Martoons

Cast of characters

Miss No

Owner of Big Top Soju Tent

*

“I don’t know if that makes any sense and maybe I’m over-thinking this,“ said the owner.

“It just seemed that beardy guy had a young face and the scraggly white facial hair hanging down didn’t look quite right. Out of place, you know?”

He shook his head, seeming discouraged. “Sorry, that doesn’t fit with what you’re looking for but that’s what I think I saw.”

“The more I think about it – and maybe I should stop right now – the beard itself was odd. It looked all thin and … how would you say, manufactured?

* Will he realize that the beard was fake? *

“But that may just be the way the light was shining on it at that particular second because during the other brief moment it looked nice – real nice.”

He waved in the air again. “I don’t know.”

“Anyway, Santa as you call him and the other two were all laughing about something – quite hard actually, as if they were sharing an inside joke, so I went back to doing what I was doing.”

“Without thinking about it, I would say they were friends. It didn’t look like a business meeting or anything serious.”

“They seemed to know each other quite well. It all seemed so friendly and jovial.”

“Until you started asking me all these questions, I thought nothing of it.”

No squinted. This whole thing made perfect sense. Go had known Kang a long time and must have met his father – ‘Santa’ – at some point.

Her concern grew and she shuddered. The bearded menace was out on that beach somewhere and she had to track him down.

Her mind focused tightly and she didn’t even hear the owner’s next revelation:

“Then,” the now-animated entrepreneur exclaimed, “as I say, I glanced back towards those guys to steal one last look at that rare beard and I couldn’t believe it.”

“The guy was gone!”

*

Pink Jacket        

“Must say I was surprised – and even a little disappointed!” With his thumb and forefinger, the tent owner stroked the stubble on his chin.

“Guess I’m kind of envious… That beard was a beauty. Never could grow one like that.”

“Me neither,” Miss No said in a rare humorous moment. “Any idea where Santa Beard could have disappeared?”

At this early hour in the day the questioning was starting to get to the owner.

He’d basically just awoke from a nap after running his tent all night and here was this lady – whom he didn’t know from a hole in the wall (or, in his case, a tear in the soju tent’s orange tarp) – picking his casual observations apart as if they were court testimony.

It was starting to give him a headache.

* Might he ask her to leave? *

Annoyingly, she had a perfectly valid point: Now that he thought about it, one minute there were three guys there, chatting away jovially; Santa Beard being one.

Then the next minute, Santa was gone but there were still three guys talking!

How could that be? Where did the third guy come from? Had Santa Beard been there at all? Was the whole thing in the tent owner’s imagination?

He began pinching his arm.

*

Tomorrow: The soju tent owner tries to figure out how Santa Beard pulled his disappearing act!