It's a slow night again. The other valets are out back playing pétanque with the kitchen staff. I'm sitting with Dang and Uncle Judo, watching the tour buses unload at Fai Mangkon on the other side of the Bangna–Trat Highway, when Uncle Judo says what we've all been thinking for many months now. He says it's over. He says it's time to find a new job.

'Just look at that,' Uncle Judo says, pointing at a group of Chinese tourists. The Chinese wear matching green hats, pose for a picture in front of Fai Mangkon's mascot: a six-metre animatronic dragon that tilts its head, flaps its wings, emits actual flames from its mouth.

'Look at how happy they are. You know it's all over when the competition's got the Chinese.'

'It's not the Chinese they've got,' Dang says. 'It's that fucking dragon.'

'How is that a restaurant?' I say. 'How is that authentic Thai cuisine?'

'Don't be so naive.' Uncle Judo flicks his cigarette into the gutter. 'Don't think for a minute that we're selling them food.'

I just blink at Uncle Judo, watch the Chinese disappear through Fai Mangkon's replica Sukhothai-era gate.
Dang points to our wooden marquee.

'Last I checked,' he says in my defence, 'that sign still said restaurant.'

'That's our problem, you see,' Uncle Judo says. 'We persist in the illusion that these people are here to eat. We've grossly misinterpreted our demographic's demands.'

Ever since he started taking weekend classes in business and economics at Ramkhamhaeng University, Uncle Judo's been full of this talk. Supply and demand. Fordism and Taylorism. Management tactics and human resources. Adam Smith and the invisible hand.

'Here we go,' Dang says. 'Go ahead. Enlighten us, Professor.'

'It's not the food they want,' Uncle Judo says. 'What they put in their mouths is entirely incidental. It's not the dinner that matters—it's the dining experience. That's what the Fai Mangkon people understand. They understand the dynamism of the free market. They understand that those tourists aren't going to remember the food—they're going to remember the dragon. And now we're going to lose our jobs.'

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'Valets' will be printed in full in Granta 97: Best of Young American Novelists 2. To subscribe to Granta and receive the entire issue free, or to buy a copy of Granta 97, click here.