End of the Ocean Page 7

  His was a splendid villa, with a deep reflecting pool set in stone-laden concrete beside a chrome outdoor grill and a bar made of sun-bleached bamboo.

  Wayne checked his phone and saw a message from Ngyn that said he had met who he was supposed to meet, and he had obtained what he was supposed to obtain.

  That was good to know. So far, so good. They had to get this run out of the way and prepare for the next one. The big one.

  He put his phone on silent and got comfortable in his chair and took a drink. Ogi called to him from the kitchen and he closed his eyes at the sound of her sweet, broken English.

  Wearing a two-piece bikini that was white and small, she emerged with a tray and set it on the table, looking displeased. She sat in the chair beside him, an assortment of fruit before them: pitaya and mangosteen and banana and watermelon.

  Holding something bright pink in her hand, very ripe, she took a bite and juice ran over her bottom lip in a long pink line that followed the curve of her chin, to her neck, down the inside of her left breast.

  “Look at you,” Wayne said. “So brilliantly sexy, my love.”

  “Oh you think?”

  He could not take his eyes off her. “Just look at you—my God. What a hot mess.”

  “Dragon fruit,” she said, wiping juice from her perfectly round chin with the inside of her wrist. She looked at Wayne from behind white oversized sunglasses that swallowed her small face.

  Licking her pink lips she said, “What you want, Wayne Tender?”

  “You know what I want.”

  “No way, I not give you blow job. It my period.”

  “Perfect. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do when it’s your period.”

  “No it not. You pervert. You always want blow job or hand job.”

  “Of course. Look at those tiny hands, you can use them both.”

  Ogi laughed. “I not think so. You crazy.”

  “Please,” Wayne said. “I love it when you use both hands.”

  “Why you like?”

  “When you use two hands it makes my rod look bigger.”

  “Oh Wayne, you crazy. Wayne Tender have biggest rod already.”

  He turned and leaned toward her. “Say that again, babe.”

  “No I not get this started. I no have sex with you, Wayne. We have sex last night, much sex.”

  “I know we did, and you weren’t on your period then.”

  “Yes I know. I lie about period. I just not want have sex with you. Wayne Tender, you have sex addiction.”

  Wayne stood and looked down at her. To him she was on fire.

  She lowered her sunglasses and for a long moment that solitary act performed effortlessly by her made him think he loved her, made him know he had never loved or wanted anyone more than he now wanted her.

  Ogi tried to stand but Wayne was fast, stepping toward her, pressing himself against her, and when she pushed him away, he, using the soft touch of his finger against her bare thigh, rubbed her lightly until she could take no more.

  She laughed and tried to escape but couldn’t.

  “Wayne, you cheat.”

  He whispered, “I must have you—you’re everything.”

  Ogi let him kiss her and she reached into his shorts and grabbed him. They laughed together and enjoyed the game. He knew she could not resist him; he knew how to treat her even when he was being bad.

  “OK I let you make sex one time only but this time in swimming pool.”

  He kissed her and bit her lip and pulled away.

  “No,” she whispered. “Come back; kiss me again like you just do, Wayne.”

  He put small kisses on her shoulder and her head while she worked her hand back and forth, squeezing his cock with a moderate grip. When he was hard, he pulled her out of her chair and walked backward with her to the pool.

  “I love way you kiss me, Wayne.”

  “Your lips taste like a thousand flowers.”

  “You are poet,” she said. “And you so hard,” she whispered, squeezing him.

  “Hard for you.”

  “You such a freak.”

  Dragging his bottom lip up her cheek until he found her ear, biting it then, holding her ear between his teeth, he whispered, “Freak for love, baby.”

  Stepping down into the pool he pulled her toward him and the water felt very cool against her warm skin. Her bikini top floated away.

  ***

  As they rode, the traffic was not as thick but it was still congested. They passed motorbike after motorbike and they were passed by other motorbikes. At times they rode much faster than Sage was used to, but he kept up with Kadek.

  Arriving in Penestanan, they slowed when the straight crowded roads became sheer and corkscrewed. The pavement in some places was good but in others it was cracked and chuckholed and prone to decay. They met very sharp curve after very sharp curve; then the road jagged hard to the left, taking them down a long bendy hill that bled into the main road in a wide swath of smoked black asphalt just above the Antonio Blanco Gallery and the old stone bridge.

  They turned left. A few kilometers to go. As they passed Bintang, Kadek slowed until Sage was beside him, and, pointing to the Bintang, said, “That Bintang, that you store. Buy everything you need there. It good price for bule.”

  That was something else Sage had not given much thought to. Where to buy his food. He’d just assumed he’d eat in restaurants. He took in everything and his mind coasted. They turned right off the main road and followed a new road around sharp corners, down deep ravines.

  “Not much longer,” Kadek yelled to Sage.

  The road was long and it twisted and turned and ended at another road where they turned right, following pavement for a quarter mile. Then it was gone and there was a tight corner to the left with big chunks of hard white rock for a road and that was Bangkiang Sidem. It was jagged and coarse and sharp-rocked. There was a large deep hole filled with brown water as wide as the road and deep in the middle so Kadek rode by the edge and Sage followed the path he made.

  Climbing out of the hole, the road smoothed and became a dull gray patch of concrete that was cracked and weak at the broken places but driving on it was a blessing compared to the road they had traveled to get to it.

  The concrete became gravel again but it was not as rough as before. They passed a large home and a small art gallery and came to a large house. Kadek stopped and parked and Sage parked behind him.

  He looked at Sage and said, “This it, what you think?”

  Sage did not know what to think. It was very tall, the roof highpeaked. Made of mortar and rock and wood. Everywhere he looked were lush green fields of florescent grass surrounded by level upon level of terraced rice paddies.

  Behind the house the ground was steep and hard with smoothbarked coconut trees that stood sixty feet tall.

  “We’re in the jungle.”

  “Yeah, jungle,” Kadek said. “Look round, tree everywhere.”

  “What about monkeys?” Sage said. “Are there monkeys?”

  “Ah,” Kadek frowned. “Yeah, maybe no monkey here but maybe they have monkey down road.” He pointed. “Go to Monkey Forrest. Many monkeys.”

  Sage climbed off his motorbike and said, “Long ride.”

  “Yes, ride very long. What you think, huh?”

  “Lotta traffic.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Much traffic always but especial today. Everyone busy.”

  “Big holiday you said.”

  “Galungan, we Hindu. Today Penampahan, tomorrow Galungan, we pray at temple.”

  “Your families, do they get together and celebrate?”

  “Yes, we eat big meal and celebrate family and spirit of past.”

  Kadek walked up to the big house and stopped in the yard. “Your room downstairs,” he said. “We go around.”

  He told Sage the woman who lived upstairs
wasn’t home or he would introduce them.

  They walked around the side of the house. It was tall and it was built into a very steep mountain. There was a circular path made of wide hand-cut stones that were uneven and covered in moss. Kadek followed it and Sage followed him. They walked down the steps and came to a small square patch of flat sandstone rock with two coconut trees in the middle attached to a partial wall made of sticks and rope and bamboo. There was an outdoor shower behind the fence that drained onto a slick chunk of fossilized stone. Water rolled into the cracks and soaked into the dirt and became mud. There was a small pool beside the shower and a fence around the pool made of wood and bamboo and there was jungle behind the shower and the pool.

  It was very private.

  There was a wooden door that was scratched and scarred, tall but narrow, with a padlock mounted above a stationary handle you had to lift and push to open.

  “This you door,” Kadek said, producing a long slender key with several notches and slipping it in the padlock. He turned it and the lock opened and, removing the key, he lifted the handle and the door opened.

  Sage walked inside. The room was small but it was big enough for him. There was a bed to the right and a round table to the left with a chair beside it. There was no closet or TV but a long simple shelf where Kadek said Sage could keep his things.

  Sage stepped into the room and looked around and walked into another small room that had a tall metal stand with a sink built into it and a shelf below it that held supplies. There were shelves to the right that held some pots and pans and food. To the left there was a wall with a narrow countertop that held a stack of clean dishes and a hot plate stove at the end.

  “This you kitchen,” he said. “Refrigerator,” he said, pointing to it. “This your toilet,” he said, pointing to the small room across from the refrigerator.

  Sage walked to the door of the bathroom and stopped. He stuck his head in and looked and turned around and said he’d take it.

  “My friend be happy,” Kadek said. “How long you take it for? How long you rent?”

  Sage said a month. He asked Kadek what he knew about visa runs and Kadek told him he knew nothing.

  “Maybe ask neighbor,” he said, pointing up. “She always travel.”

  “Is she good looking?”

  Kadek was confused.

  “OK,” Sage said. “Is she nice? She pretty?” Sage pointed to his face. He held both hands over his chest. “She have big boobs?”

  “Ah, yeah, yeah,” Kadek laughed hard and said, “She crazy but her boob very big. I think you may like.”

  Sage said he’d had enough crazy women in his life and he did not need one more.

  “You no marry? You no wife?”

  It was a question Sage had not expected, if he’d understood him right. If he’d had a wife he would not be renting a room in Bali by himself, and he would not have asked about his future neighbor.

  He had truly loved Bailey, and he tried not to think about her but he did. When he saw something he thought she would find beautiful he thought about her. He would stand outside his villa and, looking out beyond the pointy-edged bluff, beyond the ocean and the sand, he would think of her, and he would tell himself how much she would love a place like this.

  “No,” he said. “No wife, no girlfriend. It’s just me.”

  “You single like me, smart man.” Kadek nodded with approval.

  Sage was not going to ask about the Indonesian woman but then he did.

  “Hey, Kadek.”

  “Yes.”

  “Who’s that woman from before?”

  “What woman?”

  “You know,” Sage said. “She brought my motorbike the other day—she came out in the rain and opened my trunk.”

  “Oh, that Ratri.”

  “Who?”

  “Ratri. She my cousin.”

  “Really?”

  Kadek did not say anything else.

  “Is she single?”

  “Why?” He said. “You like Ratri?”

  Sage said she was pretty, and that was the problem. She was too pretty; she was out of his league and he knew it. “I wouldn’t have a chance.”

  “You like her, tell her you want take her on date, she go.”

  Sage laughed, “I doubt it—I doubt she’d go on a date with me.”

  Kadek said he didn’t know; Sage would have to ask her.

  Sage said maybe he would if he had the chance, but he knew he probably wouldn’t.

  “I’ll never see her again.”

  Kadek thought about that. “What you do tomorrow?”

  Sage shrugged and said he didn’t know.

  “Want go to Galungan?”

  Sage did not answer him. He was not sure how to answer or what to say.

  “You come with me tomorrow for Galungan. We eat food, pray at temple.”

  “I don’t know.” Sage was reluctant.

  “Ratri be there.”

  Sage said he would go.

  “Good,” Kadek said. “You have sarong?”

  Sage told him of course not. What was a sarong?

  “That OK, I come early in morning, before temple, get you sarong.”

  Sage laughed so Kadek laughed. “What you think is funny? You not want to come?”

  “I’d love to come,” Sage said, “but I’m not sure what to do.”

  “I come meet you in morning at hotel so you not get lost, OK?” Kadek pointed at Sage. “You follow me to village for Galungan.”

  “Ok,” Sage said, and they left the room. Kadek closed the door and locked the padlock and led Sage up the steep stairs around the house to the road where they climbed on their motorbikes.

  Sage put on his helmet and strapped it tight and started his motorbike and followed Kadek up the gravel road, past the houses and the gallery and through the deep brown mud puddle, to the white bouldered road that got rough and stayed rough then became smooth.

  It began to rain.

  ***

  Djoko snorted a line of cocaine off a glass nightstand beside his bed while a twenty-three-year-old girl in a red bikini stood beside him and told him, hurry.

  “Here.” He scooted his metal chair aside and the legs grinded on the concrete floor.

  She walked toward him and bent over and, holding her hair with one hand, holding one hundred thousand rupiah in the other, lowered her face to the table and snorted a line Djoko had put out for her. When she did he kissed her shoulder. When she stood and sniffed to let the coke drain he pulled her top down and kissed both breasts.

  His phone chirped but he ignored it.

  Grady, walking in the room, asked Djoko where his wine bottle opener was and Djoko said he didn’t know.

  Grady left Djoko’s room and walked the length of the hall to a small set of stairs and descended them and stood in the kitchen. Djoko’s house was very big. It was his dream home. There were five bedrooms with an office and four bathrooms and two kitchens. He had a hot tub outside and an infinity pool with a diving board and a slide. There was a fire pit for cooking. Two light-skinned women lay on towels while their flesh burned in the sun and an Indonesian woman sat in a chair under a shade umbrella and drank something bright pink in a clear glass filled with crushed ice.

  Grady, putting the wine back in the rack, opened a bottle of beer, turned and walked to the tall glass table and sat down in a high-backed chair. There was a piece of tin foil on the table with powder on it and he picked it up and held it to the light. Some of the powder had burned into scorched brown rings but there was still some left. He picked up a skinny plastic tube and stuck it between his teeth and held a lighter under the foil until it smoldered. He moved the lighter and tilted the foil as smoke came off in a cloud of vapor.

  He inhaled it and held it in his lungs and set the foil and the lighter and the tube down and let it out. Leaning back in the chair, licking
his lips, he took a deep full breath then picked up the foil and the lighter and the tube and did it again.

  Grady loved to smoke methamphetamine. It made sex incredible. He could perform for hours and hours without stopping or slowing down, unless it was to smoke more speed, and even then he was right back at it before the foil had a chance to cool. Grady was a sex machine when he got tweaked out. The girls liked it too. Everyone loved methamphetamine, but Djoko. He preferred cocaine, and lately he’d done too much of that. Grady noticed and wanted to tell him, but felt ill-suited considering his own problem with methamphetamine.

  Everyone else was afraid to say anything or too high themselves to care. They lived for the moment because Djoko liked to throw good parties. And he did. But he seldom kept drugs in his home, and if he did he kept them in a safe, hidden in a location no one could find. The only three people who knew about the safe were the three men who installed it and they were paid extremely well, under threat of death, to forget they had done the job.

  Djoko came out of his bedroom and talked to Grady in the kitchen. The next run was important. Grady would fly out of the country to meet a man from Myanmar, and he’d been trying to prep him about the job but he was always high. This was a problem.

  “They bring diamond in by donkey.” Djoko said, looking at Grady. “That what Ngyn say.”

  Grady held the tube between his thumb and his finger and rolled it back and forth.

  “Hey,” Djoko snapped his fingers and Grady looked at him. “Ever been to Krabi?”

  Grady said no. He’d been to Bangkok several times and once to Chiang Mai, but never to Krabi.

  “You will meet him in Ao Nang,” Djoko said. “Yes. Sound good? You can do, yes?”

  “Easy money.”

  Djoko laughed, “Yeah yeah easy money, easy money. Long as we not caught.”

  “Yeah,” Grady repeated. “There’s that.”

  Grady would not get caught and neither would Djoko; they thought too positive to allow themselves to believe otherwise. If they did not have enough confidence they would get caught. It happened. People got caught at Ngurah Rai International entering the country or they got caught trying to leave. It happened to the Bali 9: nine people who attempted to smuggle heroin out of Bali. Some got life in prison, some got twenty years. Two got a death sentence: Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran received the death sentence and any day the Indonesian government was going to carry it out.