The Amulets of Power V A New BeginningChapter 7
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The following new character appears in this and other chapters:
Ratana
Also called Noi, house girl, 5'-0'' tall, 98 pounds, 15 years old, 28A-20-25, long black hair, brown eyes, a thin quiet girl
We found a small open air restaurant not far from our hotel and had a light lunch. During the meal Chanthra insisted that we change clothes before going to Wat Sala Loy.
"Our clothing is wet from sweating and would not be appropriate for a visit to the Wat. It would also be best if we ride our horses there, or we will be as hot and sweaty as we are now when we arrive and would not make a good impression," she insisted. On the way to the hotel, we stopped to purchase garlands, joss sticks (incense sticks), candles, and gold leaf to take with us to the Wat. I alerted the stable hands that we would need our horses shortly for a trip before we went up to the room to change clothes.
"Can you not leave the guns here? It isn't appropriate to take them to the Wat to pray," Chanthra asked when we were nearly finished changing clothes. I would be wearing my sandals as I had been all day today and not my boots.
"Where could I leave them that they would be safe?" I asked not knowing anywhere that they could be left.
"I will ask the Amulets," she replied and tilted her head as if listening to something for a time. Shortly she straightened up and smiled.
"Set all of our things on the bed, but make sure that you have some money with you. The Amulets will watch the backpack and all of our other things," she told me still smiling. I set the backpack on the bed along with our other things and removed some coins to carry with me. We had no more than finished and stepped back from the bed when everything on it vanished. My backpack, boots, uniforms, and all of Chanthra's clothing simply disappeared. I stood there for a number of seconds in shock before turning back to Chanthra. She still had a large smile on her face.
"The Amulets said that they would watch our things, but they didn't say that it would be here," she told me.
"But ... but... !!" I stammered, still in shock.
"The Amulets can do many things that men cannot," she told me with an amused smile. "They will return our things when we return for the evening," she finished.
"I hope you know what they are doing. All of our things except what we are wearing have disappeared," I reminded her in a worried voice.
"Yes, my love, all will be well," she assured me before we left the now empty room taking the garlands and other things with us for our visit to the Wat.
Our horses were waiting for us out front when we reached the street. After helping her mount her horse and then mounting mine, Chanthra led the way through the city to the Pratu Phon San, or the North Gate of the city. On exiting Korat, we moved east and passed Rop Maeang Road. We continued east from the road for about 500 meters before coming to a path leading to Wat Sala Loy.
"It is nearly the same as it was when I was growing up," she told me as we approached the Wat. I could see that it was surrounded by a masonry wall which had been white washed. There was an area outside of this wall where we could leave our horses.
On passing through the entry gate, I could see that the main hall, the Ubosot, was quite fancy and sat on a terrace and had a three tier roof. There was a roofed portico that led to the main entrance doors, and on each of the exterior sides of the building there was a small open-roofed side chapel that held various Buddha images and other statues. Both the portico and the two small chapels were much shorter than the tall Ubosot. All were of masonry construction and painted white with gold colored trim. The remaining structures in the Wat were mainly built of wood, and some were even painted in various colors. The exception to this was the bell shaped Chedi which was built of stucco over brick. It was about thirty feet in diameter and about fifty feet to the top of its spire. It was painted a bright yellow color resembling gold.
We moved directly to the Chedi bypassing the other buildings in the Wat. Chanthra stopped some five feet from it, then bowed and waied before approaching the structure more closely. She placed our garlands in the area where others had left theirs previously. Next she held up the joss sticks for me to light with my lighter and when they were burning well she placed them in the sand-filled brass urn provided for them. I also lit the small candles for her, which she placed in a candelabrum shaped like the royal barge. It was long and slender with a tall dragon's head and tail. It too was made of cast brass and would hold a dozen of the small candles.
Following this, she selected a spot on the Chedi not covered by gold leaf and applied our two squares of it to the Chedi. Having accomplished all of this, she moved back from the structure and went to her knees where she assumed a position to pray with her hands raised as to wai. She remained in that position for quite some time praying. I had followed and copied her movements as well as one not knowledgeable of the intricacies of the Buddhist religion was able to. It was very difficult for me to remain in the prayer position as she did for the twenty minutes or so before she leaned forward and touched her forehead to the ground in a bow before rising to her feet. I was more than a few seconds getting to mine from the kneeling position.
"Thao Suranaree was a very pious woman," Chanthra told me as we moved back away from the Chedi. "Though she was not consecrated to the Amulets, still it is rumored that they helped her defeat their Lao captors and return many of those abducted to Korat.
"Later that year after the fighting had moved away from Korat and the Lao were in retreat, she and her husband, the Deputy Governor, started the construction of this Wat. It was an expensive undertaking and required many years to complete," she told me in a quiet voice, as we walked toward the entrance of the Wat.
We were approached by an older monk as we neared the Ubosot who identified himself as the abbot of the Wat after the necessary greetings had been completed.
"You are the new teacher that the rumors are all about," he said, and it wasn't a question.
"Yes, Reverend Abbot, I am a teacher of the Amulets," Chanthra told him.
"Have you selected the Wat where you will be teaching, and would you consider our Wat?" he inquired.
"No, I have not chosen a place to teach yet. We only arrived last evening and spent the morning looking for a house," she told him. "I will begin looking for an appropriate Wat to hold classes in once we are settled."
"There are a large number of Wats in and around Korat for you to choose from. Your choice will be watched by many as all would be glad to host you and participate in your work," he replied with a smile.
We made our exit then and reclaimed our horses to ride back to the hotel. It was mid-afternoon by now and the hottest part of the day, but there was a bit of a breeze since it was still April. On arriving at our hotel, we were surprised to see the Sergeant who had been in Sonsri's guard detail there waiting for us.
"Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you. The Governor sent me to find you, he wants to see you immediately. He appeared very disturbed when he dismissed me to look for you," the Sergeant told us in very rapid Thai.
"Exactly what did he say?" Chanthra asked him in her quiet voice and much more slowly.
"He said 'find that Amulet woman and her large Fa-rung bodyguard and bring them here immediately'," he told us in a more quiet and slower voice.
"Where is the Governor presently?" Chanthra asked him. "Is he at home or elsewhere?"
"He is in his office, here in the city," the Sergeant informed us.
"We will go to see him as soon as our horses are seen to," Chanthra told him. One of the hotel's employees appeared then to take charge of our horses, and we followed the Sergeant right after that.
It turned out that the Governor's office was in an administrative building just off of Chakri Road and just south of Mahat Thai Road, and it only required a few minutes to walk there even in the afternoon heat. The Sergeant led us into the building and past a number of government employees who would have stopped us otherwise to inquire about our business there. We wound up on the second floor of the building in front of a pair of large closed doors.
When the Sergeant knocked, one door opened a few inches and an individual inside demanded to know what he wanted.
"I have brought the people who the Governor sent me to find," he told him, and we were told to wait. It was only a few minutes before both doors opened all of the way, and we were told to enter.
"What took you so long to arrive?" the Governor demanded in a grumpy voice standing in front of his large throne-like chair without so much as a Sawat Dee.
"Sawah Dee Ka, " Chanthra said with a wai and a bow before answering him. "We were unaware of your desire to see us, and had things to do today. We rented a house for our stay here this morning and paid our respects to Thao Suranaree at Wat Sala Loy this afternoon," she finished in her quiet voice.
"You must tell me what you know of my daughter's return trip. I could get very little from her except comments about the quality of the restaurants where they had eaten and the hotels they had stayed in. She just barely mentioned that they were attacked by bandits and that the Captain of her guard was killed," he told us in a disgruntled voice.
"The explanation will require some little time. Can you spare the time now?" Chanthra inquired.
"Yes, other things can wait for now," he told us in an annoyed voice before turning to his assistants. "Bring cushions for my guests to sit on," he told them. They hurriedly brought out pillows for us, and we sat down after the Governor had seated himself.
"We were traveling from Bangkok to Korat, but hadn't encountered your daughter or her party until three days ago," was how Chanthra began her explanation.
"We had stopped at a hotel in Muak Lek for the night but made a late start leaving because we needed to have some of the horses' shoes replaced.
"It was mid-afternoon when we heard the shots and my Guardian, Mike, quickly rode ahead to see what was happening and if he could help. On seeing the bandits attacking your daughter's coach and her party, he drew both of his pistols and charged down the hill firing at the bandits and driving them off.
"I arrived shortly after him and treated your daughter's wounds while Mike saw to the wounded guards," Chanthra told him and would have continued, but the Governor interrupted her with a question.
"What pistols? Where are these pistols now?" he demanded in a loud voice.
"Are you sure that you want to know?" Chanthra asked without raising her voice.
"Yes, I want them brought here immediately?" he shouted at us and slammed his hand down on the arm of his large chair for emphases.
"Very well!" Chanthra agreed and tilted her head to the left for a few seconds. Both pistols magically appeared in my hands pointing at the Governor within seconds of that causing a gasp of surprise and shock from the Governor and his assistants as well as surprising me.
"Where did those come from? You didn't have them when you entered," a still surprised Governor asked after a few more seconds.
"The Amulets were watching them for us while we visited Wat Sala Loy, as it didn't seem appropriate to take them there, and there was no one who we could safely leave them with," Chanthra told him. "And you did say that you wanted to see them immediately," she added with a smile.
"How do you have such weapons here? There are few even in Bangkok who have such fine expensive modern weapons. Even I don't possess such fine weapons," the Governor demanded having recovered at least partially and taken a good look at the weapons that had been pointed at him.
I had noticed Chanthra's adjustments of the facts as she explained things and made my own adjustments in my explanation. I had also quickly lowered the pistols to my sides.
"I have the King's permission to have these weapons. I am an instructor to the Siamese Army and was coming here to organize and train a special unit to deal with things that the regular Army has trouble with. It was the necessity to await that permission that kept us from leaving Bangkok earlier. This turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to stop and chase off the bandits attacking your daughter's party," I explained.
Soon the only ones left there in the mess hall were the CO, Sawyer, Barlow, Morris and me. We all had a second beer. “What the hell is causing these ‘Ammunition Malfunctions’, as everyone is calling them?” the CO asked of no one in particular. “Sir, it has to be sabotage. That much explosive just doesn’t go off by itself. Even if someone were careless, it wouldn’t set off everything like that and apparently at the same time. Although how a saboteur could arrange it all to go off at the same...
Back out on the village street, we continued toward the Wat, as the sun was close to setting. We reached the masonry walls around the Wat while the sun was still visible, making it about 1815 hrs. The walls had been painted or whitewashed at some time in the past, but portions of the paint was now peeling. There were gardens of various types of vegetables on both sides of the Wat and presumably behind it also, which were tended by the monks. We passed through the gate into the Wat and looked...
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When Sergeant Tweed returned from Chiang Rai, he was very busy for the first hour or so. Later he took me aside to talk. "I spoke with Noon while at the house. She is very lonesome and anxious for you to return. She asked me to tell you that," Sergeant Tweed informed me. I had been thinking about her a lot also while on watch with nothing more strenuous to do than listen for a call on one of the radios. I had decided that I needed to see her again. I certainly liked her a lot, and not...
The payday bird arrived pretty much as usual at around 0900 on Friday the 28th, and we were setting down in Chiang Rai just after 1030. Sorenson reminded everyone to stay alert in case of a recall before we were all released to get paid. Starling and the others from the Red Tigers headed for their unit here on the Airbase, while Tweed, I, and the other Special Forces people headed for the Team House. Suenee, Phesila, Noon, and our daughters were waiting there for us when we arrived. Noon...
Friday, the 2nd of January, 1970, started out just as cold as the previous day had. After sending the daily report to the B-Detachment last night, I had returned to bed for another two hours of sleep before relieving Starling just after midnight. I re-tuned my radio to the 20 meter shortwave band and listened for any signals that could be originating here in the Shan States, as I believed this was the most likely wavelength that an agent here would be using to contact his superiors in...
New characters appearing in the next few chapters" Luang Silapakom Bill's landlord and teacher, 5'-6" tall, 130 pounds, 53 years old brown eyes, black hair going gray John Bill's co-worked, MOS 98G (Voice Intercept Operator), 5'-9" tall, 150 pounds, 23 years old, blond hair, blue eyes, SP/4 Ernie Translator (Vietnamese), MOS 04B, 5' 8" tall, 160 pounds, 24 years old, brown hair and eyes, SP/5 The entrance to the Operations area was the red guard-shack we had been to last...
The trip from Bangkok back to Korat is about 260 km, more or less by road. We pulled out of Seri Court just after 0830 and made good time once we got out past Don Mung airport. We took the turn to Sara Buri and headed up Friendship Highway. I had a much better view of the trip from the elevated cab of the deuce and a-half then I had had from the pickup truck coming the other way. It was shortly after passing Sara Buri and before we reached the climb to the Korat plateau that I started to...
Characters returning from Part 1 of the story: LTC Hawkins Executive Officer, 46th Group, 6'-1" tall, 185 pounds, 45 years old, brown hair, blue eyes MAJ Carlson S-3, 46th Group, 5'-9" tall, 160 pounds, 39 years old, sandy blond hair, gray eyes The road from the airfield was straight as an arrow and our maps showed that it intersected Highway 4 / 13 roughly half a mile before that road split. One part went through the town and was designated as highway or road 1, and the other part...
New characters appearing in the next several chapters: Short Round Friend of Bill’s, 5’-9” tall, 145 pounds, 21 years old, brown hair, gray eyes Ear Company clerk, tall thin young man, 20 years old, red hair and freckles SSG Williams, Willie S-2, 83rd RRSOU, 5’-8” tall, 170 pounds, 31 years old, very short blond hair, blue eyes First Sergeant Never named other than his rank, tall, thin, balding, reddish completion 44 years old Major Taylor Commander, HQ Co, 83rd RRSOU, 5’-4” tall,...
Our flight arrived at Nawngh Kam just after 1030 hrs. Captain Paribetra immediately posted guards while the rest of us busied ourselves unloading the chopper. In the meantime, MSG Sorenson and SFC Lee started laying out the camp from a plan that they and the Major had constructed. Our helicopter was on its way back to Chiang Rai before the next one arrived just after 1130 hrs with more troops and tents. The Operations tent had been the first one erected. When the additional troops arrived,...
New characters introduced in the next two chapters: Colonel Thuathao Senior Colonel, Thai Special Forces, Suenee's 'uncle', 5'-10" tall, 170 pounds, 48 years old, black hair going gray at the temples, brown eyes I arrived at the airfield while they were still unloading the C-130 aircraft, as it is only about a four mile drive. I pulled up on the unloading ramp near the plane and walked over to the Air Force Loadmaster who was supervising the unloading. "Howdy," I said as I...
This morning I shaved before going to eat, as I knew that Phillips had started the water heating after getting off guard and it would be hot by now. Also the cook had just arrived as I was getting off guard, and breakfast wouldn't be ready for a little while yet. Breakfast at around 0700 was very quiet and everyone took care of last minute things after that. Then they finished loading their jeeps with their rucks, ammunition, weapons and at least one five gallon can of water. De Foor came...
On Monday, the 30th of March, the Major called all of the Section Chiefs in for a meeting. "Tomorrow is the last payday that we will have requiring a split shift, as next payday we will all be on our way to Chiang Rai, and then back to our regular assignments, at least most of us. What will the Red Tigers be doing?" the Major asked. "We'll be rotating also, sir," Captain Rust told him. "But it will be on the First of May. They will hold our pay till then," he assured us. "So, I am...
When we returned to our house shortly after midnight on New Year's day, Suenee seemed very distracted. I was sitting on the bed when Suenee came over to me. "Can we do something different tonight," she asked, but seemed worried. "Sure. What would you like to do?" I asked. "I ... I have been talking to some of the younger women, the ones that work in the bars," she said nervously. "They have told me that it is not a big thing to do." "What is?" I asked, confused. "Smoking,"...
Note: All of the names of places in the Shan States are actual towns there located along the Salween River. The names of towns in China are actual towns located near the border with the Shan States. Tweed and I left for home after the Major finished. I locked the commo room and returned the key to the CQ. We returned to the hotel to drop off our LBE and picked up a clean set of tiger fatigues to change into in the morning. We didn’t run into, or see anyone on the way to the house, but were...
Chinese New Year had been at the end of January in 1968. There had been an uprising in South Vietnam by the Viet Cong. They called it the “Tet Offensive”, and it was a colossal failure. They had too few personnel and weapons for the grand offensive that they envisioned, as they had counted on the civilian population rising up to join them along with major units of the South Vietnamese Army. That didn’t happen, and they were easily defeated by the South Vietnamese Army with the aid of some...
I awoke just after 0430 hrs. As tired as I had been when I turned in, I felt fine now and crawled out of my nice warm sleeping bag to be greeted by a very chilly morning. I dressed quickly and headed for Operations, the coded messages, and the code book. Williams was on radio watch. He looked a little tired and cold. The radio was quiet, and the generator was the only sound to be heard. "You can go to bed, Williams. I'll take over," I told him as my eyes grew more accustomed to the...
I had just started to open the shipping case in the commo bunker when Meadows came in. “I want to see what this thing looks like,” he told me, as I opened the locks on the case and removed the top. The main unit was in the middle of the case surrounded by foam and the other modular units. Spare parts, manuals and tools were in the bottom under these units. “Are you just running code here?” I asked Meadows. “Yes, that’s all we can do with the GRC-109. What will that baby do?” “You can run...
Characters introduced in Chapter 5 “The A Team”: SFC Meadows -Senior radio man SFC Morris and SSG Hadley - Heavy and light weapons SSG Tweed -Engineer and demolitions SFC Walls and SSG Johnson - Medics SFC Barlow and SSG Engles - Intelligence Captain Warren and 1st Lieutenant Sykes - Commander and XO MSG Sawyer - Operations and Team Sergeant The Thai Special Forces (TSF) Team: 1st Lieutenant Tamusarit - Commander Sergeants Mon and Thu - TSF NCOs The airfield was still on a...