The bills were mounting up and court dates seemed to pour through the letterbox every day. My wife, Lin, in between looking after me and the children worked part-time to try and make ends meet but her wages rarely did much more than put food on the table.
One Thursday there was a knock at the door, Lin went to answered it and was followed into the sitting room by three men. My heart jumped into my mouth, it was Ray, a business associate of mine, a shady character with a matching reputation, flanked by two large evil looking men. Ray didnt look very happy, his friends looked even unhappier and if Ray and looked unhappy then rest assured someone very probably owed him money, and unfortunately in this instance it was me.
"Honey,", Lin started, "these men want to talk about some business, would you like me to make some tea?", but I didnt get chance to reply.
"Wheres my money?", Ray demanded.
I nervously began to stutter and stumble my way through a sentence trying to explain how I had been ill, but I was nearly better now and that he would get his money back next month and I would.... Ray interrupted, repeating himself, "wheres my money?", stabbing each word impatiently at me. Lin froze, I could see her looking for me to say something, her face full of panic.
"I havent got it Ray", I said sheepishly, "give me one more month. Please."
"OK."
He said OK. I breathed a sigh of relief. Phew, that was close.
"Youve got one month. But for now I want some sort of interest payment". He turned to one of his men, "cut a finger off Bob".
The man called Bob pulled a large serrated knife from the inside of his coat and started approaching me. My heart filled with terror and as I began pleading and begging Ray to stop, Bob neared.
Lin began screaming. "NO. STOP. Ill do anything for you to stop. Just STOP!!".
"... อ่านทั้งเรื่อง
