Martoons

Today:  Fred is put through some frustrating ordeals.

Cast of characters

Fred

Miss No – receptionist at Go English School in Chinju city, South Korea

*

“There is no Thomas here.”

“What? You must be mistaken…”

“There is no Canadian teacher here.”

“Is this Go English School in Chinju city, South Korea?”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Are you the owner?”

“No!” she said emphatically.

“May I speak to the owner?”

“He’s not here now.”

Fred could hear coughing in the background.

It was a smoker’s cough, so obviously the person in the background was an adult. “I think someone is there. Please let me speak to them.”

“How do you know someone is here?” the woman replied.

“I hear a man coughing.”

“How do you know it is a man?”

“Oh, so there is someone there?”

The woman didn’t say anything.

“I know it is a man,” Fred said, “because men cough like that.”

“Maybe that person has a cold.”

“OK, so there is someone there – someone who has a cold. Please…”

“This person is busy now. He just went into a meeting.”

“This is very urgent. Can you pull him out of the meeting, just for a second?”

“Maybe the meeting is not here – but in another place outside.”

“Outside?”

is having drinks with friends or co-workers. It is Korean style you know.”

Fred was getting confused and felt as if the receptionist was playing head games.

So he played along. “The person with a cold is drinking? He shouldn’t drink.”

“Maybe he is drinking cold medicine. There is Korean traditional medicine shop down the street.”

Fred realized the woman was a tough nut to crack. “Okay – will that person come back?”

“Maybe twenty minute.”

“OK, I’ll call back then.”

Fred walked up and down the parkade’s asphalt ramps to kill time.

The homeless guy had finished emptying his tanks and left the parkade – as well as leaving a stinky puddle in the corner.

Fred just shook his head.

Guess a guy’s gotta pee somewhere.

He looked at his watch: Only ten minutes had passed but he didn’t want to take any chances on missing the boss over in Korea.

He hurried back to the phone and this time he got right through.

“Owner didn’t come back from drinks,” the same woman said. “Maybe he already go home. I don’t know when he come back.”

“Will he be there tomorrow?”

“I don’t know his schedule.”

“Would he be at home right now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Home phone number so I can phone a bit later?”

“I don’t know the number.”

Fred started feeling as if he was getting the runaround. “OK, let me ask an easy one: What is the owner’s name?”

She paused.

Fred could feel tension and resistance coming from the other end.

“Owner name is Mr Go.”

“And you are?”

Another more pregnant pause.

The resistance was incredible.

A few selected sweat beads popped out on Fred’s temples.

The phone was covered again and there was more mumbling.

She came back on the line.

“I am Miss No. Nice to meet you bye bye.”

* Is Fred merely imagining the culture shock? *

The phone clicked dead.

Fred’s stomach started doing flips.

Even though it was entirely possible that this was the culture gap at work again, he had the distinct feeling that he’d been bamboozled.

She cut me off to get rid of me. But why? What did I do?

He tried to get a grip on himself but the call had been upsetting.

He paced around the parkade.

What the hell has happened to Thomas? All I wanted was to hear his voice.

Why is such a simple thing so complex?

He returned home all upset and didn’t sleep well.

After six hours of tossing and turning narrated by crazy, absurd and fractured nightmares, he rolled out of bed.

When you work at night and sleep in the day, you never wake up feeling refreshed.

You feel the same if you slept one hour or ten.

The body doesn’t like having its schedule flipped around.

Groggy and with a mild headache, Fred spontaneously launched into a declaration: “Pineridge, you hate your job.”

“You don’t want to be there and are making other people miserable. That’s not fair to them. Get some balls, man! Quit and move on. Get the frick out of that parkade!”

He checked his answering machine for calls.

One message was from the security company’s boss.

For some reason, Fred felt that it wasn’t going to be good.

Should he take his shower and shave and call back after?

Might as well get it over with.

Why delay the inevitable?

He didn’t know why but for some reason he had a distinctive feeling that he was going to be fired.

Who can explain such instincts? But who can deny they pop up from time to time?  

As he held the phone receiver in his hand and was about to dial, he mentally went through his own pleas of innocence, but then cut himself short.

What’s the point? If they want me out, they’ll get me out.

Fred dialed.

The boss, who’d been jovial and pleasant when Fred was hired, was like a different person this time – callous, terse, and emotionally a million miles away.

Fred’s instincts turned out to be spot on.

When he hung up, he was mildly enraged at the unfairness of seemingly being fired for no real reason (“We want someone who is more user friendly.”)

But as he thought about it he was mildly relieved.

It was a stupid job and I didn’t want it.

* Will Fred’s dismissal prove to be fateful? *

As he sat at the breakfast table at 15:00 hrs eating his customary bowl of oatmeal, he saw his only hope for immediate income was the headhunting for Master Lee.

And actually, as he got his mind around it, there was some hope.

If he could wrap up the Thomas file, the owner of that school owed him $1000 which he needed ASAP.

But after his call to Korea last night, that was going to be a BIG if.

*

Tomorrow: Find out where Thomas is.