Martoons

Cast of characters

Mr Go

Max

*

“Here at Cupid and my other spots, we have a ‘no touchy’ policy,” said Max.

“If a customer does lay a hand on, my boys get to touch the client – with their knuckles or the stubby end of a pool cue. It’s only fair!”

Dry sarcasm oozed from Max’s face and Go cringed, quickly squirming out of the leggy lady hostess’s arm.

“Oh don’t worry!” Max emphasized.

“Remember, I’m humane and ethical. My boys never do head shots with those pool cues. They only give gentle little knocks – usually to the extremities – to make their point.

“And you know, word gets around, Mr Go. My customers behave themselves and my ladies have been with me a long time – Coffee Lady over ten years. Can you believe it? Where does the time go brother?”

Go nodded with a mustered smile.

For Max, Go was a particularly special case customer, partly because Max pitied him.

* How come he pities him? *

Go was the loneliest, most pathetic country bumpkin Max had ever met.

Privately, the gangster hoped that Go’s business success would eventually elevate him to higher social circles than what Max’s establishments had to offer.

But for now, business was business and if Go wanted to empty his pockets each night at Max’s joints, so be it.

Wondering how long it would last, Max always showed his appreciation in the meantime.

At the end of a high-spending night, he’d send in to Go an extra bottle of five-star Chinese soju;

add free karaoke time;

and order his foxiest escort lady to stay late and light up a few more Marlboros for him – and whisper additional sweet nothings in his ear!

All compliments of the house.

The golden treatment made Go feel permanently special, a feeling he’d lost since leaving his hometown and his family.

There, he’d grown up the son of a farmer, and his father had not wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.

* Why not? *

“Son, I grow rice and I’m good at what I do. But I work my fingers to the bone so that you won’t have to.”

His generation had been dirt poor in the wake of the devastating Korean War.

Even when he became wealthy later, he still despised all kinds of bourgeois, luxury consumption.

He wasted nothing and saved every extra won for his son’s education.

“My generation grew up starving and it stunted our brains. But yours has rice and meat to make your legs strong to travel to the city, and your brain smart to figure out the complexities of life there.

“Go out into the world and earn your fortune. I will miss you every day but it is your destiny.”

Mr Go often got teary-eyed recalling his dad’s words.

Several weeks into his wave of success, Go took a few minutes one evening to reflect.

Looking down from his office window on all that neon, business was good.

“Dad would be proud.”

He imagined dad sitting there in the office.

“I’m winning papa! History’s unfolding as it should. My biz runs itself. I’ve practically worked myself out of a job. My lowly secretary Miss No could run this joint…”

Ironically, Miss No was having exactly the same idea.

*

Tomorrow: Miss No goes undercover.