Martoons

Cast of characters

Miss No

Fred

Mr Go

Dame

Donna

Mr E

*

A dull thud suddenly sounded.

Go had gone comatose and collapsed – crumpling on the desk. Fred moved him off his chair and lay him down on the floor.

* Is Go going to be okay?! *

He loosened Go’s tie and the top button of his dress shirt. Surprisingly, Go’s breathing seemed to be returning to normal and he was no longer sweating as severely.

Fred concluded that the chocolate bar had finally kicked-in. Within seconds Go’s eyes cracked open and the glaze was gone.

Go sat up on his own and wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. Then he looked at his watch.

“Fred, it’s like I just woke up from a dream or … nightmare. Is it already noon? Where does the time go? What am I doing here? Why … you come here now?”

“Let’s go and eat rice and I can explain.”

*

“Where the hell are we?” muttered a groggy Dame as he stretched luxuriously in E’s back seat. “That was the best snooze I’ve had for a coon’s age.”

He sensed some visceral tension in the car and wanted to take a poke at it. “Oh, Happy New Year everybody!”

Neither Miss No nor Mr E in the front seemed to hear him. Donna explained quietly what had been going on. “… and we should be back in Chinju shortly.”

“Maybe not!” Dame exclaimed gleefully, looking out the window. They were being pulled over for speeding.

With No wrapped up in her intense phone call to Mr Go, E tried to argue his way out of the speeding ticket.

As he bickered, car after car was swooshing past and the traffic jam that had been behind them was transplanting to the front of them.

Finally No caught on and gestured that he shut his gob, accept the ticket and get back on the road.

Within a minute they – and everybody else – were voraciously descending on Chinju in a wall of testosterone-driven, exhaust-spewing vehicular congestion.

Dame was grinning mischievously. With all the delays, Mr Go’s probably got Fred’s new contract signed off by now.

No slammed her cell phone shut. “Ayeesh! I had Comrade … I mean Mr Go on the line but I’ve lost him again…”

“Mr E, keep driving – within the speed limit – and not on the shoulder! – back to the institute and I’ll deal with this in person.”

“Pali, pali! I’ve got to stop this foolishness!”

The grin slid off Dame’s face and his stomach acted-up again. Shit. Maybe this isn’t a sure thing yet.

*

Goodbye Mr Go          

Fred and a recovering Mr Go heartily inhaled their soup and rice along with several side dishes including very spicy kimchi.

Fred could visibly see Go coming back to life right before his eyes.

Between inhalations and slurps, the Canadian explained to the embattled ex-boss what had happened over the last half hour.

Go shook his head disbelievingly. “Aigo! Mr Fred, after I try to kill you with that sushi knife, maybe you saved my life! Now, what can I do in return?”

* Will Fred ask Go for anything? *

Fred waved him off. “Nothing Mr Go. My time in Korea is done. This whole episode has shown me that it is not my fate to stay in Korea.

“The Gods are not on my side! I hope that you regain your health and maybe with that court decision you can take back your business.”

Go waved him off and cast aside Fred’s sympathy. “You can sign new contract and it is not necessary for you to go out of Korea.”

His mental state was still murky and his voice was trailing off again.

Fred was starkly reminded that Go was likely still under the spell of the two Comrades’ phone calls and now was not the time to wade back into the ‘new contract’ quagmire.

With a simple wave-off he said, “Mr Go, my good man, it’s time to say good-bye…”

* Will this truly be good-bye? *

*

Tomorrow: Go gets some of his mojo back!