Martoons

Cast of characters

Dame

Mr Go

Miss No

*

Dame’s Xmas    

A soju tent near the Chinju Rotary.

While they’d hydrated alcoholically, Dame had disclosed to Go the down and dirty on Miss No’s brainwashing scheme. Go took the revelations well.

He was familiar with the tactics as he’d faced them during his military service.

And the more he was getting to know Miss No, it wasn’t unfathomable that she would try to pull this off just to claw her way up his business.

“Nothing surprises me about her anymore,” he lamented, “Nothing.”

While Dame and Go had been converting the night into day behind the orange plastic tent walls, No had much earlier in the evening gone over to Go’s apartment to check up on him.

He’d been dutifully in his residence every evening for the last few weeks per curfew but she predicted he’d fall off the wagon.

She knew him too well.

Sure enough, after lightly tapping, then wrapping, then all-out full-fisted pounding on the metal door of Go’s apartment, No concluded he’d gone out.

A neighbor or two had stuck their heads into the hall and informed the visitor that they had neither seen nor heard the tenant return all evening.

No thanked them for their input, apologized superficially for disturbing them, and immediately descended to the parking lot and the first aqua blue phone booth she could locate.

She called the cops.

* What is she going to say to them? *

The Police Chief was a friend of the family and No easily got him to agree to pick up and detain overnight her “mentally unstable, chronically addicted” fiancé “for his own safety.”

Christmas Eve had been a quiet night for the cops; indeed, the Chief had given most of them the night off.

It took a little while for a cop car to be dispatched to the soju tent.

When it arrived Dame had just finished the brainwashing disclosures and gone outside to take a leak.

Go was called outside by the attending officer so as not to cause a scene inside. Go agreed to be taken away without struggle.

He was just getting into the compact, almost chintzy-looking police vehicle when Damion emerged from the blue rocket zipping up his fly.

“What the hell…” He jogged the handful of steps over to the cop car. “Stop, stop!”

He caught his breath. “I’ve been with this man all night. He has done nothing wrong.”

“Let him go immediately or I go to CNN. You want an international incident on your hands? CNN? Okay?”

* Might Damion actually contact the news station? *

Go waved Dame off as if to say ‘everything okay’, but then asked the officer for a moment alone with his foreign friend.

He stepped away from the tiny cop mobile and explained in a lowered voice his agreement with No about the curfew.

“She is just trying to help me, and I agreed to it. So really I should not meet you tonight. But…”

He glanced back at the cop and then put his hand up to his mouth as if uttering a secret.

“But everything changes with this new information you have given me. Now I am finished believing Miss No.

“Only for this evening I will just play along. Don’t worry about me and thank you my friend.” He held his hand out and shook Damion’s.

Dame sensed everything was okay and stepped back. “So, they’re just taking you to the drunk tank for the night?”

“Yeah.” 

The policeman urged Go to get in the car. “Let’s go, I’ve got things to do.”

In actual fact, the Police Chief had just ordered a big bucket of fried chicken back at the station, and the young lad was famished.

“Wait, one minute…” Go rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a crumpled collection of currency and held it out to Dame. “For tonight’s food and drink.”

Dame refused with a light wave-off and by stepping back. “Mr Go – you clearly are crazy! Don’t worry about paying. It’s on me.”

“You’ve taken me out so many times I could never repay you. Merry Christmas buddy!”

“Ah, yeah,” Go said, seeming almost hurt.

“Sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be out tomorrow. Then we’ll talk.”

He got in the car and it pulled away. Dame went back inside and took care of the bill.

The jolly ajumma offered him more refreshments on the house but he graciously waved her off.

“I’d better take it easy for the rest of the night.” He put his hand flat on his stomach and grimaced. “My stomach – no good. But thanks anyway. Good night!”

He stepped outside the tent to see a crack of light in the sky, so he stuck his head back in the tent. “I mean good morning!”

*

Tomorrow: Dame contemplates how he’ll spend his day.