Martoons

Today: Fred is taken to the institutes.

Cast of characters

Fred

Mr Go

Mrs No

*

Fred was dropped off at Riverside Institute with No while Go sped off.

The overall feel of the neighborhood was peaceful.

Fred and No walked into a large, modern glass and steel building.

Its appearance was in marked contrast to the shanties up and down the street.

They walked up a flight of clean, marble-finished stairs.

No explained: “The first floor is rented out to a shopkeeper who sells many kinds of rice.”

She pointed down to his door. “He is closed right now. If you need rice, you can visit him.”

Wholesome, Fred thought.

He was getting the feeling he was going to like this place.

He looked around him and couldn’t help noticing how clean and immaculate the stairwell and walls were.

The structure was brand new.

There were pillars in the circular stairwell; fake mind you but looking stately.

The wall encasing the stairwell had long, narrow, curved windows, which – although opaque – let in a lot of light.

Fred felt composure and optimism.

Yet at the back of his mind he wondered: What happened to Thomas?

At the top of the stairs, No opened another glass door to the sound of hammers and electric cutting tools.

Dust was flying everywhere.

The noise was ear splitting.

Fred noticed that none of the small group of workers wore hearing protection.

“Renovations!” No shouted over the noise. “Our business is growing very quickly.”

             What happened to Thomas?

They ended up taking refuge in the office.

When the door was closed the noise died down.

“What is your first impression?” she asked.

Fred flicked a thumbs-up and beamed a spontaneous, genuine smile.

A feeling of relaxation overcame him.

He stretched luxuriously yet just before he could utter, “I think I’ll like it here,” she interjected: “Maybe some time you can visit here again. Right now Mr Go is waiting downstairs to take you to his building.”

Fred was mildly irked that he couldn’t just sit for a few minutes. “He’s back already? He just left.”

“He had to go buy cigarettes. He is a heavy smoker. He has bad nerves.”

“Yeah.” Fred reluctantly headed for the door and stairs.

“Bye bye and have a nice day with Mr Go,” No called out, and then Fred re-emerged back into the noisy hallway where the renovations were taking place, and scooted down the spiral staircase.

Outside, Go was sitting in his car, a larger-sized black executive-looking model that was popular with Korean businessmen.

It was parked half-up on the sidewalk and idling.

Children were playing nearby, even though exhaust was billowing out only inches away.

Go was talking on a large, unwieldy, new-fangled cell phone and smoking.

He didn’t acknowledge the waygook as he got in but rather quickly pulled into the road and sped a block to a gas station.

Fred was aghast as Go left his car running and continued to smoke and talk on his cell phone while the pimply-faced male attendant with dyed-orange hair filled the tank.

Fred felt a chill down his spine as he imagined quite clearly the whole gas station exploding and taking the block with it.

He chuckled darkly and shook his head with resignation.

Fred Pineridge, you’re not in Canada anymore!         

As they got closer to downtown, the traffic got thick again.

Go was still talking on his cell.

All of a sudden, a taxi pulled in front of them, slammed on its brakes, and somehow – miraculously – Go did the same with a show of amazingly instantaneous reaction time.

Fred observed the scene wondering what the hell had just transpired.

Apparently, they were right in the middle of a block and there was nowhere for the taxi to pull over so it had just stopped.

An old woman now slowly struggled out of its back seat.

Yet, after she’d exited, she didn’t clear the roadway but continued talking to someone else in the cab.

And she kept on talking!

Fred couldn’t believe her audacity.

One single oblivious old lady had almost caused a rear-end collision and now left a traffic jam in her wake.

And she didn’t even seem aware of it.

Behind Go was a stream of cars accumulating and some started honking since they couldn’t see what was going on.

Go was first in line and finally gave-in and honked as well.

Without losing a shred of dignity, the elderly woman stopped talking to the passenger and hobbled off the road; the taxi went on its way.

Go had finished his call and finally talked to Fred. “Miss No will come to my institute very soon. She does an inspection almost every day. We must get there quickly so I can clean.”

He took a huge puff off his cigarette, flicked the butt out the window and exhaled. “Also, our clients are so eager to meet you. They wait for you since our last foreigner leave.”

“Are you talking about Thomas?”

Where did Thomas go?

*

Tomorrow: Central Institute.