25 Years Ago Part XX
And my days flowed into a pleasant routine. Wake up early and tickle Miss Lee’s butt. Get dressed and walk through the alleys. Go to Camp Humphreys and don my uniform. Breakfast in the mess hall. Work in the com center. Lunch in the mess hall. More work. Dinner. Shower and change. Club, drink, dance, maze, love, sleep. The days were wonderful, like opium. And like with opium things are euphoric in the beginning, but the same old same old needs a new trick or becomes dry. I guess I became too dry for Miss Lee.
Now she and I had some good times. Somehow soju came up one evening. Soju is a Korean liqueur that GIs talked about all the time. Rumors had it that it was made from phermaldahyde, but that is not true. Considering the time I was stationed in Korea it was more than likely made from ethanol and flavor additives. When Miss Lee heard I would drink soju she ran out of the club. Lee came back a few minutes later and beckoned me to follow her. I obeyed and I noticed that Little Bit took interest in what we were doing and she followed us across the street. We walked upstairs and entered what I assume was a home. There was an agima who spoke good English, she may have been Lee’s mamasan. I’m not sure who she was. There were a couple of kids and some other women. Everyone sat on their knees with their legs folded underneath them. Agima’s home was a typical Korean household possessing no furniture. I sat akimbo, though my posture would change a lot. I had a tough time getting comfortable on the floor.
“You want soju,” Agima got to the point?
“Sure,” I replied, “Why not?”
The women all laughed. They looked cute with there hands covering their mouths, subduing giggles.
“Need money prease.”
So I broke out some cash and gave it to agima. Then she yelled at a boy, maybe he was 10 years old. He came over and got the money and dashed out. The woman talked and the scene reminded me of playing spin the bottle or truth or dare. The bonus was I was the only man with all these pretty women. The boy ran back into the room with a green tinted bottle. He handed it to agima and returned to his playing. Agima stood and went to a chest and pulled out five shot glasses. The glasses were lined up nice and neat and then she unscrewed the top off the soju bottle. The liquid looked clear as she poured a good measure for all of us.
I lifted my glass and we toasted, “Kempai”. Soju had a nasty taste, but it had a nice kick that made you forego taste concerns. This stuff has the potential to get you drunk quick and I liked getting hammered. We sat there drinking, and joking. The kids played behind us, except for Little Bit. She just sat and watched us. The girl rocked back and forth as she sat smiling there. Her smile grew a bit when our eyes met. In a short time the bottle sat empty and I felt warm. And I learned that an empty bottle meant time to leave. Lee took my hand and we vamoosed with Little Bit leading the way back to the club.
We must have drunk soju three times and each time we followed that some protocol at agima’s room. In retrospect those times were enjoyable. I don’t know if it was the affects of the alcohol, or just being the lone bull sitting among all the cows. Basking in their attention, having them listen to my jokes or stories and in turn listening to what they had to say.
After the third occasion of drinking soju Miss Lee and I returned to the club. She lost her smile shortly after we entered. We found a table and I could not figure out what changed her mood. Then this GI came over and asked her to dance. And she did. My blood boiled as they danced across the floor, but when the song finished she came back to my table. She hit off her beer as soon as she sat down. Gulping down the OB in a way she did not normally do.
“You know that guy you danced with?” I had to ask.
She looked back at me. Her eyes had found a new quality. That of a mouse, frightened and uncertain of what to do.
“He was my old yobo.”
I turned around and looked him over again. He was watching our table and when our eyes met it was laser beams striking. I turned back to Lee.
“But he has a wife and baby.”
She looked back sad, defeated, and lost. And the night slowly turned into crap. The old yobo and I took turns dancing with Miss Lee. She slowly but surely got drunk. I danced with her and Lee swayed like the liquid that filled her belly. I had to catch her before she fell across a table. It was passed time to head for the hooch. To help things the new daddy walked over.
“She needs to go home,” He said.
“Aneyo,” Lee’s words slurred. “I gonna dance.”
“We got to go yobo.”
I spoke yobo like a fighter wields a knife at the other man. He returned to his beer. Meanwhile, I led Miss Lee to the door. She protested, but it was as effective as a gnat opening a door. The air outside felt good and as soon as Lee felt the warm air she ceased struggling. I tried to walk her down the street with my arm wrapped around her for support but her legs failed to cooperate. Tired of the slow progress. I picked her up and carried her back to the hooch. Memories of Jin and the streets of Seoul came back. Here I was again carrying a girl drunk over another guy. At least I had not been smitten with Lee like Jin and Suki. And this evening had ensured that I would not go off the deep end for this girl. But my arrogance would not let her go.
People in the maze stared at me as I strode through on the path to the hooch. Lee weighed more than Jin and I worried I might drop her. But I slowed for nothing except to adjust my hold. I worried that I might bang her head on the walls or another pedestrian. Finally we made it to her hooch. The girl was sober enough to enter the combination. Once again I stripped a drunken Korean girl down to her underwear and tucked her into bed. Then I started going through her pots and grabbed one just in case she grew ill and set it by the bed. I went outside and played the banjo and grabbed a smoke.
What had I got myself into? Did Lee prefer to waste her life with a jerk that fucked around on the wife who just gave birth to his child? Did I need to be a warrior and fight for my yobo? I flicked the butt and ground it to death with none of my questions answered. I chose to sleep on it. Come morning I tickled Lee’s butt to see what she thought. I found her response agreeable.
