EVEN THOUGH SOMEBODY SABOTAGED ME AND DELETED A COMMENT SO I NO LONGER APPEAR AT THE TOPS OF PAGES 1225 AND 1226 I'm still SO NICE that I typed part 8 up on my phone to post today. I'm on the last couple days of my vacay so I might have part IX out sooner
Since it was on my phone it's not very polished and I haven't really read it through, so... yeah
PART VIII
Date turned around. “Man kheu arai, loo? What is it?”
But Prang was nowhere to be seen.
“Prang? PRANG?!” Date called Prang’s name over and over as he ran around the pier, trying to find his elusive daughter. Had she run back to the house?
No. This was Kade’s child he was looking for. Date looked up.
Sure enough, there was Prang. She sat on the top of the trunk, clutching a thick branch tightly.
“Prang, get down from there,” Date ordered.
Prang shook her head, clutching the branch ever tighter.
Date sighed (again). Reaching up, he carefully removed his daughter’s arms from the branch, placing them at her sides. Then he placed his hands under her skinny arms, picked her up with ease, and set her on the ground. She barely came up to his waist.
Prang tried to make a break for it again, but Date held onto her shoulders.
“What’s wrong, Prang? Why were you crying?” Date’s eyes were filled with concern for his youngest.
“I wasn’t crying,” Prang lied, still struggling against her father’s grip.
“Prang! Don’t lie to your father. I saw you crying, and I want to know why.” Date got down to her level. “Prang!”
Prang stopped struggling and gazed into her father’s dark eyes. “Khun Pa jao ka…”
“Yes, Prang?” Date answered, trying to hide the fact that his patience was wavering.
“Why did Pin and Yam say we aren’t going to the market today?”
Date eyebrows furrowed deeper. What did that have to do with anything? “What?” he asked.
“You promised we would go to the market today, and then we didn’t. I was looking forward to it, Khun Pa.”
And suddenly, Date understood. He had forgotten that he’d had Pin and Yam tell the children that there would be no market trip today. Time with Kade often did that to him…
“Prang. You were crying because you thought I broke my promise.”
Prang, hanging her head, nodded.
“i hope you know that that is completely irrational and not the behavior of a good child. And to make it worse, you ran away without telling anyone where you went. You know you’re not supposed to be at the pier alone.”
Raising her head slightly, Prang gazed up at her father through her eyelashes.
“And don’t give me that look,” Date continued, “You know what you did was wrong.”
Prang hung her head again. She turned towards the house.
“Where are you going?”
“Back towards the house, Khun Pa. I’m going to go cry in my room instead.” She began to trudge through the foliage.
“Dio! Wait!”
Prang stopped.
Date averted his gaze from her, instead examining the base of the tree to his right. “If you walk back to the house, you’ll be causing yourself more trouble…
“Why bother going back to the house when you’re just going to have to turn right around and come back to the pier?”
Prang spun around, her smile bigger than her tiny face. She ran toward her father with arms outstretched, wrapping them around his neck and kissing his cheek.
Date’s smile was bigger than Prang’s.
like him more as P'Date.
