The next morning wasn’t as bright and beautiful as the previous day. The sun was not locatable since it was covered by masses of dark gray clouds. Although the day was not admirable, Lek was excited for today because he would be able to go back home to his mom as he sat in the Naowarot’s black family car. Wattana was driving the car while Malai sat in the back seat with Lek, Nopadon wasn’t free to come . Lek stared out the car window looking at the street vendors, and smiled brightly since he knew that he would be close to his house any minute.

Wattana came to a slow stop at Lek’s house, and uttered “We’re here.” Lek immediately opened the car door and ran to the entrance door happily. He knocked on the door vigorously yelling, “Mom, mom! I’m back home, open the door!” There was no response. Because there were no response, Lek leaned his ear to the door to listen if there were any noises inside. Lek breathed heavily as he tried to listen, but there were no sounds coming from the inside. Therefore, Lek made his whole body lean against the door, however, right after he leaned against the door, the door opened widely. What laid in front of Lek was his dead mother who had died from last night. Her skin was completely pale, and her body was motionless. He quickly ran to his mother and tried to wake her up by shaking her body as he yelled at her, “Khun Mae, Khun Mae! Wake up, it’s morning. We must go set up our store.” Lek shook her body even more when she didn’t respond. Wattana and Malai came to the door, and froze there as they observed the situation. Malai remembered that Lek’s mother begged her and Nopadon to take in Lek the previous day. This caused Malai to finally understand why Lek’s mother was imploring her and her husband to take in Lek so eagerly; it was because she knew that she was going to die. Wattana walked slowly towards the shocked Lek, and tried to comfort him by patting his shoulder. Although Lek felt Wattana’s hand, Lek continued to ignore Wattana due to the fact that he was busy waking up his mother. Malai went towards Lek, and suddenly hugged Lek for comfort. She told him in a quiet voice, “Lek, yesterday your mother asked me and Nopadon to take you in as our son. We never thought that she did that because she knew that she would die.”

The statement that Malai stated moved Lek’s heart to the point where it made him bawled as he broke away from Malai’s hug. He picked up his mom’s torso and hugged it tightly. Steams tears that came out of Lek’s eyes dripped down beautifully onto his mom’s dark clothes as it absorbed the tears quickly.

Lek’s mom funeral was held privately, containing only Lek and Wattana’s family. The funeral lasted for a quick few hours. As Lek was the last one to bring the carnation flower to the furnace, he said his last words to his mom, “Khun Mae krap, I am happy to be born as your son. There was never a time when I hated you or despised you. Due to all of your good merits this lifetime, I wish you to be born into a good family next lifetime.” Lek threw his flower into the furnace. After he finished watching the fire tearing apart the flower, he headed towards Malai, Nopadon, and Wattana. They stood beneath the heavenly staircase, waiting for Lek to finish off his offerings. When Lek approached them, he greeted all three of them without saying a word. Nopadon placed his hands on Lek’s shoulder, and said, “Now that we finished sending your mother off to another place, we must adopt you legally like we promised to your mother, and name you a different name. Also, I give you the permission to call me dad, and call my wife mom. Therefore, you can stop calling us by our name.” Wattana snatched on Lek’s hand and held it up to his chest as he excitedly proclaimed, “I’ve already picked your name for you. It will be Annawat, a name that is similar to my name so that people will know that we are siblings.” His parents laughed at Wattana’s statement. Lek also showed a small laugh, but quickly composed himself afterwards. He then said to his new parents in a mannerly way, “Khun Phor(Dad), since you guys are willing to accept a poor child like me to come into the family, I am already thankful enough, and I will quickly adapt to this family. However, there is one request that I have for you and mother .” The parents gave each other a quick look at each other, and then proceeded to say, “What is it that you request of? If it is possible for us to do it, then we will do it.” Lek answered, “I still want to occupy my previous mother’s house and kanom store krap.”

Lek, now Annawat, stood in front of his kanom store that he had been running for eight years straight. As Annawat stood behind his kanom vendor, he thought about how fast the years flew by. Wattana graduated with a lawyer degree, and he was able to maintain his mom’s kanom shop even though his current parents sent Annawat to high school and college. Now that Annawat had no more worries about his education, he had all the time he wanted to watch over the vendor and make all the kanom he ever wanted whenever.

While Annawat was looking to his right looking at the other successful street vendors, he heard a young lady’s voice on his left, “Khun, may I know how much it will be for this kanom Look Choop ka?” Annawat happily turned to his left side to greet his first customer of the day, but before he was able to greet the miss, his mouth dropped. The young lady that stood in front of him looked exactly like the beautiful lady in the family portrait that was at his house, just with a now more structured face. He couldn’t believe that seeing the real person would be more dazzling than the painting. Her face was small and proportional to her body, and her mint green dress flew perfectly along with the wind as her smile was shining like the sun. Annawat was baffled at her appearance, he couldn’t imagine how outstanding she was. The miss  moved towards Annawat, and asked him the same question again, just in a louder voice. Annawat finally got out of his shock after her voice got into his ears. He greeted her with a smile and she returned the greetings. Annawat then replied to her previous question, “Sorry krap. I was just thinking about something. Anyways, if you order the 20 pieces of Look Choop it will cost you 102 baht, and if you order 30 pieces it will cost you 136 baht.” The lady contemplated about which bundle she should choose not for long, and decided to pick the 20 pieces. Annawat quickly packed the 20 pieces of Look Choop into a decorative box, so that his first customer wouldn’t have to wait for long, and then handed her the box of Look Choop after he finished packing. She gladly accepted the box of kanom as she thanked him kindly. Annawat continued to stare at her, trying to identify if she was Patcharin, the woman that is engage to Wattana, or not, as she walked away from the vendor.

Patcharin walked towards the car to her right, and entered it. Waiting in there was her younger cousin, May. May grabbed the box of kanom from Patcharin, and opened the box to look at the detailed kanom with amazed eyes. “Woah, I never knew that you can get such amazing craftsmanship of kanom in these poor vendors with poor people!” Patcharin snatched the box away from May as she closed the lid quickly in order to prevent its freshness from escaping the box. May pouted at Patcharin in response. Patcharin set the box on her lap, and then kindly lectured May in a calm voice as she placed her tender hand on top of Mays clutched fist. “Nong May, please have respect towards people when you speak about them. Their status doesn’t always define their skills. Also, I bought this for P’Wat as a gift since I never visited him when I came back to Thailand. Therefore, you shouldn’t just open anything you want that isn’t yours.. Do you understand na?” May dismissed the lecture from Patcharin, and decided to bring up another topic. “Who made those kanom then? It must be an old dark traditional Thai woman with wrinkly hands.” Patcharin shook her head after May’s rude remark. However, Patcharin didn’t want to start another lecture with May, so she kindly just answered May back. “I don’t know who made the kanom, but the one who sold the kanom was a young man. He is probably around P’Wat’s age.” May all of a sudden got excited about the answer, and asked another question as she fiercefully grabbed onto Patcharin’s hand. “Was he handsome? Did he have nice fair skin, strong cheekbone, dark black hair, tall, and perfect teeth?” “How would I know? I only went there to buy kanom, I didn’t have the time to check him out. Also Nong May, you know that I am already engage to P’Wat, so I shouldn’t be thinking about any other guys,” responded Patcharin to the curious May. Patcharin’s answer didn’t satisfy May, so she harshly let go of Patcharin’s arm, and turned to face the window. “I asked you a simple question if he was handsome. I didn’t ask you if you slept with him,” May said in a silent voice trying to not let Patcharin hear her thoughts, but her silent voice was heard by Patcharin. Patcharin gave her one last disappointment stare, and then faced the window. Since May asked the question about the vendor guy about his looks, Patcharin actually thought about the guy’s appearance again. She then realized that the vendor guy was quite her taste of men.