“So Malee, you are staying with Mary here?,” asked George. “No. I have to go back to give money to my father.,” replied Malee. The question made her picture her father and the mat which she slept in her mind. No matter how good the life is, she was still her father’s daughter. If she…

Malee turned herself to left and right while looking into the mirror at the wardrobe’s door. She loved it. She thought she looked much better with the uniform. It was tighter and more suited to her body than the previous dress she wore yesterday. The rest of the ladies also helped her with combing her long hair to make it neater, and one of them even gave Malee one of her hair accessories.  While they were laughing, the speaker at the kitchen turned on suddenly. It was the voice of Mary’s husband to inform them that young master just went past the gate.

Malee was told Lunch was within the servants’ house as mistress was out and young master was still in school. As all the tasks were done, and she was still new to the tasks, she was told to go to the garden to pick leaves with Michael instead. Mary called Michael and introduced Malee as a servant and gave them a big black plastic bag each for the leaves. Michael nodded and asked Malee to follow him to the garden.

The dining room was smaller than the rest of the rooms in the house that Malee has seen. Other than the large wooden table in the middle that could seat about 10 persons, there weren’t much in the room. Malee spoke to the lady besides her and was told it was only the dining room…

After walking through several narrow streets and avoiding dog poo on the uneven road, Malee eventually reached her hut in front of the dumpsite. It was barely standing in the wind and dust as if she had left that morning. Puddles from the morning heavy downpour were still visible on the road and, as Malee…

Mary too, Malee noticed, became more relaxed. She grabbed Malee’s hands and walked towards the gate. She halted in half-way from the house to the gate, as if she had seen something she wasn’t expecting. Malee followed her eyes to a spot at the far corner of the garden where a man and a boy were pulling out a tree from the ground. Malee recognised the man as the gardener who took away her cart.

To Malee, the person standing at the entrance looked strange. She was tall with her skirt cut from the left leg till it exposed part of her skin all the way till her upper thigh. She was also wearing a tight t-shirt with a deep slit in the middle. On her hand, she wore plenty of bracelets and several stones on her fingers and on her neck, hanged a beautiful gold necklace. She looked like an actress from a movie rather than in an actual living person.

Once Mary had left the room, and the door has been closed, George turned his face towards Malee. “Where are you from?,” asked George. “Far from here,” replied Malee with a straight face, hoping she would not have to admit she practically lived in the dump site. She doubted someone like George would understand the…

The story, in brief, is about Malee, a poor, uneducated girl, selling fried potato snacks in a broken pushcart around slums in modern Bangkok and how she rose to become the partner of the richest, most desirable man in Thailand. Along the way, she had to endure not only the wealth, and the class divide but also her family background.

“You! How can you say such things to our Mistress? I should give you a tight slap,” shouted the housekeeper and then bowed to young master still rolling on the floor. “I apologise young master, I will kick her out…”