Martoons

Cast of characters

Mr Go

Damion

Fred

*

Go nodded sympathetically.

“Yes, I think it is very difficult for a foreigner to feel comfortable in Korea. Especially when you don’t speak Korean. Why don’t you learn?”

“I tried to. Had it all planned-out. Coffee Lady was going to be my teacher. I’ve heard the best way to learn a language is by pillow talk …”

He chuckled and paused, and the joviality soured. “All I ended up with was tears on my pillow.” He sighed and shook his head.

Go could feel the man’s pain but with Damion you never knew if he was for real or just hamming it up.

* Do you think Damion is being genuine? *

Go’s own eyes wandered again and then Dame had seemingly found the start of his video and handed it to Go.

He went through the motions of watching for a few seconds but all he was seeing were blurry movements – like watching amoeba on a glass slide under a microscope.

He couldn’t concentrate and handed back the camera. “Sorry … my mind … stress.”

The emotional force-field in the coffee shop intensified.

Dame now realized that Go needed to be left alone; that he’d only invited him to sit down to be polite and that Dame should have actually refused.

For Dame, it was now as if the trip to Kwangju was months ago.

He sensed also that something had ended here at the coffee shop – that its spell had worn off.

He expediently packed-up the camera and slithered out of the booth. 

Go was taken aback. “Oh – where you go? Here, stay stay stay. Have a coffee.”

The gesture was disingenuous though, underwritten by a distant, monotone voice, an expressionless face punctuated by two pissholes-in-the-snow eyes, and a limp arm movement.

“I’m going home – to bed,” Dame white-lied and motioned for Go not to get up.

“I’ll find my own way out. You relax and enjoy. See you.”  

Dame bee-lined to the counter. The pimply-faced junior coffee lady took notice as he held out a small stack of cash. “For his coffee, okay?”

He quickly left so as to avoid the usual scuffle with Go over who would pay.

By the time the junior coffee lady counted the cash and realized the waygook had paid way too much, the exit door was already swinging shut.

She guiltily tucked the cash into the till.

As Dame descended the stairs, he had a funny feeling about Korea now and wondered if he’d just met Mr Go for the last time.

* Was this the last time Dame would see Mr Go? *

Same approximate time, across town.

Fred was flashing back to his first day in Chinju when he’d gone looking for that corner store and ended up walking in circles, delirious.

Korean street layouts all seemed to look the same.

Now, after his third time around the block and about to give up, he inadvertently looked up and saw what he was looking for: A neon sign atop a nearby building:

Pool Hall Max

Located up on the second floor (as most of these businesses seemed to be), it housed a dozen pool tables.

No one was at the front desk so Fred walked right in and practiced at a table alone for a few minutes.

Patrons at several other occupied tables were mainly delinquent-looking teenagers and young men with pimply faces, greasy hair and excessively long, flat-toed black shoes that made their feet look bigger.

They didn’t look at Fred blatantly but he had a feeling they were well aware he was there.

They were all heavy smokers – most had long white cancer sticks dangling coolly from the corners of their mouths.

If they weren’t young thugs and bullies already, they were likely apprenticing to be.

Fred leaned over and took a shot and then looked up. A smallish but sturdy yet unthreatening man emerged from the office.

His eyes met briefly and Fred recognized him from the cab this afternoon – the one that had sped away from the game room.

It was the man Hot Sauce had pointed out – Shadow Man.

Fred stepped forward.

* How will Fred’s first meeting with ‘Shadow Man’ go? *

*

Tomorrow: Fred meets Max.