Martoons

Cast of characters

Coffee Lady 

Max

*

“Sir! Me … resign!” said Coffee Lady. 

Max seemed to hesitate, but only for a split second and pushed open the door. Coffee’s comment was so unexpected, he wondered if he’d heard right.

“Resign!” she called out as he departed. “Game over!”

He had heard her, and that time she sounded almost mad. Yet instinctively Max kept walking – down the stairs, out into the street, out of range.

* How is he going to respond? *

His mind started madly grappling with Coffee Lady’s utterance and by the time he got back to his pool hall, he was in shock: Coffee Lady has quit! He sunk into chronic dejection.

He knew his most valued employee wasn’t just trying to get attention. She was a woman of few words but when she did speak she meant it.

Max had found that it was next to impossible to talk her out of anything once she’d made a decision.

* Will he still try? *

She never made idle threats; never said things to get a reaction. And she’d rarely complained about anything; yet now suddenly she’d quit.

Over the next few minutes, Max locked himself away in his office, smoking profusely and trying to get a grip. Even the mere idea that she’d leave him stunned him cold.

He felt sick, abandoned, betrayed; angry at first yet then deeply hurt.

Max suddenly succumbed to sappy sentimentalism, reflecting on the early days of the café, before Coffee Lady had been hired.

Coffee Shop Max had been a notorious rotating door of part-time staff – beautiful and curvy yet usually uneducated, unstable or orphaned women who rarely lasted more than a few months.

And very few could be trusted.

They routinely dipped into the till when Max wasn’t around. They’d slip tips into their underwear.

Some girls made side deals for outside services with the clients – a ploy punishable by firing by Max. These girls with shattered eyes would be banished to the red-light district.

Running a café was proving to be a royal pain the arse and Max was on the verge of getting right out of the business.

It was then, though, that the honest and reliable Coffee Lady had arrived and turned things around.

Coffee Shop Max quickly rose to number one in that part of Chinju.

Max trusted her like no other. She basically had the run of the place and even managed to keep the taxman at bay.

(Max never asked how and she never told).

She was incredibly humble and rarely even asked questions, and never asked for a pay raise or day off. Until now – after a mere ten years’ service.

Max picked up the phone and called her. “Can you resign next time? I’ve already booked you solid for New Year’s evening, including that one client who’s pre-paid triple the usual service fee.

“We cannot break promises with clients. It will ruin our reputation.”

* What do you think she’s going to say? *

Yet he could sense his words were falling on deaf ears. Coffee Lady’s heart was doing strange things to her business sense.

All she could think of was Thomas – specifically his big nose and for some reason its bushy nostril hairs – and it was making her all warm and tingly like never before.

“I’m sorry Max, sir, but no next time. I resign and will no longer be available as of this afternoon. I’ll be making a trip to Ulsan to visit Thomas.”

Max’s spirits rock-bottomed. Once love was awakened in a Korean woman, it could have revolutionary effects.

They quit good jobs to stay home and have kids. Goodbye Coffee Shop Max.

Loyalties hammered out over long periods of time could end overnight and old Masters rendered obsolete: Goodbye Max.

And the prospect of Coffee Lady eloping with the foreigner Thomas was, for Max, even bleaker: She’d likely follow him right out of Korea altogether, so he’d lose his best foreigner friend too.

Max was finally distracted from his doldrums and redirected by a pool hall customer knocking on the door.

Apparently, one of the tables was covered in cigarette ash and needed a sweep.

It was time to get on with things. Max’s final thought: Should he beg Coffee Lady to stay?

* Should he? *

Not fucking likely.

Deep down Max Kim was a proud man and never groveled to anyone, anytime. Into the phone he uttered, “I accept your resignation.”

” Thanks for all your hard work and have a nice day. Stay in good health and good luck to you.”

* Will this be it? *

*

Tomorrow: Coffee Lady grapples with apprehension and indecision.