Goodbye, Mr. Robinson. The late afternoon sun was disappearing behind towering monsoon clouds gathering on the horizon as a yellow scooter pulled up outside the hotel near the beach. Yip, a young Thai woman of thirty-five or forty, dressed in shorts and a white t-shirt, was driving her. The passenger was a tall, thin Englishman in his sixties, elegant if slightly incongruous, dressed in beige trousers, a pink shirt and a navy blue blazer which he took off and slipped over his arm as soon as he got off the machine. He walked up the four steps to the restaurant area, now deserted in this low season, draped his jacket over the back of a chair, and took his usual place on a high wooden stool at the end of the bar. He took a pack of American cigarettes from his shirt pocket, tapped the pack twice, and lit one with a silver Ronsen lighter he carried in his back pocket. “Hello, Mr. Robinson,” Tam called the waiter from across the street. the restaurant where he threw a dirty white cloth on the tables. Mr. Robinson turned slightly in her direction and nodded, exhaling a cloud of blue smoke toward the rafters where a large green gecko hung upside down and motionless from the beam. “Good afternoon Mr. Robinson.” » echoed the voice of Anoma, the manager of the cramped office behind the bar. “Are you happy today?” » She appeared in the doorway, a pretty woman in her twenties, tall and well-built for a Thai girl. " Oh ! You look so beautiful today. Yip will be sad to say goodbye. She came to stand in front of him behind the bar and placed a hand lightly on his arm. They had been friends for a long time, with an easy and comfortable relationship. Robinson looked at her halfway... middle of paper... on!' I called Tam across the room after hearing the last remark. “Most top secret mission!” » Yip turned back to Anoma. “He’s lying. Not a business trip. His big brown eyes were hard and bright. “He’s lying!” she repeated forcefully. Mr. Robinson lit his cigarette and looked up at the ceiling where the Gecko had begun its call. “Too Kai, Too Kai, Too Kai.” Anoma looked between Yip and the man, a slightly embarrassed expression clouding his face, and quietly said something in Thai to the woman. Yip turned and pushed his face close to the man's, trying to make him look at her, and in a voice betraying both anger and misery, he shouted, "No! He doesn't go to England on business, or on vacation, or to see his family. He went to England to die. Robinson stood up, his stool clattering to the floor behind him, and violently stubbed out his cigarette in the shell ashtray on the counter...