Читать книгу The City with the Name of Wind - Татьяна Зубкова - Страница 7

The plane was announced landing. Almost at the same time with us, the American fighters landed, as there were some regular joint training. And the transport with the American soldiers overtook our bus. The strange airport was created in the same strange for the Russians war when the American soldiers fought «in shifts». Two weeks in Vietnam. Flight. Two weeks of rest: shorts, beach, massage, beer, and a Thai woman for two dollars. This is how the rare two-dollar bill was introduced. There appeared the modern Pattaya at the place of a small village that existed for centuries, at the place where the Monkey Leader, together with his army, helped the Thai army to defeat the enemy.

Undefeated Thailand is the part of the Great Empire. Its people know how to bow but not to give up. This is the country, the territory of which only once, three hundred years ago, was attacked by its enemies, the Laotians. For this, the Vietnamese still hate them. Its people are capable of combining everything: the example of the Russian army of the beginning of the nineteenth century, as it was in Petersburg where younger representatives of the current monarchy had been taught, and modern paintings by Merlin Monroe sold in small shops in the heart of Pattaya. So, the Russians and the Americans. Only they can buy property with land. The land of Pattaya where the American soldiers rested in shifts during the war in Vietnam. At the checkpoint, or whatever they call it, near the new Ambassador City Hotel with a separate building for soldiers and officers, rated now, forty years later, as having three stars, one could hear:

– Hi, John! – The visitor told the man on duty.

– Hi, John! – The man on duty told the visitor!

– How is the weather? – Like they could not see what was going on outside!

– Okay! – This traditional, «Everything’s fine,» was said no matter what was happening: either war or tsunami!

– Is it your girl? – A cute, smiling, looking like a flower, Thai woman dressed in jeans and a t-shirt was stroking the back of a huge black American with huge biceps.

– My! – He answered with the intonation of a master. Most men sound like masters!

– Happy entertainment! – The Thai woman smiled, and one could see only dollars in her eyes. Two dollars, I’ll remind you. But it was a very long time ago. This strange and terrible war was strange to both the Russians and the Americans. This was a war when almost the entire country, the mountains and the jungles, was flooded with napalm, and the eastern part – with chemicals. Now, apples there are like in Chernobyl. The Americans do not spend their vacations there!