Martoons

Cast of characters

Dame

Rose

*

Dame and Rosie O         

Dame didn’t mind this new girl Rosie-O. She was no comparison to Coffee Lady, of course, but who was?

* Could Dame grow to like Rose more than he liked Coffee Lady? *

He’d covertly met Rose occasionally since the Rotary incident.

The meetings had to be carefully hidden from Max though, so were few and far between.

What struck Dame was that Rose seemed to completely lack any kind of life experience, as if her acquaintanceship with him was her first with a man.

She seemed to live in a bubble.

Since high school, she’d been at home under her mother’s wing.

Body-wise, she had a nice figure – Dame had several times scanned it from toe to head (everything in Korea is done backwards).

Yet when he got up to her face – although pretty and nicely sculptured – and got to those goo-goo eyes, he saw the blank look of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old

(even though Rose was 27!).

That’s where it all ended. Outside of work and home life, the woman seemed sealed off from reality and Dame found very little to talk to her about.

Had she ever done anything exciting?

His average conversation with her on their few outings consisted of greetings and then a sentence or two about each other’s life, such as…

Dame: “How was your week Rosie-O?”

Rose: “I helped my mother make kimchi this week. Then she made me scrub our outhouse!”

Dame: “Weather’s fine today, isn’t it?”

By that point he knew the conversation was over and it was time to get down to business and get his rub.

Nevertheless, whereas most clients just wanted to get the job done and get out of there, Dame went against the grain and tried to put some humanity into the meetings.

Moreover, he’d decided upon a specific mission: To teach the little lady a little something about the real world.

* And how was he going to do that? *

The Rotary Incident: The behind story.

Upon arriving at the Hollywood Inn that first night after swilling a small bottle of soju on the way over, Dame introduced himself.

Rose was expecting him, having just got off the phone with her boss Max.

Dame immediately and inadvertently enamored himself to her by his entirely inappropriate introductory bow. Rose giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Dame said. “I’m trying to show respect.”

“You bow way too low!” She giggled again and covered her teeth with her fingertips. “You are a client so all you need to do is a slight head nod.

“If you bow down that low, it makes you look ridiculous and stupid. Phony. Patronizing. It is me who does the fuller bow…”

“Okay, let’s do a take two on that.”

And he did and she felt a warm tingle.

Dame started into his specialty – ice breakers and small talk – and within a few minutes the conversation was not only jump-started, but picking up momentum.

“What do you do when you’re not working?” Dame queried.

“I do whatever my mom wants.”

“And at the same time, I have to listen to her lecture me. She always tells me you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.”

She let out a breathy sigh. “This morning she was trying to convince me to get married – again – for the thousandth time! O-h-h-h, it’s s-o-o-o annoying.”

“You don’t want to get married?”

“I must get married.”

He raised a forefinger. “That’s not what I asked. Do you … want… to get married?”

She waved him off and looked away. “It is irrelevant.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong there girl. If you get married and you don’t want to, you won’t be happy. It’s your choice.”

“Nobody’s holding a gun to your head.”

She waved him off again accompanied with a haughty scoff. “You don’t know Korea. I am 27. If I don’t get married soon then I will never be able to.

“And obviously I will bear no sons. I will be in poverty and alone my whole life.” She shuddered. “The prospect is utterly dismal.”

“Actually Rosie-O, in Canada that’s called freedom but… Okay. So you have to get married. Well then, let’s get you ready for it.”

And he shoved her.

*

Tomorrow: Dame does some very hands-on teaching.