CHAPTER 18
I awoke the next day feeling calm and well-rested, and so decided to
pop on over to the bakery alone for a muesli with yogurt and fruit.
Recently I had discovered this amazingly delicious and simple
approach to breakfast food, that had the added bonus of being
awfully healthy. I couldn’t understand how this amazing meal never
made the leap to the health-conscious breakfast tables of California,
because it was one of the few things I had ever eaten that was
delicious and good for you as well. At the Shaky Bakery, this
consisted of a large bowl of sliced banana, pineapple, papaya and
watermelon, topped with plain yogurt and some nuts, grains and
raisins. The combination of light tastes and textures usually managed
to rouse me out of my post-partying torpor, unlike the “Big American
Breakfast” which usually only managed to provide another knockout
blow.
As I mixed the concoction together, a serious looking Caucasian
man in dark glasses entered the bakery, then walked up to the
counter and thrust a portfolio in front of Boy. At first Boy looked
startled and then shook his head and shrugged. After the serious
looking man departed, Boy looked frightened and ran into the
kitchen. When I went up to the counter to pay my bill, I asked him
what the man said and if he was in some kind of trouble. With a very
grave look on his normally cheerful face he answered that the man
ordered him not to tell anyone.
“Ordered? Who was he to order you around?”
“Big man with badge, from America.”
“What kind of badge? Police?” I asked with concern.
Boy, who regularly watched American movies on the bakery
television objected with authority, “No police—FBI! You no fuck with
FBI. Or maybe they kill you.”
I didn’t push him for any information, since it probably was only
an issue of drug trafficking from Thailand to the United States. As
Thai stick was a favorite among pot-smokers worldwide, guys like
that FBI agent were probably planted all over Thailand, poorly
camouflaged in loud Hawaiian shirts and leather sandals with black
BIG AMERICAN BREAKFAST
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