Bangkok, Thailand (April, 2015)

“THE most awaited festival by our people is finally here. The traffic is crazy here but who want to miss this Songkran Water Festival? Here we can see the tourists as well as our people obviously were enjoying the water fight,” Aom said with excitement as her crew was doing the coverage at the festival venue.

     Aom paused reporting with laughter and screaming as people around started splashing the water at them. Now she was totally drenched from head to toes, and she laughed harder while watching her crew was being attacked with water guns. After the crowd stopped attacking them, the cameraman gave the cue to end her report.

     “I wish you all to enjoy this holiday season and may water wash all the misfortunes in your lives. I’m Aom Sushar from BTT News,” she gracefully ended her report with smile although she looked quite messy at that moment. Once the camera was rolled off, they quickly packed off and headed to the van.

     “The water was really cold,” Aom said and quickly wiped her body after her friend handed the towel to her. She was trying hard to avoid of falling sick because she had to work harder to support her life after she moved out from Nitipaisalkul residence few months ago.  

     “Aom, we are going to hang out later. Do you want to join us?” the cameraman, Kiet invited her to join the other members later, but she politely declined the invitation. She did not have to think twice about not hanging out with her co-workers because she had someone who was waiting her at home.

     “I’ll join you next time. Oh, I forget to add ‘If I have the free time to do so’,” Aom joked, and she earned the laughter from them. Anyway they knew the reason of Aom rarely spent her free time with them, so they understood her.   

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AOM went to her parents’ house later, and she was greeted with amusing scene which she actually had seen it many times over the past few months. She put the briefcase aside as she laughed watching Mr. Somboon crawled on the floor with a toddler was riding on his back. 

     “Hey baby!” Aom addressed that boy, and his eyes sparkled with excitement as soon as he saw her face.

     “Mommy!” Aom’s heart swelled with happiness every time she heard that word came out from that small cute mouth. That word also reminded her that she was a mother to this 15-month-old boy who his name was Aaron Piran Nitipaisalkul.

     “Come here Aaron. Gosh, I miss you so much,” she lifted Aaron from Mr. Somboon’s, and she smooched his soft chubby cheek while holding him in her arms. He giggled in ticklish, and that sound made this house felt so alive.

     “Oh God, my back! Thank God that you came back at the right time,” Mr. Somboon groaned as he tried to stand up, and he stretched his back to soothe the aching muscles. Aom felt sorry for troubling her parents to look after Aaron while she was away for work since the nursery was closed today.

     “Pa, I’m sorry if Aaron gives you the hard time today,”

     “He never gives me the hard time, but he just being hyperactive today,” he patted gently Aaron’s head before that kid yawned and started to nuzzle Aom’s shoulder.

     “Aom, foods are ready. Let’s eat together,” Mrs. Manee suddenly walked out from kitchen but watching Aaron was getting sleepy, Aom asked them to eat first because she wanted to put Aaron to sleep inside the room.

     “Okay, come down after you finish,” said Mr. Somboon while watching Aom walked up the stairs with careful. Aom put Aaron on the bed first and quickly prepared the milk for him before he started throwing the tantrum. Later Aom put him on her lap and started to feed him the milk using bottle because her body stopped producing milk when Aaron turned 5 months old.

     Aom watched her son with blissful smile on her face. Aaron was a strong healthy kid. Just like when he had survived inside her womb after she took emergency contraceptive pills, he also survived when she had threatened miscarriage. When her friends brought her to hospital after she fainted in restroom few years ago, she never expected the pregnancy news from the doctor.

     Yes she had missed her period, but still she thought it was only the side effect of stress. Aom admitted that she had thought of aborting her baby, but she glad that she decided to have the baby because Aaron gave the new hope and life to her. Their families were blessed with fortunes after the birth of Aaron.

     Her family business had been stable over the past few years, but it bloomed and the business was great after Aaron came into their lives. Few months later, Susan was confirmed to be pregnant which that news had brought the joy to the couple. Now both Golf and Susan were blessed with baby girl named Krystal Chailai Dao.

     Despite the fortune that Aaron had brought to both families, he still was not able to bring his father to home. It had been more than two years Aom had not seen or talked to Mike. She put the hope that Mike would come home to at least see their son, but he never did so.

Aom would not deny that she was disappointed with him, but she never had the intention to make Aaron hated his own father. Even though Mike never cared about his son, Aom always showed his pictures to Aaron. She wanted Aaron to know his father, and it was always Golf’s job to tell Aaron all the good things about Mike.

     When Aaron had fallen into deep sleep, Aom transferred him from her lap onto the mattress. She then stared at him with loving gaze. Anyone who had seen Aaron would never doubt that he is the son of Mike because they both looked alike. Aom planted a kiss on his forehead before she carefully left the bed and went out to eat the foods in kitchen.

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THE two families had the simply gathering in Nitipaisalkul residence, and the house felt so alive today. The lunch was over, and they moved to living room after that. Both Mr. Chakrii and Mr. Somboon were already in their own world as they were so into the fishing topic. They even made the plan to go fishing this weekend.

     Meanwhile they others were playing with 4-month-old Chailai, and the most excited person to play with her was Aaron. He sniffed her and kissed her chubby cheeks, but when Chailai tried to touch him, he pulled away while giggling at her. Chailai started to whine as if she was telling everyone that she disliked to be teased such way, so Aaron gave his hand to her.

     Chailai immediately turned quite when she wrapped her small hand around Aaron’s fingers, and she looked at those fingers with sparkling big eyes. Ever since they discovered about Susan’s pregnancy, the couple believed that both Aaron and the growing baby would be best friends in the future.

     “He is going to be a good brother to Chailai,” Golf patted Aaron’s head before he glanced at Aom who only responded by smiling.

     “Aaron will have more time to play with Chailai if he stays here. Aom, haven’t you think of moving back here? This house will become livelier if you stay here,” Susan stated while observing Aom’s face. When Aom voiced out her intention to move out from this house few months ago, all of them were opposed the idea at the beginning.

     However she had explained her reason which she wanted to live independently. She also convinced them that they could visit Aaron at anytime. So they had no choice other than respected Aom’s decision to get her own place and stay with Aaron there. 

     “No. I don’t have any plan to move back because I get to learn a lot of things after I live with Aaron in our own place. Don’t worry about us. I still can handle everything for the time being,” Aom reassured Susan that she did not make the wrong decision to move out from this place.    

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