I am somewhere near the Yodpiman Flower Market. Its 9:07 a.m. in Bangkok and the heat is already cranked to 92F. According to my weather app, it feels like 104F. I didn’t bother taking a shower this morning. What’s the point of bathing when five minutes outside earns you a sweat coated back and knee pit swamps?

I rest in a tarpaulin cave where it is a bit cooler, but there is no air flow. I have nowhere to be. I just stand and crowd a vendor peddling strings of marigolds from a triangular split in the bottom of the tarp. I think they are marigolds. I fiddle with my camera. I know that I should be producing for my client but I am not ready for that. I am only ready to stand.

Another person walks into view outside of the deep blue tarp and stops, crowding me as well as Flowerman. Maybe I am projecting, but the new addition seems to have a similar physical reaction to the morning. Why my feeling-doppleganger choses to just stand in the sunny heat I don’t know.

I point my camera and make a photo of my new friend. Now, I no longer have to decide how long I will remain in the shade. I will let my actions be determined by my new companion’s movements. When they move on, I will move on. This little game I decide to play is new to me and, in the moment seems liberating.

Minutes pass and my friend saunters into the Bangkok heat. Without hesitation, I make my way towards the shady bits of the flower market and into the day ahead.