Martoons

Today: Central Institute: Perhaps a little too quiet. . .

Cast of characters

Fred 

Mr Go

*

Go didn’t hear; a noisy, smoky bus was chugging along in front and he was preoccupied changing lanes to pass it.

The bus sped up though, so Go had to step on the gas.

With the pedal to the floor he overtook the bus, then shockingly jolted the car dead right and cut sharply in front of the bus!

Fred grabbed the dashboard and the colour drained from his face.

The bus slammed on its breaks and its tires squealed.

The bus driver honked in outrage.

Fred flipped his head to the left. “What are you d-d-doing Mr Go?!”

“I must turn here to get to my business.”

“What about that bus?”

Go waved Fred off. “It’s okay. He is best driver.”

There was nowhere to park in front of Go’s building, as the sidewalk was taken up with women who’d set up a makeshift market under large umbrellas.

“You can buy fruit and vegetables here every Tuesday,” Go said and wheeled around the back where there was a small concrete patio abutting his building.

Children were playing on it; he honked at them and they fled.

Go backed the car up onto the patio.

Fred did a quick scan of the building as they got out.

It was beige-coloured but the walls were stained by water drips and sheer age.

This was the real Korea.

Entering through a back door, they walked up a very narrow, stuffy staircase to the office, fronted by a chintzy and cheap metal door with a smoky glass window.

  C E N T R A L    I N S T I T U T E

Go unlocked it and right inside the main door was a hallway with a number of doors off it, all closed.

The first one was the staff room.

He opened it and pointed inside.

“Please relax.” He looked down the hall and shook his head, exasperated. “Ah, so dirty. Fred, please excuse me.”

He disappeared down the hallway slouched over but with a reluctant sense of purpose.

Fred could hear a bucket being filled.

The office was strangely empty (where was everyone else?) but Fred actually appreciated a few moments to himself to relax.

He inadvertently glanced around the crammed but well-organized space: An old-fashioned, 3-drawer steel filing cabinet, the usual office furniture, and a large round table presumably where clients could chat with staff.

The room was old and basic but clean.

There was a stand-up fan nearby and he turned it on to circulate some air in the moribund office.

Out of want for something to do, he innocently sauntered around and noticed up on the wall near mid-room an official-looking, framed document.

It appeared to be a business license, containing a passport-sized, black and white grainy photo of a woman.

Fred couldn’t decipher her name as it was written in Chinese.

In the shadowy image, her unsmiling face looked like that of a police chief or prison warden.

Go stuck his head in but did not step inside. “Mr Fred, are you okay? Oh!” He noticed that the fan was on and quickly rushed in to turn it off. “How about air conditioning?”

He then activated a tall, new-looking appliance standing in the corner and it began humming with a modern tone.

Go looked at Fred and the waygook flashed him a thumbs-up.

“By the way Mr Go, who’s this in the picture?”

“Miss No of course.”

“She looks so different here. Very … serious.” 

Like a military sergeant.

Go paused and looked away reflectively. “Miss No is very … how you say … complex? Excuse me.”

He stepped back out and closed the door behind him.

* Who’s the boss? Miss No or Mr Go? *

The office phone rang.

Go was now down the hall and couldn’t hear it, compounded by the fact that the air conditioner was humming full blast in the office.

Fred ignored the call for the standard half dozen or so rings but it was an older phone and its ring tone was particularly loud and annoying.

It also didn’t have an answering machine attached so when it kept on ringing, he went against his better instincts and cautiously picked it up.

“Hello?”

Not knowing it was Fred,a stern-sounding Korean woman immediately began shouting commandingly.

Fred could only decipher fragments but she seemed to be issuing instructions or orders.

He quietly put the receiver down on the table surface and ran down the hall to summon Go.

With a cigarette still dangling from his mouth while he mopped, Go scurried back to the office.

Fred stayed-put in the hall, and when Go was out of sight, took over the mopping just for something to do.

Go came back and was waving his hand vigorously.

* Who was it on the phone? *

*

Tomorrow: Fred gets lost.