Cast of characters

 

 

 

Fred

 

 

 

Mr Go

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Go picked Fred up punctually in the parking lot at 5 a.m.

 

 

 

* So Fred decided to stick with going to the mountain with Mr Go *

 

 

 

“Mr Fred, how is your feeling this morning?”

 

 

 

“This is my first trip to the mountains – I mean, besides the little ones that are behind Good Lucky Apartments.”

 

 

 

With the early morning still black and no other movement in the parking lot, the car breezed out onto the empty roadway.   

 

 

 

Go explained, “From Chinju it’s about three hours’ drive to the Jiri Mountain.”

 

 

 

Fred had heard a lot about that mountain from his students.

 

 

 

 

“It is legendary isn’t it? Didn’t communist guerillas have base camps all through Jiri around the time of the Korean War?”

 

 

 

A strange silence engulfed the interior of the vehicle. Fred glanced over at Go.

 

 

 

 

He seemed to be staring straight ahead and all colour had suddenly drained from his usually plump, reddish face.

 

 

 

“Boss, you okay?”

 

 

Go, in a monotonous and robotic voice: “I support the Communist Government of Great Leader Kim Il Sung and the objective to unify all of Korea…”

 

 

 

Fred chuckled nervously but converted the tail end of his chuckle into a throat-clear.

 

 

 

Go was not joking. “I support…” Go continued his banter but the second time through mumbled most of it and the volume trailed off.

 

 

 

Fred flashed back to the first night he’d arrived in Chinju and had caught Go standing outside that fish restaurant staring hypnotically at the two bottles of liquor produced in North Korea.

 

 

 

 

Moments after that Miss No had said something about him having mental problems; having undergone some kind of traumatic incident with North Korea during his army time.

 

 

 

* What do you think happened to him? *

 

 

 

Fred kicked himself for forgetting. Now the question was how to snap Go out of his trance.

 

 

 

 

Fred had no pretensions of being a psychologist so he kept his mouth shut for the next few minutes and the chill inside the car seemed to dissolve.

 

 

 

Go gradually became himself again.

 

 

 

His estimate turned out to be accurate and within three hours they arrived at Jiri and drove into the huge parking lot flooded with families in their hiking gear.

 

 

 

 

Fred was amused by the sight of hundreds of men, women and children all wearing the same bright red, heavy shirt, headgear and knee-length beige mountain pants.

 

 

 

 

Switzerland – Korean style.

 

 

 

After the long drive Fred was looking forward to getting out of the car. His legs were stiff after being cramped up and he was claustrophobic.

 

 

 

Yet Go kept driving right through the parking area. Fred was baffled but kept a lid on his frustration.

 

 

 

“We will drive up the mountain,” Go announced.

 

 

 

The road thinned to one lane and he inched his large, luxury car past hikers of all ages and block after block of hiking accessory gift shops.

 

 

 

 

Fred was bewildered by the crass commercialism.

 

 

 

“In Canada we don’t have souvenir shops right beside our nature areas.”

 

 

 

“Many families come here,” Go said, “and we must make our trails accessible and convenient. Koreans very much like to be … comfortable.”

 

 

 

He slowed the car down to a standstill beside a larger shop with a vast display of colourful items – hiking caps, bottled water, and walking sticks.

 

 

 

 

“Fred do you want something? I will buy it for you.”

 

 

 

Fred didn’t need anything but to maintain good key-boon, selected a colourful souvenir handkerchief with a Jiri Mountain map on it naming all the peaks and lengths of the labyrinth of trails.

 

 

 

Back in the car and still on the mountain approach road they cruised past a cheesy amusement park.

 

 

 

 

Then they came to a small, black-topped lot where Go parked and shut down the vehicle.

 

 

 

Finally Fred thought.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Tomorrow: Mr Go and Fred begin their trudge up the mountain.