Martoons

Cast of characters

Fred

Mrs Won

Security guard

*

Strange Go       

Fred grabbed his backpack and with his gift in hand, headed for the door.

Scooting down the stairs, he was awash in relief – he’d survived the meeting and been exonerated.

He shook his head and flashed back to that ominous moment several weeks ago – Mr Go delivering the warning about Mr Lee … possible charges … jail.

Fred scoffed in amazement. I truly thought that I’d have to leave Korea. I’m not going anywhere now. I’m staying right here.

He hoped.

Yet why did Mrs Won give this gift to me?

“Thank you for being a guest in our home,” she had said – almost as if she was looking back on something. What … it’s over?

* Is it a goodbye gift? *

When Fred arrived back at Good Lucky that night, the apartment was empty and dead quiet. Ajumma was nowhere to be found.

Up until recently she’d been holing herself up every evening in Hot Sauce’s study and making phone calls into the early morning hours.

There was something going on with Mr Kim – more than she was revealing to Fred – but he dare not ask.

* What is really going on with Mr Kim?! *

He’d picked up bits and pieces and discerned that Kim was somehow in trouble with the law and Mrs Won was trying to reach someone inside the bowels of the justice system for help.

In Korea, ‘who you know’ plays a huge part in life, especially when dealing with the justice system.

* What did Mr Kim do? *

Fred looked around the apartment and noticed that it was spotless. That immediately conjured up images of Cleaning Lady.

As Fred hadn’t seen her for weeks, now he really suspected something was up and undertook to look into the matter.

The security guard downstairs would be a good place to start.

Needing some groceries anyway, Fred went down to a small corner store and on the way back talked to the old sentry.

“Mrs Won and Cleaning Lady?” The elderly watchman yawned.

He’d been dozing and wiped sleep out of his eyes. “Yeah, they came back here this afternoon.”

He stretched luxuriously but his face remained stern.

“They brought a whole bunch of bedding and clothing. Then they left again, maybe an hour ago?

“Maybe someone moving in? I don’t know.” And he waved Fred off.

* Is someone else moving in? *

Fred thanked the guard for the info and took something out of his grocery bag. “Here you are sir.”

“I should have got you this before the last long weekend but I ended up going hiking with Mr Go and left before I saw you.”

With complete disinterest and a truncated little wave-off, the guard politely refused the offering – a bottle of soju.

“Please I insist,” Fred said. “For you.”

The guard waved him off again and pushed the gift back.

Fred recognized the ritual and re-pushed the bottle back to the guard and walked away quickly into the apartment corridor.

The guard stuck his head out of his booth. “Tank you berry muchy!” It had only cost a dollar, but he cherished the gift.

With Fred out of sight, and no one else around, he cracked the bottle open and immediately took a swill. “Ahhh … k-k-k!”

Back in his room, Fred pulled from his grocery bag today’s copy of the foreigners’ newspaper Korean Herald and sank into it.

Then he noticed out of the corner of his eye a pile of boxes against the wall of his room.

“What the…” Before he could get up and look more closely a key clicked in the front door.

Mrs Won and Cleaning Lady nattered as they entered and were struggling with something unwieldy.

 “Meesta Fred,” Won cooed, “You in your room?”

Fred was annoyed at having his newspaper interrupted yet dutifully came out. Won walked right in past him with a box precariously in her arms.

She matter-of-factly dumped the heavy load in the corner with the others.

“Excuse me,” Won said huffing and puffing. “I’m sorry, do you mind if we put these boxes here? I’m very sorry.”

There were more boxes to bring up and Fred realized the inevitable and pitched in.

Half a dozen times he went up and down the elevator efficiently, retrieving all the boxes and piling them in his room against the wall.

Now he’d earned the right to ask what was going on. “Is somebody … moving in?” He caught his breath and wiped sweat from his brow.

“Fred, I am very sorry. Please sit down.”

* What is happening? *

*

Tomorrow: Fred learns why Mrs Won is moving boxes and later meets with Mr Go.