Martoons

Cast of characters

Mr E

An ajumma

*

It was to have been a Saturday afternoon tea date with Donna, but that day had been pounded from early morning with heavy monsoon rains.

As E hopped in his car at noon after finishing his half-day at the bank, he ignored the little voice in his head that was urging him to walk the handful of blocks to the Chamomile Tea House.

You’ve been riding your desk all morning. You could really use the exercise.

Not heeding to that voice proved to be fateful.

As he made his way out of his customary alley parking spot, he drove half a block and was suddenly swallowed by heavier-than normal traffic, and for some reason (which was unusual) it wasn’t moving at all.

“Ayeesh,” he muttered, just after entering the main street and realizing there was about 4 inches of water on the road.

Several vehicles had tried to plough through it but had stalled out. That had clogged up both the lane E was in and the next one.

His eyes veered right and he assessed the sidewalk as a possible escape route.

An ajumma was nestled under a large, tattered and worn umbrella, selling fish-shaped pancakes with bean jam, which she was baking in a waffle-type iron.

E inched his vehicle to the right and realized he’d need a head of steam to get up on the curb.

That would necessitate the ajumma moving her little illegal operation temporarily, so he reefed on the horn hoping to bring about that result.

She’d have nothing of it, ignoring E in a way only an old ajumma can do – so much so that he felt as if he’d turned to stone.

He disembarked the vehicle, disregarding the torrent of monsoon water molecules pelting down on him, and nimbly tip-toed through the ankle-deep puddle to the sidewalk.

His negotiations with the ajumma went nowhere.

Indeed, the haggard old battle-axe proved more adept at it than he did and came out the winner – selling him a bag of pancakes, and not even fresh ones but a bunch of cooled-off and rain-dampened ones!

E looked at his watch and realized that his date with Donna would not come to pass.

It was almost as if it had been out of his control; that some larger force was deciding the whole thing.

He retreated to his vehicle to lick his wounds – actually, to lick the jam from the yummy fish pancakes.

And while doing so he witnessed the day’s miracle. The pancake ajumma had done some thinking about the flooded street and got to work.

With a pair of chopsticks she proceeded to clear a fist-sized tangle of trash off a street drain near her stand.

As E enjoyed his pancakes, he watched with fascination and then joy.

Sure enough, within minutes the water started flowing steadily down the now-unplugged storm drain and cars were able to move again.

*

Tomorrow: Fred has a couple of encounters; both of which yield vastly different reactions.