It was the day before the autumn festival, Sart Thai, when many sea gypsies left the coast to collect donations from Thai communities on land.
Their eyes reflected the figure of each other, a fair-skinned wealthy girl and Mali, a young sea gypsy whose old shirt had a big hole on the back.
Mali observed the girl’s pretty face. Her dark figure was completely different from the girl’s which was clean and fragile.
“What is her name?,” Mali’s mother asked the girl’s mother enthusiastically.
“Her name is Wanna,” she answered. “The youngest daughter of mine.”
“When was she born?”
“September 14, 1965,” she said and turned her eyes to Mali who was sitting on a mattress next to her mother. “How about her?”
“Such a coincidence. My daughter was born on September 12 in the same year. They both were born to be friends,” Mali’s mother said to Wanna’s mother. “Do you mind if I ask your daughter to be a friend of my girl?”
“No,” Wanna’s mother replied. “From now on, they are friends. Our family is connected with yours.”
After that, Mali and her mother began visiting Wanna’s family with presents on Sart Thai day every year, with an ornament made from a shell of a hawksbill turtle, while Wanna’s family would give them clothes and food in exchange.
The two girls were left talking with each other, while the two parents chatted about their lives.
“You will leave your home for the university in Bangkok?,” Mali asked Wanna in the year they both turned 18 years old.
“Yes,” Wanna nodded. “We may not see each other for some time.”
Mali always wondered how life was in the capital. Though she’d never been there, she was sure that it must be different from her meager life depending on the ocean.
No one there would need to sleep outdoors in an open market on the night before Sart Thai day, just to wait for the next day to bring collect donations from charitable Thai people.
Finally, Wanna left. Years had passed with no sight of her. Mali began to forget Wanna’s face and the strong connection through the exchange of gifts between the sea gypsies and Thais that had tied them together.
In the back of Mali’s mind, she heard Wanna’s voice, a whisper of her distant past. Mali wasn’t sure if she still cared about her old friendship anymore.