The Greatest Lie Part 16

By then, the Rosepaper girls had organized us toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo, Neosporin, a single, slightly-used vaginal stent, a box of condoms non-spermicidal, of course to make sharing the stent more sanitary, bottled water in reusable plastic bottles, and insect repellent. We exchanged our Western clothes for Karen garb: the Rosepaper girls were thrilled to get hand-me-downs from the beautiful American celebrity and her friend.

Nancee and I each got a young Karen woman's hse: a simple, loose, ankle-length V-necked shift. Each was mainly white, but decorated with Job's Tear seeds and red embroidery at the seams and with an embroidered red applique band around the midriff like a belt. My hse was rather more severe then Nancee's, and my outfit was completed by a white headscarf with red cross-stitch embroidery and a pair of "practical" sandals like Tran's the low heels I had on were too "city."

I cherished hopes that I would blend in better with a dark tan, no visible blond hair, and sunglasses to hide my blue eyes. In truth, I was taller than most Karen and Thai women, tall enough to be read as sao praphet song if not read as farang. Still, I was determined to do my best. There was just enough time for me to put on dishgloves, slather myself with instant tan, wait for it to dry, tie my hair up into a bun and hide it all under my Karen headscarf.

Then we bade Lin a tearful good-bye.

Before I left, I asked Lin whether she needed more vouchers to buy diflucan or cephalaxin or azothymidine with lamivudine, but she insisted she still had plenty of drugs from her voucher swap and knew where to continue her antiretroviral treatment some nice farang doctors from France had just set up a clinic on the edge of town. Still, I stuffed the remaining vouchers under her futon while Nancee was telling her good-bye. We parted after begging her to keep herself and Gift well, safe, and out of the sight of the Third Army.

"After I get back to America, I'll figure out a way to get you out of here," I said as optimistically as I could, despite my doubts that I or any of my friends could escape the death trap I had lead us all into.