Martoons

Cast of characters

Fred

*

 I’m pulling the pin…Korea: Game over, thought Fred. 

His hands clapped together almost involuntarily. “Yeah!” A sense of purpose instantly returned and Fred felt as if the Gods were blessing his decision.

It was like a veil being lifted.

He was being helicoptered up and away; flying high over Chinju. From above he could look down on his brief stay in Korea: It had been a kind of fantasy world.

He’d ceased to be who he’d been back home. The moment he’d set foot in this foreign land his essence had changed: He’d become a waygook and a wall had gone up between him and everyone else.

He flashed-back to his first arrival at the international airport: He’d just touched-down in a meadow of opportunity. Anything was possible.

But, the weeks raced by quickly; the meadow became a swamp and he became mired in everyday life in Korea. Now he was near the end.

Korea had brought him down to size. He’d been humbled and was all the better for it. Presently, on the eve of departing, he clung to the cliff of survival.

* Time to say goodbye? *

Continuing along the Chinju streets; Fred said his last goodbyes – not to people – but to landmarks and other reminders of things that had happened.

Mr E’s bank.

The boxing club.

And the dentist’s office…

Donna had mentioned that Korean dentists were quite cheap compared to Canada, and when Fred got a toothache a while back he’d visited this dentist.

As he sat in the clinic’s reception room that morning, a lone old grandmother hobbled in and removed her shoes just inside the door.

She presented her shiny public insurance card to reception and was directed to the operatory.

Fred watched with curiosity as she awkwardly climbed into the posh and upholstered state-of-the-art dentist’s chair. She was a relic from the past taking a ride into the future.

The mundane scene struck him as profound: This is a compassionate society. It is a country that built itself – a ‘self-made’ man of a country.

And it was good to have been here.

It was vital to see a place like this, and live it and feel it. You can see what countries are capable of. They can become great.

And for Fred Pineridge from Canada, it was educational to have been around greatness.

He snapped out of his reverie and a sense of urgency overcame him. Back to Good Lucky to pack and leave.

This being his last time, he took a different route home to clear his head. He detoured up a small mountain where a little, stand-alone Buddhist temple was.

This time would be his first and last visit.

* Will it truly be the last time? *

Up several stairs to the deck, he took his shoes off and opened a creaky door to enter. The temple was clean and one other person – a man – was already in the midst of praying.

Fred took a cushion off a neatly-stacked pile and put it down on the cold, shiny-clean linoleum floor. He kneeled on it and bowed in front of Buddha, the prescribed five times.

The chaos of his weeks and months in Chinju swirled around him but there was an eye in the middle of this hurricane – an inner peace.

When he’d finished praying, the other man had already left. Fred scampered out of the structure to put his shoes back on.

He inadvertently noticed the man was just starting down the small mountain. Fred’s glance remained fixed on him: He looked familiar.

* Who is it? *

*

Tomorrow: Fred stops and chats with the familiar face at the temple.