Martoons

Cast of characters

Coffee Lady

Dame

*

“Ulsan. Final Call. All Aboard.”

* Will Coffee Lady board the bus? *

Coffee Lady’s eyes came back into focus. Making it appear as if she’d been stood-up, she waved the Ulsan bus driver on.

With that, the paisley-shirted squid vendor quickly scurried into the bus.

Coffee Lady straightened herself out and turned away from the bus in an affected huff, walking briskly back into the terminal building with her nose in the air; right through, and ending at the taxi stand.

“Maxi’s Coffee Shop on the rotary,” she ordered the cabbie. “Make it quick. I’m late.”

As her taxi tore through the streets back to the Central district, Coffee Lady thought of Thomas.

He still could be in her future, but she simply couldn’t discard her past so quickly.

* Do you think Thomas will still be a part of her future? *

Max had made her everything she was. She couldn’t quit him. Too abrupt; too sudden.

The words of wisdom of her past teachers and the orphanage director echoed through her head: Keep working hard and one day you will find your prince.

*

Red Face       

Across town, same approximate time.

Deep down in his soul, Damion felt pangs of guilt as he finished an after-dinner cigarette and left for Coffee Lady’s café.

Go and E had just called him with an invitation to Lighthouse Beach for soju, hot noodles, and – as Go had put it – “brotherly skinship.”

How could he rebuff his best buddies? Easy – an hour with Coffee Lady, that’s how.

Yet walking can be like a truth serum and as Dame strolled on toward Coffee Shop Max, an honest thought dawned upon him: Even though he’d pre-paid for tonight’s encounter, he wasn’t really in the mood.

* How come? *

He didn’t know why. Maybe he’d been thinking about it too much.

Nevertheless, he rationalized, business was business and he’d already booked the time. It was too late to back out now.

A quick in-and-out session certainly wouldn’t do any harm.

Yet, as he hailed a cab and headed downtown, he strained to psyche himself up for the occasion.

He imagined Cupids, hearts, and arrows; at the receiving end of those arrows, the inimitable Coffee Lady, cosmetics caked on and enough hair spray to render her curly coiffure combustible.

Sure enough, as the cab rolled up to her cafe, Dame was finally able to grin at the thought of his wildest fantasies coming true, even if he was paying for this just like any other customer.

Weird vibes started returning as he climbed the stairs. Setting foot inside, he immediately sensed problems with his plan.

Sitting himself at his favorite booth, he found Coffee Lady sulky, disinterested and moody.

“Hey babe!” he uttered in his most manly, guttural voice, but the Caffeine Queen barely acknowledged his existence.

She was sitting at another booth, slumped over. “Oh, yeah…” she said, not even attempting eye contact.

* Do you think she regrets her decision to come back? *

Did she even know it was him?

“You look all dressed up tonight,” Dame replied. “Going somewhere?”

“I was planning a trip but I cancelled at the last minute. I got as far as the bus terminal. I was standing right outside the bus. Yet I didn’t get on. I turned around and came back.”

She let out a huge, breathy sigh. “The time wasn’t right. I got back here about an hour ago. It’s dead in here tonight. I sent all the other help home.”

Dame’s instincts told him now was the time to be the sympathetic listener.

“I feel like killing myself,” Coffee Lady continued with disgust. “It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m stuck in here babysitting the dregs of society. Ayeesh!”

She was obviously commenting on a client she was presently attending to, although he must have been off in the can.

At Coffee Lady’s table were several empty coffee cups and an ash tray teeming with butts – several smouldering.

She disdainfully snuffed them out, but a pall of second hand cigarette smoke continued to hang over the table.

As Dame looked on, Coffee Lady was rubbing her irritated eyes. It even smudged her eye shadow but Dame didn’t mention it.

It was the first time he’d seen her look unattractive, almost pathetic.

Seconds later a slurring, beady-eyed short Korean guy in a wrinkled suit staggered out of the hallway coming from the washroom.

His face was bloated and red from overdrinking and he hiccupped twice.

Seeming not to notice Damion, he plopped himself back down in his booth with Coffee Lady and hurled a barrage of criticisms at her.

* What is the man about to say to her?! *

*

Tomorrow: Coffee Lady’s client gets aggressive.