to brush Samantha’s concerns away whenever she’d asked. Lizzie hated to be treated any differently because of her illness, and yet it was a struggle not to. She had to try harder though, Samantha thought. The cloud hovering over them was dark enough without Samantha adding to it.

Samantha pulled in a long breath and caught a whiff of musky incense burning from somewhere inside the temple walls. She wondered how much the burning incense was for the monks’ rituals and how much was to mask the stench of sewage and rotting vegetables rising from the Chao Phraya River below.

‘It’s so majestic here. The energy is so peaceful,’ a woman with a Scottish accent said from five steps below her. Samantha glanced at the woman, and the boyfriend she’d spoken to, then back at the temple walls. The original china pattern on the porcelain was still visible on some of the larger pieces.

Samantha tried to assimilate the temple’s peaceful energy as she neared the top of the spire. It didn’t work. The architecture was beautiful, the craftsmanship magnificent, but the energy? She couldn’t feel it. What she could feel was the vibration of her phone from the bag around her waist. Samantha resisted the urge to unzip the pocket and read David’s latest text message. Whipping out a mobile phone in an ancient, sacred temple seemed somewhat crass, even in a city mobbed by selfie sticks.

Besides, she knew what David wanted to know. The same thing he’d asked yesterday, and the day before that. Where was she? What was she doing? Who had she met?

She understood his need to stay in contact. She was on an adventure in a faraway land, and he wanted to be part of her journey. She just wished he’d give her some space and some time to process what had happened between them. A frown creased Samantha’s forehead. David and space were not two words that went together. Even before Lizzie’s prognosis and their plans to travel, David had hated sharing her. She could spend all day working by his side and all evening in his flat, and he’d still want more.

It was one of his worst qualities. She’d loved him for it once, maybe she still did, but it was getting harder to ignore the childishness of it. She still remembered the time when she’d rescheduled their quiet night in to catch a West End show with Lizzie and her parents, and he hadn’t spoken to her for two days.

Part of her understood his game. The reason for his timings. He’d wanted to do something to ruin her trip, to ensure that he was never far from her thoughts. But why couldn’t he have proposed instead? After all, her belongings were neatly boxed in the corner of the living room, ready to be moved to his flat when she returned. More than that, she loved him. David was everything she wasn’t: suave, sophisticated, romantic and good-looking. It was easy to ignore his slightly short stature; easy to thank the waiters herself when he placed their orders without a polite word.

Samantha’s legs buckled for a second as she stepped onto the platform at the top of the central prang, tugging her thoughts back to the present. For the first time, she looked around properly – the view over the city was breathtakingly beautiful. She felt Lizzie’s arm loop through hers, Jaddi standing on the other side of her. Her heart started to race. How many years had they talked about this and now here they were. Their dream of seeing the world together was coming true. For the first time, she managed to forget the camera lens and all those people at home watching her.