The Cartoon Teacher

Thailand Hotel Guide

• Bay View Resort Krabi
• P.P. Erawan Palms Resort
• Phi Phi Banyan Villa
• Phi Phi Hotel

I ran an English school for my first 10 years here and employed people who were just traveling through and wanted some temporary work. There are plenty of stories I could tell about them, but the teacher that really sticks out in my mind was an American called John.

At the time, our English school was in an old Thai style wooden house surrounded by big trees. The house was in a compound of four houses, and ours was at the back. To get to it, you had to drive down the driveway of the house in front and through a white picket wooden gate. These days there is a big hotel sitting on the site, but back then it was a very pleasant place to live and to do business. My wife and I lived upstairs and the school was downstairs.

John arrived one day and applied for a job. Now, John was a friendly, easygoing guy. He claimed to be the younger brother of a relatively famous movie actress. At that time she had starred in a movie with Madonna, so I knew who she was. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but if he wanted to claim she was his sister that was fine with me.

After he started work he would turn up late sometimes. At other times he seemed to be a little bit, shall we say, confused. I knew right away what that meant, or I thought I did. I called him in and asked him not to smoke funny cigarettes at work and he agreed. I told him that as long as he did the job and there were no complaints, what he did after hours was none of my business. I also told him that if I ever caught him doing drugs at the school again I would fire him immediately. He agreed and nothing more was said.

About three months after he joined us I started getting complaints again. One student said that John just nodded off in the middle of the class. Another one said that he hardly spoke a word during a lesson. The student was left to sit there wondering what to say or do for an hour.

I called John in and asked him what was going on.

“Nothing, Marc. I am just a bit tired these days because my new girlfriend is keeping me up late most nights. Don’t worry, I’m not smoking anything here.”

Well, that was fair enough so I told him that he should cut back on the horizontal dancing and concentrate on his work. He grinned and that was that. He made the effort and I heard nothing more for a while.

Then one day one of the teachers came and told me that he had gone to the bathroom. The door wasn’t locked so he just went in. He saw John shooting up something using a needle.

I called him in and told him what I had found out, and reminded him what I had told him before. He was fired. His reaction surprised me. He tried to deny that he was taking hard drugs in the school. But when I pointed out that one of the other teachers had seen him, he blew up and started calling me names and banging on the table. Things got a little heated after that and I finished up yelling at him to get out.

He stormed through the house and I followed him out to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. He stomped down the driveway and walked straight through the white picket gate, leaving a silhouette just like a cartoon character.

That was the last I saw of John for many years. Then one day I received a phone call.

“Hello Marc, do you remember me? I used to work for you. It’s John.”

He gave me a few more clues. I had to think for a moment, but then I remembered. “I would like to meet with you, Marc, so that I can apologize for my behavior back then.” Obviously, I was a bit reluctant to meet him again, but I made an appointment at a restaurant that evening.

John arrived looking a little heavier and much fitter than the last time I remembered him. He looked to be in very good health, in fact.

He sat down and we ordered beers. Then he told me how he had been through hell on the hard drugs. Finally, his sister stepped in and told him he had to get straightened out. She paid for a stay at a fancy drug rehabilitation spa where he managed to kick the habit.

After that, he went through counseling. He told me that part of his rehabilitation was to contact all the people he had hurt in the past and apologize and make amends. He had come all the way to Thailand again to find me and a few others. Naturally, I was very pleased to hear this.

What really surprised me was that he pulled out 500 baht and handed it over. “This is to compensate you for the two students I stole from you after you fired me.”

Now, this was news to me. I had no idea that he had even taken any students from me, but if this was all part of his rehabilitation who was I to deny him? I took the money and ordered another round of beers from it.

We sat there for another hour and chatted about our lives since we had last seen each other. He told me that he and his brother had both got small acting parts. Since then, his brother has scored some big roles so he now has a famous brother and sister. John was studying acting and he looked forward to building a new life and career. I could only wish him well and we parted on good terms. I hope that he can continue to avoid going back to his old ways. He was always a very pleasant chap, unless he was under the influence, and I’m sure he will do well with his life.

A nice story, but lucky in some ways, too. Drugs and Thailand do not go together!