Love Sick – New Horizons

Chapter 6

Noh slept fitfully after Ohm had left, he found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, waking with the strange feeling of having dreamt strange dreams that were leaving him anxious, but unable to recall what they had been about.

In one of his wakeful moments he became aware that it was P’Im who was sitting next to him and not P’Ann any more. He could vaguely hear voices in the distance but the words were faint and seemed garbled. His mouth was so dry, if only he could have a drink, just some water would do, but Noh couldn’t rouse himself enough to ask. That was the last thing he thought as he gradually drifted into unconsciousness again.

While Ohm was making his way to school, he made more phone calls. He called his Ma to let her know he was on the bus going to school, then he rang Phun’s mother to tell her what had happened. She was very upset, she was so fond of Noh and she assured Ohm she would go to the Hospital as soon as she could make arrangements with her work.

The next call Ohm made was to Mr. Juntasa. He was very shocked to hear what had happened to Noh, and he also told Ohm he would visit as soon as he could. After checking that Ohm was doing okay, Mr. Juntasa ended the call.

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The trek through the forest was hard work, trees with long overhanging branches threatening to scratch and slap unsuspecting victims who got too close. Half hidden tree stumps caused another obstacle, catching the feet of students and tripping them up.

They finally reached their destination, which was a single storey wooden hut in the middle of a clearing. Mr. Leekpai and his assistant opened the door and instructed the students to bring in their belongings. The young people stepped inside the dark stuffy building, wondering what on earth they’d let themselves in for!

“Your faces are a picture!” Their teacher was grinning at them. His assistant, Joe, quickly went round the room opening up the dusty blinds that were covering the windows and light flooded in. “Ah that’s better! Now we can see what’s what!” In one corner of the room there were large canvas bags stacked, and next to them were long narrow wooden shelves, piled high with various items of equipment, lamps and wooden mallets, lengths of wood, rope and string in varying thicknesses and numerous items of cooking utensils.

“Okay now, if you’d all like to sit down somewhere, we’ll explain what’s going to be happening. The large canvas bags contain two-man tents. That’s where we’ll all be sleeping tonight, outside in the clearing. There are no luxuries here at all, I’m afraid…..” Mr. Leekpai could see the students looking at each other. “There’s no electricity, but we have got battery operated lamps for night-time. There are no toilets…….” More shocked looks passed between the students. “We’ll have to really rough it I’m afraid, by digging holes in the forest there, but we have got wooden stakes and some canvasses that we can create our own latrines.”

The assistant Joe was enjoying watching all the faces of the young people, as they tried to digest all the information. He asked them, “Aren’t there any of you who have been Scouts or Girl Guides?” About five hands were raised. “Did you ever go camping with them?” Two boys and one girl said they had. “That’s a great shame that more of you haven’t had that experience. It teaches you a little of how to survive in the great outdoors!”

Tong spoke up then. “It’s only for one night, after all, I’m sure we can survive that long!” Many of the students agreed. Mr. Leekpai beamed at them.

“Good for you! If we get the tents put up first, then we can go and dig the holes and erect the latrines. We’ll need to collect wood for fires, we’ll be cooking our dinner over them, fortunately we’ve brought our own supply of water, but you’ll have to use it sparingly, there won’t be any showers or anything like that! Right then, let’s get started on the tents, we can all help each other if anyone has a problem. Joe will start setting up the fire, I think we could do with a drink and a bite to eat soon.”

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What’s happening? Why’s somebody tugging at my arm? Just let me sleep, please! Noh could feel someone touching his hand and making shushing noises. His arm was hurting, it feels like it’s going to burst! He tries to move it away, but he didn’t have the strength. “Noh, Noh! It’s okay, it’s just Jen taking your blood pressure! Don’t worry, she’s almost done.”

Noh managed to half open his eyes, and could see a blurry white figure standing next to him. “I’m all finished Noh, don’t worry I won’t be back for a while. I’m sorry I’ve disturbed you again, but I have to do your observations regularly.”

The white figure moved away, and Noh’s eyes focused on P’Im who was sitting next to him, holding his hand. She smiled fondly at him and spoke softly.

“I’m glad you’re awake Noh. How are you feeling now?”

“I’m so tired and thirsty P’Im. Please can I have a drink of water?” Noh’s voice was a hoarse whisper. P’Im immediately stood up. “Because you’ve got a saline drip in your hand Noh, you’re only allowed a sip of water okay? I’ll get it for you.” She quickly got some water in a cup and held it to Noh’s parched lips. He took small sips of the cooling liquid, and smiled gratefully.

As P’Im replaced the cup on the cupboard top there was a tap on the door. A face appeared around the door and Phun’s mother came into the room. She was very shocked to see how ill Noh looked, but smiled cheerfully at her son’s boyfriend.

“Well now Noh! What have you been up to? Ohm rang me to tell me you were in Hospital, so I thought I’d come and check up on you.” She moved across the room to Noh’s left side, and after speaking quietly to Im, she gently leaned forward and kissed Noh’s cheek. Smoothing his hair away from his forehead she looked at him closely. “I don’t know what Phun’s going to say when he finds out you’re hurt Noh, but I do know he’ll be so proud of you and Ohm for going to help the young boy who was in trouble. Phun’s gone on a field trip with the University for two days and they have no access to phone networks or anything like that, so they had to leave their phones behind.”

The mention of Phun’s name brought tears to Noh’s eyes and Phun’s mother immediately regretted her words. Reaching for tissues that were on the cupboard top, she gently wiped his eyes. “Don’t get upset Noh, Phun will come straight here on Friday morning, his train gets into Bangkok about 10.45am and Ohm is picking him up and bringing him to you.”

The news brought a smile to Noh’s face. He nodded and quietly thanked Phun’s mother.

“Is there anything you need Noh? Let me know and I can get it for you.” She glanced at Im, but she just smiled.

“He has everything he needs for now, thank you. His Ma is coming back from England as soon as she can get a flight, and Ann and I are managing between us to look after Noh. Ohm comes every chance he gets between school work and home, so we should be okay. Thank you for coming to see Noh, he’ll really appreciate that.”

“That’s okay, I needed to see him for myself. Please don’t hesitate to ring me if you need anything at all Im, I can get some time off work and sit with him if you have things to do. My family all think the world of Noh, and we’re worried about him.” She looked back at Noh and gently his cheek with the back of her hand.

“You get well quickly Noh, okay? As soon as you’re well again we’ll have a barbeque at our house, I’ll get all your favourite food in and we’ll have a great time.” Noh smiled and nodded, but sleep crept up on him again, and his eyes closed.

Phun’s mother looked down at the now sleeping Noh. She wiped away the tears that had come unbidden to her eyes. “He didn’t deserve this Im.” She turned towards Im. “None of those boys deserved any of this. It makes me so angry! I just hope the police catch those louts who did this quickly, and they get severely punished!”

Im agreed emphatically. “I think they’ll be caught, they’ve done this sort of thing many times apparently. At least Noh is in safe hands here in the Hospital, we all need to hope and pray he’ll recover.”

After a last look at Noh, Phun’s mother took her leave, hurrying back to her place of work.

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The students enjoyed a welcome break from their exertions of erecting the tents, digging holes for the latrines, putting up canvass screens and collecting wood for the fires. Joe had a big fire going in the middle of the clearing, and there were large logs placed around the area where the students sat. They had hot drinks and were toasting crumpets on very long forks over the fire.

Mr. Leekpai came and sat with them, a large bag of clip-boards, books and paper on the floor beside him. “Okay guys, while you’re all here, toasting and buttering your crumpets, I’ll fill you in on what’s next.” The young people stopped their chattering to listen.

“I’m sure you all remember lessons about the environment at school, and how trees play a huge part in the survival of our planet?” The students all nodded in agreement.

“Trees are essential to our world, they are called the lungs of the planet. The leaves breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Without trees CO2 builds up and contributes to climate change. They also provide habitat for wildlife.

Now, I want you to pair up, maybe you could go with someone you haven’t met properly yet, and I’ll give each pair a clip-board, some paper and a book all about trees. I want you to find as many different kinds of leaves as you can, and using your books, find out what tree they are from, one interesting fact about the tree, and record it on your paper. There’s also a glue-stick, so stick the leaves next to your information.”

The teacher started to pass the equipment round. “This is completely unknown territory for you all, so you need to make sure you take note of where you are, leave a trail of something to follow, but not breadcrumbs, or should I say crumpet crumbs, like Hansel and Gretel did, use sticks or stones or something that’s already here.”

The students finished their snacks and after pairing up, they made a start on the project.

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The day seemed very long to Ohm. After reporting to the Head teacher what had happened to Noh, and telling his classmates as well, he tried to settle down and concentrate on his work, but his mind kept wandering to his friend. He gave a silent prayer that Noh would recover quickly, school just wasn’t the same without him.

Finally school finished, and Ohm hurried to the Hospital. All of their classmates wanted Ohm to pass on good wishes to Noh and promises to visit him when he was feeling up to it.

P’Ann was back again, looking more refreshed than she had been that morning. “How’s Noh doing P’Ann? Is there any improvement?” Ohm went to his friend’s side. Noh was asleep, still with the drip in his hand and the oxygen mask in place.

“He’s much the same I’m afraid Ohm, but sleep is the best medicine at the moment.” Ohm pulled up a chair next to P’Ann, watching Noh’s face in case there was any sign of him waking.

“How was your day Ohm, how’s the studying going? You’ve got so much on your mind at the minute haven’t you, it must be hard for you. Please don’t worry if you need to go home and get some work done, Noh won’t be upset at all, he would understand.” P’Ann put her hand on Ohm’s shoulder.

Ohm tried to smile. “I’ll stay for a little while P’Ann, I’d like to see him awake, if only for a minute.” P’Ann squeezed his shoulder. “Okay, that’s fine.”

They talked quietly for a few minutes, then they heard a faint sound coming from Noh. They both stood up quickly to look at him, and his eyes were slowly opening. The bright lights in the room made him blink rapidly, and he raised his left hand to try and push the mask off his face.

“Hi Noh, you need to leave the mask on love, it’s for the oxygen.” P’Ann gently put the mask straight again. Noh’s eyes were fully open now, and he looked around the room before settling his sight on Ohm. “How are you feeling Noh? Everyone in our class sends their best wishes to you and are threatening to come in and see you! I think Hospital security will have to be called that day, won’t it!”

The normally cheerful Noh gave no response. P’Ann heard a faint whisper. “Water please.” She quickly got up and filled the cup with water and helped Noh to take some sips of the cool liquid. “Not too much Noh, I’ll give you some more later, okay?”

Just then Jen came into the room. She smiled at Ohm and Ann, and hurried to her patient’s side. “It’s nice to see you awake Noh. I’ve come to do your obs. again, sorry! After that do you think you could manage something to eat?”

Noh shook his head. Ohm looked sideways at P’Ann. It was so rare for his friend to turn down food. Ohm stood and moved around to the other side of Noh’s bed. Resting his hands on the side of the bed he leaned towards Noh.

“Please try and eat a little something Noh. You really need to build up your strength to help you get well again. Is there anything you fancy? I could go and buy it for you. Please Noh, will you try?” But again, Noh shook his head. In a voice that was barely a whisper, he said. “Sorry Ohm, I can’t eat.”

Ohm gently touched Noh’s shoulder. “Okay Noh, don’t worry, but you make sure you tell us if there’s something we can get for you. Even one spoonful of something would be a start my friend.” Noh gave a slight nod, but his eyes began to close again, and sleep engulfed him once more.

Ohm stayed for a while longer, keeping P’Ann company, but he left when he was sure Noh would sleep for a while. “I’ll go home now P’Ann, I need to get some studying done and I’m ready for my dinner! Tell Noh I’ll be in tomorrow after school again okay? I hope he’ll be a bit better then, he’s got me quite worried.”

P’Ann stood and walked with Ohm to the door. “Try not to worry too much Ohm. Noh’s young and strong and he’s in good hands here.” Ohm hugged P’Ann and left.

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Phun had paired up with one of the girls for their tree project, and he found she was good company, very chatty and knowledgeable about what to look for in the forest. She was one of the girls who had been a Girl Guide so she came up with a way of leaving themselves a trail back to the camp.

“If we find small pieces of wood that have fallen from trees Phun, we can make an arrow shape, pointing backwards every few feet, then we can follow the arrows when we want to go back. It’s called tracking. You can use small stones as well if you want, and that way we aren’t leaving litter or anything because the sticks and stones are here already.” Phun couldn’t help grinning, he had picked the right partner!

They had been given 2 hours to complete the project and Phun was surprised at how quickly it passed. Their arrow trail also worked perfectly and they safely found their way back to camp. One or two others were already there, and slowly the others trickled back until everyone was accounted for. After another drink and some sandwiches and cake, kindly provided by Mr. Leekpai’s wife, they all set about identifying their leaves and finding out the information required.

Most of the time Phun found being occupied was taking his mind off his worry for Noh, but it was constantly there, in the background. Mr. Leekpai and Joe had so many things for them all to do, the rest of the day flew by. Joe had lit two fires now, both had large pots on them, one was filled with chicken and vegetables in a delicious smelling gravy, and the other had water boiling, and he added rice to it.

It was getting dark by the time they ate their meal, they sat around the fire on the logs, eating and chatting about the day. After they washed the plates and cleared the pots away, Joe went to the hut and brought out his guitar. The young people spent a pleasant evening singing along to Joe’s music, and Phun’s thoughts turned again to Noh. Singing and playing his guitar were such a big part of Noh’s life, happy memories flooded back. Friday just couldn’t come quickly enough!

The time was getting late, so the teacher suggested that after he gave them a brief summary of the next day’s activities, they should all get some much needed sleep. The students nodded wearily, the early start to the day and the non-stop activities, had caught them up and bed was very welcoming.

Phun and Tong were sharing a tent, and after a brief chat, they both settled down to sleep. Tong was soon asleep, his gentle breathing, interspersed with a light snore, proving it, but Phun was finding it harder to drift off, the worry he had been able to supress for most of the day was creeping back into his head. Then he remembered Tong’s words about there was no point worrying when he couldn’t do anything about it at present. He conjured up a picture of his Noh, and imagined his smiling face, and thankfully he slowly went to sleep also.

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