Martoons

Today: Enter a familiar face . . . and a new set of challenges

Cast of characters

Thomas

Mr Go – owner of Go English School in Chinju, Korea

*

Thomas in Orbit

Chinju, Korea. Mumbled comments had been circulating around Go Englishy School.

Thomas had been working here three weeks and was starting to get into a routine and feel comfortable.

But the comments and rumours annoyed and concerned him.

When the all-Korean staff saw him approaching, they’d abruptly cease conversation, nudge each other to indicate the foreigner was coming, and disperse.

It was so obvious that a few times Thomas chuckled.

But he didn’t want to make an issue out of it or confront anyone.

Maybe he was just imagining the whole thing.

Then one evening when he walked by Mr Go’s office, the door was cracked open so he stuck his head in but then quickly realized some kind of bizarre meeting was going on.

So he quietly withdrew his peering eyeballs and inconspicuously closed the door.

He scratched his head in bewilderment and walked away, down the hall.

He’d seen a strange-looking man sitting in a couch in front of Go’s big desk.

The man had his back to the door so Thomas couldn’t see his face but from the angle could see that a cigarette was dangling from his mouth.

A cigarette had also been smouldering in Go’s desk ashtray.

Thomas had also spotted an almost-empty bottle of the familiar soju.

Mr Go drinking on the job? That’s a bit scary…or Korean custom?

What struck Thomas even more was Go himself: He was turned around and standing stiffly and rigidly – almost as if he was at attention – and looking out his 2^ndfloor main window.

Thomas had no idea what Go might have been looking at – right outside the window were simply a few huge, blazing neon signs…

Nightclub

Moody Blues Singing Room

…that kind of thing. Thomas had looked out at them before when he’d been in Go’s office, but it had been day time and they’d been dull.

Admittedly, though, he’d never seen so many signs all clustered together.

He’d been meaning to get a camera and take a picture of it.

At night it was quite the spectacle, and quite the eye burner!

* Are forces at work against Thomas? *

Thomas also noticed that the strange, shadowy man and Mr Go had been carrying on some kind of unusual conversation; unusual because it hadn’t really been a conversation.

It was as if the strange guy in the couch had been giving secret orders, and Go was standing at attention taking them.

The bizarreness continued.

Within the hour Thomas was called into a meeting.

He first proceeded to Go’s office and peeked in but it was vacant.

He enquired at reception and the new, toothy yet well-groomed secretary with big glasses redirected him down to the end of a long hallway.

He entered a tiny room, completely bare except for an elementary school-sized desk and chair right at the centre.

Lighting was provided by a naked incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling and situated about one foot above Thomas’s head, like something out of a Depression-era union meeting.

“Sit … down … please …” Mr Go said, already in the room and looking impatient and a tad nervous.

He also was acting as if he was following a script and having trouble remembering his lines.

Thomas squeezed into the compact chair and glanced around.

The room had only one small window of opaque glass, which was sealed shut.

The stuffy, humid summer air in the room had initiated the throb of a headache.

“Any way we could open that window boss? Maybe just a crack? I’ve been stuck inside all day. Haven’t had a single breath of fresh air.”

Go waved him off. “I have instructed the secretary to turn on the air conditioning in this room. Please be patient.”

“It is not healthy to open the windows because of all the car pollution outside.”

“Mr Go?” Thomas looked at him inquisitively. “Do you have a cold? There’s something wrong with your voice.”

Thomas wasn’t in all that great shape either.

The bald light was making him squint, and his athlete’s foot was irritating the hell out of him.

It flared up when he was tired.

He would have given his next bowl of instant noodles to be able to tear his shoes and socks off and scratch his itchy feet.

Instant noodles.

* Thomas’ optimism *

That’s all he could think about. Wonder what I’ve got today – the Chinese ones with the fake black sauce or the simulated kimchi ones loaded with MSG? 

He sank into a daydream.

Thank God for the noodles.

Cheap and available down at the little store, he’d make a beeline down there right after this meeting.

What was this meeting about anyway?

His eyes stopped wandering and returned to Mr Go who was pacing the room, looking as if he wasn’t sure about this whole thing at all.

Again, it looked like he was trying to remember his next line.

*

Tomorrow: Thomas’s bizarre meeting with Mr Go continues … and gets more bizarre.