Erawan

By Laura Montgomery

Short story.  In the second half of the 21st century, Charlotte Fisher's father moves the family to Thailand so he can take care of a tourist habitat in orbit around Earth.  Charlotte makes a new friend, learns about spirit houses and a three-headed elephant, and trains for track.  Everything is fine until the habitat faces a deadly danger. 

Author's note:  this short story first appeared as a flashback chapter in Manx Prize.  If you have read Manx Prize, you have already read this short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ground Based Press
• Release date: Aug 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502269515

Book preview

ERAWAN

When Charlotte Fisher was thirteen and her family moved to Bangkok, Thailand, her parents’ bedroom was next to hers, so Charlotte could hear them sometimes if the air conditioners weren’t running and they were talking fiercely.  Her father was never loud, but sometimes her mother was, and neither seemed to remember the transoms at the top of the doors.  Charlotte loved the strange openings in their new house, but it seemed like she was the only one who had noticed them.

You keep leaving us, her mother said.  This was not true.

I don’t, T’Fania, Alex Fisher replied.  I’m going to work.

It was the same as usual, how he’d brought them halfway around the world to be with him but he wasn’t with them, how he had three children but she was supposed to raise them by herself.  It was a little melodramatic, Charlotte thought.  They all saw Dad plenty, unless there was an emergency.  Mom didn’t get it about emergencies, but Mom missed her sister and her friends.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and thought about putting in her earphones.  She didn’t like falling asleep with them, and her mother would have a fit about early hearing loss if she saw her.

Every now and then Charlotte’s dad had to work late.  It had been like that in the States, in Florida, and it was happening in Thailand sometimes, too, but it had been months since it happened last. 

Charlotte slapped at a mosquito.  They kept the windows closed at night, and the AC running, but still the mosquitoes found them and feasted on their flesh.  This one was full.

Charlotte rolled over.  The dim light of the clock told her it was after 11.  Weren’t they worried about her sleeping?  She had a test the next day in English.  Junior high English was all about bad things happening to miserable people, and Charlotte had read the book as fast as she could