Martoons

Cast of characters

Miss No

Mr Go

Dame

*

“Pali, pali,” No ordered the cabbie.

He depressed the accelerator obediently. Just before turning onto Go’s street, they came to a cross walk.

An ornery and very slow-moving old man, crooked-over and brandishing a cane, had stopped in front of the cab and was raising a stink.

With his cane he was pointing to the cab’s front and complaining that the driver had partially stopped over the zebra crosswalk paint markings.

The old man wasn’t moving until the cab backed off the markings.

The driver respectfully reached down for his shifter and reversed the vehicle several feet.

The mundane incident had a chilling effect on Miss No. The old man symbolized crystal-clear honesty.

No realized how wrong she’d been to try to trick Go into cavorting under the covers a year ago and today trick him out of his business.

The scene from inside the cab was like slow-motion: The crusty old man had finally finished crossing and was disappearing down an alley.

* Will she stop tricking Go and trying to steal his business then? *

The cabbie hit the gas and sped over the zebra and made the final approach to Go’s apartment.

*

Damion was wheezing. “Shit, am I out of shape?”

It had been a 45 minute walk to Go’s building – an older apartment constructed in the 70s under the ‘home for all Koreans’ initiative of the dictatorial government of the time.

These older apartments lacked elevators but they also lacked annoying security guards.

Dame located the stairwell up to Go’s pad and ascended two steps at a time. He sincerely hoped his buddy was home or else it was a long walk back to his motel.

Sure enough as he reached the top of the stairs, a thin band of light crept out the bottom crack of Go’s door. Dame knocked.

“Yeah,” said the cautious, skeptical voice inside. Go had been reading and playing solitaire for hours.

He’d been putting off his usual nightly hundred pushups and was grouchy with himself for that.

Dame didn’t say anything. He wanted to surprise his buddy. He knocked again and could hear a muffled “Ayeesh!” from inside and some shuffling.

Go was getting up and coming to the door. Seconds later – click. The inhabitant smiled, unhitched the chain lock and opened the door.

“Ah yeah!” a beaming Go said.

“Mr Go it’s Christmas!” an overjoyed Dame exclaimed. “We must celebrate.”

Fully aware of Go’s curfew and drinking ban, Dame had nevertheless brought over his still-full bottle of lemon soju.

Go kept his apartment soju-free as part of his rehabilitation but was willing to make an exception tonight.

He and Dame sat down on the warm floor in the main room. Go cleared away the cards from the little table to make room for Dame’s bottle. 

“Miss No try hypnotize me again today,” Go chuckled. “She had the candles and portraits out… Didn’t fool me for a second.”

“She tried to get me to sign a paper giving her my business.” He shook his head, exasperated.

Dame scoffed while unscrewing the bottle cap.

Go popped back up to get shot glasses and then laughed as he sat back down and clinked them on the table.

“At least her awful communist-made syrupy wine was good!”

*

Tomorrow: Go gets cooking.