December 31 （visa expires in 14 days）
Instagram had been irritating me all morning.
There were a thousand notifications inviting me to follow Michal Mizrahi.
Why the app thought I would be interested in her after she treated me like an annoying mosquito all the way through high school was a mystery to me.
She was only in my contacts because everyone was.
That way, if someone called and I didn’t have a clue who I was talking to, I wouldn’t embarrass myself.
I know, I know. Paranoid. But sometimes I don’t recognize even my close friends on the phone, and they get offended – or pretend to.
So I turned off all notifications from Instagram. Daniel had said he was satisfied with me having an account and that I didn’t need to ever look at it.
I thought about the day we’d set up my Instagram account.
I’d had a weird feeling about Daniel – call it intuition.
His tears had seemed odd. Sure, it was exciting to tell the whole world about being in a relationship, if that’s what it was, but Daniel wasn’t the crying type.
I felt like I’d know him for years, even though we’d just met a month ago.
Like we’d known each other in the past and that guy from Men in Black had erased our memories.
Surely he hadn’t cried because of all the followers who would ditch him because of that photo.
This was something else. I wasn’t going to bug him about it though.
We already had so little time. I couldn’t afford to let myself fall in love with him, and he probably wasn’t letting himself be completely open.
The ticking clock restricted how much we could open up.
We were trying to minimize the pain that was coming. Inevitably.
New Year’s Eve arrived and Daniel, along with the rest of Thailand, took the occasion seriously.
We planned that he would come over and we would go to a nearby party with Keren and Sean.
I was at the Arielis when he knocked on the door.
Naama opened it and they hugged. I loved that about her, my adopted mom.
She was an awesome hugger. Daniel’s blue eyes glinted in amusement when he saw Keren and me sitting on the sofa, dressed for the party – that is, wearing our normal clothes. He, on the other hand…
“Why are you dressed like a tourist?” Daniel was wearing a blue and white shirt that looked like a child had scribbled all over it. They were for sale everywhere in Phuket.
“It’s not touristy. It’s in honor of Phuket. I love this place, and I want to show it. Here, I brought you one too – medium right? I got a large because the sizes here are ridiculous.”
Keren cracked up when she saw my expression.
“Gee, Amit. You’d better put it on. It’s so cute that you’ll be dressed alike!”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I’ve got other ways to honor Phuket.”
“Let’s take a vote. Who says Amit should wear the shirt?” Daniel wasn’t giving up.
Keren and Daniel raised their hands. Naama gave me a look that was half amusement and half pity, but she raised her hand.
“Naama!”
“I think it’s really cute. Eli and I once went to a music festival wearing matching outfits. He didn’t want to at first, but later he said he was glad we’d done it. Pity he’s still at work. He’d tell you himself.”
“I’ll ask him when you’re not around. We’ll see what he says then.”
“Well, even if he arrives and takes your side, you’re still in the minority. I think it’s been decided.” Daniel seemed gratified.
Just then Keren got a text and ran to the door to greet Sean.
I’d been talking to Keren about him before Daniel arrived. I wanted to make sure she was being smart about the guy. But he really was pretty cute, dressed in a turquoise button down shirt.
“Sean, this is my mom, Naama. You already know Daniel and Amit.”
Naama smiled and shook Sean’s hand. I interrupted their greeting because I had something important to say.
“Sean, I have to ask you something, as a fresh perspective in this room. Certain people present think Daniel and I should both wear this shirt tonight.” I pointed at the shirt, which I was sure he’d recognize, being a resident of Phuket.
“Oh, cool. We should do that!” He said to Keren, and she nodded.
“Careful, Amit. Better close your mouth before a mosquito flies into it.” Daniel was beside himself with happiness.
Vanquished, I took off the perfectly decent shirt I had on.
“Toss it here,” I told Daniel.
“Never mind. On second thought, you should go like that.” He pointed at my half-naked self. Sean and Keren laughed.
“If you don’t give me that shirt right now, I’m going in the one I was wearing before.”
So he tossed me the shirt and it was, unfortunately, a perfect fit.
“Have a good time, kiddos,” said Naama. “I’m going to celebrate with a bottle of white wine and wait for Eli. Maybe I’ll be able to hear the music from here.”
“Come with us!” Daniel invited her.
“Absolutely not!” Sometimes the sassy way Keren spoke to her mother still surprised me.
There were already thousands of Thais and a few foreigners at the party when we got there. From a stage with lights that flashed in time with the music, a DJ was whipping up the crowd.
“Let’s get closer.” Daniel grabbed my hand and led us all into the sea of dancers.
Towards the back, people were swaying back and forth a bit but not swept away by the music.
But as we neared the stage, the chances of catching an elbow in the face got higher.
The dancers were deep inside the beat, a bit zombie-like as if they weren’t in control of their bodies.
It didn’t take Daniel long to become one of the zombies…
actually, the lead zombie. They stared at this creature oozing self-confidence as he took up more and more space, the music seeming to flow through his veins.
I looked over at Keren and Sean to see how they were reacting to this display of temporary insanity, but they’d already joined the zombie-fest. People began focusing on Daniel instead of on the stage and we became the eye of a storm of dancing zombies.
I wanted to document this so that I’d have proof that zombies do exist and a shot at winning the Nobel Prize.
I had 30 seconds of closeup zombie footage when Daniel, laughing, pulled me into the orbit of his dancing.
We smiled at each other as we danced, and the world faded into the background.
It was just him and me – his white teeth, light blue eyes, jug ears and muscular arms that threatened to burst though the thin cotton of the Phuket shirt, the sweat on his brow.
I was losing myself to the zombie king; willingly, but I couldn’t have resisted if I tried.
Time and space get distorted in crowds like that, so I don’t know how long we danced before I shouted, no, screamed in Daniel’s ear that I needed to get some air.
I didn’t know how he could breathe; maybe zombies don’t need oxygen.
He pointed toward the exit and the four of us made our way through the mounting crowd.
“Wow. That was crazy!” Daniel said in an unnecessarily loud voice.
“You were crazy.” I had to tell him straight. Some self-awareness wouldn’t hurt.
“Crazy about you!”
“Oh yeah!” That was Keren.
I made a gagging gesture at the flatterer.
“Let’s go grab a beer.” Daniel pointed at a nearby stand.
“We’re minors. They won’t sell to us,” said Sean.
“Wait here. We’ll bring you some.”
Daniel and I joined the long line at the stand. It was just before midnight and everyone was anticipating the countdown. Was I? I’d never kissed anyone on New Year’s Eve. Maybe it would be nice.
“So, what do you do at midnight?” Daniel asked as we waited.
“I thought I’d find some Thai guy to kiss. What do you think of the guy pouring the beer?”
“Isn’t he too short for you? Thought you liked them tall.”
“Why would you think that? Short is the cutest!”
“I know, shorty.”
“ Sawadee khrup !” The beer guy was trying to get our attention. He had a lot of customers and no time to waste.
We carried four beers back to Keren and Sean and sat down to rest a bit. Five minutes to go, according to the countdown clock. We were all exhausted from dancing and the beer made us drowsy.
“Oh man! I completely forgot to film the party for Instagram.” Daniel said suddenly.
“It’s ok. I got a video of you dancing. Should keep your followers happy.”
“Totally. But we also want to see you kiss.” Keren’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“No way!” I protested.
When the crowd began chanting 10! 9! 8!... Daniel smiled and came closer. 7! 6! His lips were so red. 5! 4! It was so easy to be drawn in by him. 3! 2! 1!
The fireworks in the sky had nothing on the ones inside me when Daniel leaned in and kissed me.
I held on to him and tried to make the kiss last as long as possible.
It was one of those rare moments when my thoughts were silenced – a fantastic feeling.
For a moment I didn’t remember that we weren’t always going to be together, that it was temporary.
My bad memories of the past did not exist. The future, no matter how uncertain and worrying, did not exist. It was amazing – the best start to a new year I could ever have hoped for.
The world came back into focus as we parted. Keren and Sean were watching us. The crowd was cheering at the fireworks. Daniel’s gaze lingered on me for a few moments, as if he was trying to take in every trace of that kiss, then he took out his phone and turned to the fireworks.
I took out my phone too, to send Daniel the video of him dancing. Reception was spotty and I couldn’t get it to work.
“Give it here.” Keren saw me struggling and came to my aid.
She went into my Instagram account and uploaded the clip as a story. It all happened so fast. I tried to grab the phone away from her but she turned away, finished what she was doing, and then gave it back.
“There. Now he’ll be able to share the clip as soon as there’s good enough reception. Oh, and you should answer your followers. You’ve got tons of notifications.”
“I don’t have any followers other than Daniel.”
“Then you’ve got tons of requests from people who want to follow you – me included, by the way.”
Reluctantly I pulled up Instagram and tapped the little red button at the top.
Keren wasn’t kidding. There were hundreds of requests – probably from followers of Daniel who had seen our photo.
I had no intention of approving any of them but it was incredible to realize how many people were interested in what Daniel and I were up to.
I didn’t get why. I looked at the DMs and saw so many expressions of support – some bordering on fan-like.
People wanted to be like us – a couple living the good life in Thailand – apparently.
Maybe they were even jealous of my relationship with Daniel.
How naive they were. I felt sorry for them.
One of the profile pictures stood out for some reason. It was hard to see who it was from the little picture, but I had a weird feeling. I opened the message, sent a week earlier and read:
“Amitush! It’s Mom. How are you? I saw you on a friend’s phone. Can we talk?”