Nang Thongsa Thevi: The Spiral of Time
8 pages · 35 panels · 36 balloons
Nang Thongsa Thevi: The Spiral of Time
Series Nang Sangkhan
Writer Nor Sanavongsay
[8 pages. Kabinlaphom’s head can never touch earth, sea, or sky: on the earth it would set the world on fire, in the sky it would stop the rain, and in the sea it would dry up the oceans. Each New Year one daughter carries it around Mount Meru, and that walk turns the year. This year the year won’t turn.]
PANEL 1: WIDE A huge golden lotus floats in the dark, gears visible between its petals like the inside of a clock. In its open center rests the serene head of KABINLAPHOM, eyes closed. The petals droop. Seven sisters hover around it in a circle.
Each New Year, one of the seven daughters carries her father’s head around Mount Meru, and the world turns over into a new year.
PANEL 2: Close on the lotus. A petal sags. A gear stops mid-tooth.
grrrk
PANEL 3: NANG THONGSA THEVI, the Sunday daughter and the eldest, gold against the dark, looks up from the lotus to her six younger sisters.
The year won’t turn. The Spiral is stuck.
PANEL 4: NANG KHORAD THEVI, the Monday sister, next in age, presses the Chakra of Truth into Thongsa’s right hand and the Conch of Echoes into her left. The others watch their eldest.
You’re the eldest. Go down and see why.
Reset it, or release it. Father’s choice is yours this time.
PANEL 5: Thongsa looks at the closed eyes of her father’s head.
Yes, Father.
PANEL 1: TALL PANEL The Garuda spreads its wings beneath Thongsa’s feet. She drops toward the mortal world, a gold streak through the clouds.
FWOOMM
PANEL 2: A small Lao village during Pi Mai. Bamboo houses, a wat roof, kids with water bowls. In one doorway, NEETANH (9) and her grandmother YAI string jasmine into a garland, laughing.
The village was celebrating the New Year.
PANEL 3: REPEAT PANEL The same panel, drawn the same way: same laugh, same hands, same arc of water in the street.
It had been celebrating the New Year for a long time.
PANEL 4: REPEAT PANEL The same panel a third time, but now Thongsa’s silhouette stands in the street, the only thing that has changed. A splash of water hangs frozen in the air beside her face.
They don’t know.
PANEL 1: THIN PANEL a row of four. The shrines at the edge of the village: earth crumbling, fire flaring too bright, water overflowing, air with prayer flags hanging dead still.
Earth, fire, water, and air had all gone wrong.
PANEL 2: BIG PANEL The water shrine. Thongsa kneels and touches the overflowing basin. In its reflection, the same splash from the street repeats over and over, like a loop of film.
The water keeps making the same splash.
PANEL 3: Thongsa stands and turns toward the center of the village. Ripples in the air, like heat over a road, lead to the doorway where Neetanh and Yai sit.
Something is holding the year in place.
PANEL 1: WIDE The air shimmers and folds into a tall figure, THE WARDEN OF LOOPS. Its face is a moving mirage.
You came to end the most beautiful day these people have ever had.
PANEL 2: Over the Warden’s shoulder, Neetanh and Yai laughing, frozen mid-moment.
I was born from their wish that this would never end. I only gave them what they asked for.
PANEL 3: Thongsa raises the Chakra. The Warden’s face begins to change as it looks at her.
Time has to move.
Does it?
PANEL 4: BIG PANEL The Warden’s face becomes Kabinlaphom, whole and smiling, seated with a young Thongsa on his knee. They look at the stars together. Warm light. This is before the head was lost.
Stay with me, little one.
PANEL 1: Thongsa’s face, stunned. The Chakra lowers a few inches.
Father…
PANEL 2: FLASHBACK BORDERLESS softer line. The same memory, and now the real one goes on: young Thongsa asks a question and her father answers.
Why do we always make time start again?
So people can grow, daughter. Even sorrow brings new seasons of the heart.
PANEL 3: Back in the village. Thongsa hasn’t moved. The Warden, still wearing her father’s face, reaches toward her.
Here he is whole, and you never have to lose him.
PANEL 4: INSET In the doorway, Yai coughs into her hand. Just once. Neetanh glances at her. A tiny crack in the perfect moment.
kof
PANEL 5: Thongsa sees the cough. Her grip tightens on the Chakra.
You’re hiding her cough from her.
PANEL 1: WIDE The Warden bursts into ribbons of repeating moments, each ribbon a strip of tiny panels: the same laugh, the same splash, the same garland. The ribbons wrap the Garuda’s wings.
Then I’ll hold you too!
PANEL 2: The Garuda twists, caught. Thongsa slashes one ribbon with the Chakra. The cut strip falls apart into loose jasmine petals.
SHHNK
PANEL 3: More ribbons close in. Thongsa can’t cut them all. She brings the Conch of Echoes to her lips.
PANEL 4: BIG PANEL She blows the conch. The sound rolls outward in rings across the village and through the ribbons. Where a ring passes, frozen water drops start to fall.
HOOOOOOOMMMMM
PANEL 1: Neetanh hears it. Her hands stop on the garland, the first new movement she has made in a long time.
PANEL 2: MONTAGE softer line. What comes after this day: Yai sick in bed. Monks at a funeral. An empty house. Then Neetanh, older, painting Yai’s smile on a canvas.
I remember what happens next.
PANEL 3: Neetanh looks at Yai, tears running down her face. Yai, still smiling, doesn’t understand yet.
It’s sad, and I still want to get there.
PANEL 4: Neetanh sets the half-finished garland in Yai’s lap and stands up.
Let me remember you, and let me grow up.
PANEL 5: Above the village, Thongsa sees Neetanh stand. Her eyes widen. The idea arrives.
She chose.
PANEL 1: The Warden’s ribbons loosen. It turns toward Neetanh, and its face changes one last time: Yai, as she really is, smiling at her granddaughter. Then it starts to fade like mist.
Go on, then.
PANEL 2: WIDE The celestial realm. Thongsa holds the Chakra over the lotus and her father’s head. Instead of striking it to reset the gears, she touches it gently to the center.
Let them remember, and let them choose what comes next.
PANEL 3: The lotus blooms open, petals rising, gears turning again. Kabinlaphom’s head, still resting in the center, wears the faintest smile.
tik… tik… tik
PANEL 4: The village. The frozen water finally lands, splashing the kids, who shriek and laugh. A new laugh this time.
SPLASH
PANEL 5: WIDE Years later. Neetanh, grown, paints in a sunny room. On the easel: Yai stringing jasmine. A fresh jasmine garland hangs on the corner of the canvas. Through the window, far up in the sky, a tiny streak of gold.
The year turned.