Martoons

Cast of characters

Fred

Cleaning Lady

*

”You don’t have to give her your money!” said Cleaning Lady.

She neatly placed it on the table in front of Fred. It was the money from his truncated visit to the lady motel, courtesy of Max.

Fred simply waved her off, embarrassed as hell about the situation. 

Cleaning Lady decisively shoved the cash pile along the table toward Fred. “Keep your money.”

* Will he keep it? *

 “Give it to your daughter,” Fred urged her. “She deserves it. That’s a lousy job.”

“Ayeesh, my daughter is a good girl but she is so stupid. It is the condition of Korean women.

* What is the ‘condition’? *

”They are nothing without a man, and she has no man. She is nothing! Oh, I am so worried about her. I don’t want her to grow up like me.”

Fred subtly inched the cash back toward Cleaning Lady but she ignored it. “How’s Mrs Won’s daughter Hot Sauce working out at your house?”

Cleaning Lady stopped working, sat down and shook her head. “Hot Sauce misses her mother and is not doing well in school.

”Mrs Won basically babysat her when she lived here at home. I don’t have time to do that. As a result, she has become very mischievous.”

She leaned closer to Fred and whispered, even though no one else was home: “Some of my daughter’s cosmetics and even a pair of her fancy shoes have gone missing.”

“Hot Sauce?”

“It’s her age. She wants to keep up with her friends but I know her mother. Mrs Won would not give her money for these things.”

* Did Hot Sauce actually take those things? *

Cleaning Lady didn’t dwell on the topic but hastily directed Fred to the table to eat lunch that she’d prepared. Today, it was rice, soup, and a small-sized fish.

He devoured the food while Cleaning Lady disappeared into the other rooms to resume housework. She was a cultural treasure, Fred mused.

When I leave this place I will certainly miss her.

A few minutes later she came into the kitchen to check on him, approaching from behind so Fred didn’t notice her. “Are you finished here?”

At first Fred instantly panicked and thought she was asking him about his decision to leave Chinju.

He braced-up reflexively, but then realized she was intrusively laying eyes on his plate. He chuckled in relief.

“Yes.” He nudged the plate toward her.

She looked closely at the fish skeleton. “Ayeesh! You are not finished!”

“Huh?”

“Look here.” She picked up one of his metal chopsticks and pointed out a small morsel of fish he’d overlooked.

“And look here also. And here! Ayeesh! You are not finished here yet! You are not finished here yet!” She slid his plate back disdainfully and left the kitchen.

Feeling like a foolish foreigner, Fred immediately went back to work on the fish and made sure every sliver of meat, no matter how miniscule, disappeared.

He’d just been transported into the past – Korea of a generation ago – when nothing was wasted. And the wise old Cleaning Lady’s parting words kept ringing in his ear.

“You are not finished here yet!”

“You are not finished here yet…”

* Is Fred also not quite finished in Korea? *

*

Tomorrow: E, No, Fred, and Donna all make their way to the beach!