Martoons

Cast of characters

Miss No

Miss No’s mother

*

Usually a quick eater who wasted nothing, this morning Miss No listlessly slurped her bacon stew and apathetically picked away at her rice bowl.

With adept use of her metal chopsticks, she was eating her rice kernel by kernel.

The stew’s smell was putting her off: not so much the bacon’s human-fleshy fragrance, but rather the more indirect thought that she’d been so wrong about last night: The situation outside Go’s apartment; thinking he was dead; calling 1-1-9, and the rest of it.

She shook her head, screwed up her face, and scoffed at her ludicrous, flakey reactions. What was going through my mind? What a colossal misjudgment! Am I losing my sanity?

* Is she? *

“Aigo,” she muttered. An annoying little voice in her head was suggesting that maybe she needed a holiday – a week or two on one of the Korean islands or a shopping spree in Tokyo.

“Impossible!” she snapped back.

“Did you say something dear?” mother asked.

“Yeah?” Daughter snapped out of her daydream.

“Aren’t you supposed to be going to work by now? It’s almost 7.”

“Yes mother, I will go soon. Don’t worry about it. I am meeting one of the waygooks first thing. Not a big deal.”

“You always seem to be meeting those waygooks. They seem to have high needs? Why do they think they’re so important to hog your time?”

Daughter sighed. “I don’t have time to explain mother. Put it this way – waygooks don’t dutifully accept authority as easily as we Koreans.

“They need to have everything explained to them. Then they feel more comfortable. So, I’m meeting one of the waygooks to explain something to him.”

* What is it that she’s going to ‘explain’? *

“Who is it this time – a man or woman?”

“A man Mother!”

“What is his problem?”

“Ayeesh Ma, you ask too many questions!”

“Aigo… I worry about you dear. I don’t know why you devote the best years of your life to that crazy business with all those difficult foreigners.

“How can you understand them – that language! So difficult. And one day they’re here in our Korea and the next … gone.”

Daughter put her chopsticks down indicating she was finished eating. “Don’t worry mother, I will solve every problem. Step by step.”

There was a brief silence while ma assessed the situation. “And what about that legal document from the courier?”

“Obviously you peaked inside the envelope!” She sighed.

Ma cracked a grin. “What do you expect dear? I’m your mother. Dealing with the legal system can be very expensive. So, what will you do?”

“Mother, I need time to think. My first impression is that the judge was bribed by one of Mr Go’s friends or associates.”

* Do you think the judge was bribed? *

She turned her nose up. “But I can play that game too. Anyway…” She elevated herself from the floor. “…I have to go to my meeting with Mr Fred.”

“Where is he from – Amellyka?” (America).

“Canada.”

“Ah yeah. Nice.”

As Daughter turned away from ma, she uttered under her breath, “And he’ll be on a flight back there by later today!”

* So No has decided to get Fred deported? *

*

Tomorrow: Fred makes his mind up about Korea.