Martoons

Cast of characters

Fred

Mr Go

Mr Kang

Miss No

*

Back to reality . . . and Riverside Institute.

Mr Go snapped out of his reverie. The Raw Fish cutting knife now sat directly in his sightline as he gazed searchingly into his desk drawer.

But he turned a blind eye. He chose to make nothing of the situation and the possibility that something horrible could unfold.

Go was sufficiently in control of his mind at this exact moment to suppress nagging questions such as: Why is this knife here? What am I supposed to do with it?

* What is Go supposed to do with it?… *

He had a dark inkling of what was lurking but successfully suppressed it.

For now.

His hand skirted around the knife and pulled out the ink pad and name stamp. He coolly slid the drawer closed and he rapidly brought his sightline up to Fred.

Ah, relief. The waygook hadn’t any idea of the drawer drama; he was wrapped up in his phone conversation with Mr Kang and fully distracted.

*

Go’s Last Stand       

Miss No was out of breath as she got to the top of the orange iron staircase.

She quickly glanced around the taxi stand and zeroed-in on the set of aqua blue phone booths over by what looked like a closed office.

Rushing toward one of the phones, she fished through her purse and pulled out a long distance calling card.

Hastily sliding it into the phone’s receptacle, 500W flashed on a display – about 5 minutes’ worth of time.

The call would have to be short and sweet since once you got talking, the amount disappeared quickly.

Despite having qualms about tampering with Mr Go’s mind once again, she dialed his cell phone.

Upon first ring at the other end, she promptly hung up – step one of the mind-wash protocols.

* What is she going to ask of him this time? *

Again she called, letting it ring twice and hanging up.

The third call would trigger the transform Mr Go into the obedient Comrade Go when he picked up – as he customarily did – after two and half rings.

* Is that what’s going to happen? *

Go had just gone through the desk drawer drama and was now going to stamp Fred’s release document. Suddenly the cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

One buzz stop. Two buzzes stop.

Go jerked ever so slightly and a trance-like state overcame him; his eyeballs locked into position looking straight ahead.

He bunched his fingers into his now-clammy palms.

Immediately wary, dizzy and nauseous, Go tried to keep himself steady in his chair; he broke out in a cold sweat seconds later. Then came the third set of buzzes.

At precisely buzz two and a half. Comrade Go obediently reached into his pocket for the phone.

Fred was still oblivious to Go’s situation, completely absorbed with his own affair. “Okay, okay, Mr Kang,” he exclaimed into the phone.

“I’ll be on the first bus at the crack of dawn.”

“I should get to your Ulsan institute hopefully by mid-morning coffee break or lunch. [Pause] You will order Chinese noodles with black sauce? Okay! [Pause] Soju? Okay!”

He chuckled jokingly but that was abruptly aborted when he looked over at Mr Go for confirmation. What he saw sickened him.

* What does Fred see? *

Go was sitting across the desk, ink stamp in hand, but immobile like a mannequin. It was as if he’d been freeze-framed.

His jaw was locked slightly open, drool was accumulating in the corners of his mouth, and his eyes had glassed up.

His line of vision was straight ahead, as if he was staring at a point on the back wall past Fred.

“Mr Go?” the waygook asked. “You don’t look so well. You okay?”

But it wasn’t just Go’s tired appearance; Fred could swear he felt an odd, mild chill off the man – comparable to the sensation of standing in front of an open refrigerator.

Fred’s gawking was interrupted by Mr Kang’s voice emanating from the land line.

“Mr Fred what’s going on? Hello? Hello? Are you still there?”

Fred composed himself and cautiously spoke quietly into the phone. “I’m not sure Mr Kang. It’s Mr Go.”

“Everything was fine a minute ago when you were talking to him, yet he seems to have somehow fallen asleep with his eyes open, sitting up.”

Go’s catatonic condition was due partly to chronically low blood sugar, caused by his early departure from the beach this morning on an empty stomach, and compounded by the 10-km jog at the end.

He’d initially felt energized from the exercise but without eating anything afterward, the euphoric effect had now faded and he was running completely on empty, heading for a crash landing.

*

Tomorrow: Comrade No continues to speak to Comrade Go over the phone and gives him more instructions…