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I had to laugh; I couldn’t remember.
“King Taksin arrived here after fighting his way through Ayutthaya just as dawn was breaking,” he said. I was impressed by his efforts which helped jog my memory.
“That’s right,” I said. “The city was being taken over by the Burmese army.” As a child, I loved reading about war and history; was a welcome respite to the droll reality I lived. There was just something about city life that felt so empty after a while.
Jack nodded, and then pointed at the Phra Prang, the central tower. “Wanna climb it?”
“It looks pretty steep,” I said, feeling almost too afraid to do it.Emma, you’re with Jack. He won’t let anything happen to you.
I took a deep breath. “Okay,” I said, though I still felt a dizzying fear of heights.
“You’re up first.” He smiled. “So I can break your fall.”
Luckily, there were many people around the tower, and plenty of people wanted to climb it. There was a fairly large man right ahead of us, and I almost laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You’ll get a better view than me at least,” I whispered, then motioned towards the big man. Jack shook his head, then approached the man.
I don’t know what Jack told him, but the man left.
“Better?” Jack asked.
I felt bad making a joke about someone I didn’t know, and I could tell Jack thought I was being too silly about it. “I didn’t want him toleave,” I said.
“I wanted you to have a good view,” Jack said. Then he smiled, brushing off my poor joke.
Climbing up the tower was much easier with Jack behind me coaching me through it.
“It’s ok,” he said as we first started our ascent. The sound of his voice gave me courage, and I forgot all about my fear of heights. Despite being around so many skyscrapers, and seeing dazzling views towering above cities constantly, I was still afraid of falling down.
With every step forward, I grew braver.
“You’re doing great,” Jack said. I began to understand that Jack wanted us to have the climb to ourselves, as it was fairly tricky. I held onto the rails along my sides, and tried not to look at my peripherals. On either side of me was a dizzying fall, and the beauty of the city along the river.
I finally arrived at the top, and stood in awe of the city along the river.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Jack asked. We stood in silence, holding each other’s hands and I didn’t want the moment to end.
“We have to make our way down,” Jack reminded me. “Other people want to come up here.”
I nodded, and while descending was difficult, I felt a newfound sense of bravery with Jack in front of me.
“So what did you tell that man?” I asked. I saw the man out of the corner of my eye, and the reminder piqued my curiosity.
Jack approached the man instead, and a moment later the two were laughing as if they were best friends. I dared not interrupt them, but then Jack motioned me to come.
“Aaron, this is Emma.”
Aaron put his hand out and laughed. “Sheisquite the beauty, just like you said. Pleased to meet you, Emma.”
I smiled politely, not sure as to why I was meeting this man. I felt a touch of guilt about making a body shaming joke, and I almost began to apologize when I thought better of it. “Pleased to meet you.”
Jack was mouthing, ‘say thank you’,
“Thank you,” I said. I didn’t know why, though I assumed it was for letting us have the climb to ourselves.
“You’re welcome,” the big man said, and then produced a small necklace for me. “But you should really thank this guy, for loving you so much.”
