Her pimp grabbed her by the arm and scolded her for taking so long. She showed him what she had gotten and he became silent, pocketing the money and the gold chain. They walked back to their own hotel as it was too late now to get any more business that night. They rang the buzzer of the bell for the night watchman to come and open the gate so that they could go up. The night watchman was asleep and didn't hear the bell. They rang and rang and shouted up the circular stairway. About five minutes of this the old man was finally roused and, still in a drowsy state, he went down and opened the grill for the young Malay couple. The young Malay man scolded him and cursed him for taking so long. Then they both ascended the stairway and went up to the top floor and locked themselves in their room.

He was as short and small as she was and he dressed in fancy clothes, though between them they hardly made enough to eat or to pay the hotel bills. They were hoping to strike it really big one night and then make enough to skip out of town without paying the balance of their hotel bill which they hadn't paid in over a week.

She was only 17 and he was only 19, though to her he acted much older and mature. Both had come from outstation. They had stayed at the capital for a while, and, leaving there in a hurry, had come to this city to make more money. She liked him because though he was small he was tough. Sometimes he was real mean to her, especially when they weren't making any money, but otherwise he bought her clothes and made her feel like a woman. He was the first boy to pay any real attention to her or to make her feel like she was someone. After she ran away with him to the city, he began to change and threaten her and forced her to do bad things.

They would go out every night to try to make business. She was young but not very attractive. He had her make herself up and dress up, so that in the dark of the night she looked prettier. She already began looking older than her years.

They had been in the hotel now for two months and owed a total of 16 days back rent to the hotel management. Whenever the hotel manager or manageress were about during the day they would try to avoid them as much as possible, because they were always kachowed for the money. He would only pay one or two days at a time, because they were planning to skip out of town at the first opportunity they had to make a lot of money.

Mostly they got local young Malay men or sometimes middle aged Chinese men for business. Usually they would arrange a room at a special rate with another hotel, the night watchmen of which they had befriended. Every evening they would go out to get makan and wait outside of certain hotels. Last night was only the second time they had tried the nightclubs, the management letting her come in the back way without charging any door fee.

When they came back to the hotel it was usually 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. They usually scolded the old uncles of the hotel who opened the gates. They would go up to their rooms, first walking through all the corridors to see if any doors were open or if anything was going on.

He wouldn't let her talk to anyone in the hotel without his presence. They would sleep until noon, and then get up and go out and eat and snoop around the town.

One afternoon a young American traveler checked into the hotel room just next door to them. He was a very big fellow who looked like he lifted a lot of weights, and he was very friendly. He had just come from Thailand. The young Malay man was by the front desk arguing with the manageress over payment of his debt, when he saw the American carrying his backpack. He got the room next to their own and he pulled out a big wad of cash he had in his pocket to pay.

He followed behind the American as he went up to the room. The American went inside and left the door wide open. He went to his own room and told the girl about the guy next door. He told her to get fixed up, then he went out and started talking to the American.

The American had thrown his pack down in the corner and was going to take a shower. He noticed that the American had a fat wallet that he had put on the little night table by the bed. Bills were sticking out of its side. Then he told the Malay man that he was going to go over to the bar across the street to have a beer. The Malay man left and went back to his room and told the girl to go over to the bar and wait for him to come in.

She went over to the bar and ordered herself a coke. She waited about a twenty minutes like that until the American came in and ordered a beer and sat down at the bar. He was laughing, talking with the female Chinese bartender. She was sitting at the end of the bar and looking at him through the mirror. The American noticed her looking at him and he said hello to her.

He scoffed his first beer in almost a single swallow, and then he ordered a second one which he still drank fast but more slowly. She didn't know English and he didn't know Malay, so they couldn't say much to each other, but she could tell that he was interested in her and was behaving very friendly toward her. He went and put some loud music on in the jukebox against the wall. It was hard rock music.

Barely a half-hour had elapsed and he had already finished his third beer and ordered his fourth. She felt very awkward but now he was sitting next to her at the bar. Finally he asked her if she would like to dance. Not understanding him, she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She was nursing her now flat soda, in which the ice had all melted. He led her by the hand to the center of the room between the tables and he began moving his hands and legs in a funny way. She smiled and started slowly, seductively moving her hips and arms back and forth.

The song finished and they went back to their seats at the bar. The bartender was laughing at the American and having fun teasing him in English and then in Malay with the girl. The girl would smile and joke back with her. The American didn't know anything what was going on. He ordered another beer and another drink for the girl. When he pulled out his wallet to pay for it the girl noticed that he had quite a few hundred and fifty-dollar notes haphazardly shoved into his wallet.

They sat in that bar for several hours like that. She nursed her coke and he drank close to eight bottles of beer. He was acting very strangely and wildly, and he was frightening to her a little, but funny as well.

Finally she excused herself to him, translating through the bartender that she had to go to the restroom. As she got down from her barstool she put her hand on his and brushed by his side with her body.

She stepped outside and her boyfriend came out of the shadows. He asked her what was taking so long and she told him that he was really drunk and had a lot of money in his wallet. She told him that he was really falling for her and that she would try to lead him out. He told her that he had a plan, and would try to lead him down the street. He had talked to an acquaintance at a Chinese medical clinic down the street and that man told him he would sell him some drugs in a hypodermic needle for a price.

She went back inside and sat back down with the American. At first he didn't notice her, almost as if he had forgotten about her, but then he turned and recognized her and laughed. He asked her if she would like to leave the bar and go with him somewhere. She didn't understand but the bartender told her in Malay what the American had asked. She had the bartender tell the American that she knew where they could go. Then the Malay girl led him by the hand and they walked out into the nighttime air. He smelt of beer and could hardly walk.

When they got outside she grabbed his hand in hers and she led him down the street. Her Malay boyfriend was walking ahead of them on the other side of the road as they walked up the road nearby where the clinic was. She led him up to where the Malay boyfriend had thrown his cigarette upon the ground and she waited there a couple of minutes.

The American was growing restless but acted unafraid. She saw her boyfriend motioning to her from the alley across the road and then she led the American into the shadows of the alley. The Malay boyfriend came up behind the American in the shadows and quickly injected the shot into his rear end. He hardly noticed anything and he turned around to look at the man standing behind him. He started looking real dizzy and heaving. He sat down on the ground and was having a hard time breathing, then he laid down on the ground and closed his eyes, holding onto his chest.

After a couple of minutes he was silent and still and out cold on the ground. The Malay boy and his girlfriend didn't know what the drug was or what its effects were. They didn't know if he was dead or just knocked out. But soon he stopped breathing and they feared that he had died. They quickly went through his pockets and took the change in his front pockets and the money out of his wallet, putting the wallet back into his pocket. Then they laid another, empty hypodermic needle beside the American and they quickly walked off.

It was now pretty late and no one was nearby on the street. They quickly walked back to the hotel and packed their things. She had hidden the gold chain she had stolen from the Chinese Towkay a few nights ago from her boyfriend because she liked it and knew that he would take it from her to sell for cash. She had secretly hung it behind the wardrobe on a nail. He never looked behind things or under the bed, and never really cared much if the room was clean or not. But now she was nervous and they were in a hurry, and so she had completely forgotten about the gold chain. They counted out the cash and found they had over 2000 dollars. They packed their things in their small shoulder bags and left the key in the room and the door unlocked. They kachowed the night watchmen to let them out through the gate.

They stalked off into the night like two alley cats, and they were never seen again. Agents from the American Consulate visited the hotel the next day to investigate the mysterious death of the young American down the road, whom the Malay authorities had attributed to drug overdose and left it at that without further investigation.

Blanket Copyright, Hugh M. Lewis, © 2005. Use of this text governed by fair use policy--permission to make copies of this text is granted for purposes of research and non-profit instruction only.