Korea day 3, part 2.

The airshow drew to a close in the afternoon and I felt nothing but exhaustion. We walked out past the security gate and tried to hail a taxi with no luck for almost an hour - Admiral Bae saw us as he drove by and picked us up instead. We arrived back at the hotel and I stumbled upstairs where I fell onto my bed face first and slept, still wearing my suit.

When I woke up it was about 8 pm, and my brother was ironing his fatigues in the middle of the hotel room. I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself, a long and sallow look that meant nothing to him and nothing to me. I washed my face and went back out into the room to change into my normal clothes, stripping of the wrinkled suit that I knew I would have to iron the next morning. My nametag was still on and I threw it onto the desk along with my tie. My brother looked up from his ironing job and continued what he was doing. Ouside the sun had faded to a bluish grey recollection and the city lit up like votive candles in a church.

My brother called his friend who was stationed in the area, and we met him outside to eat dinner and get a drink. He showed us the hill of hookers as we passed by - phillipino women standing with restless eyes and all of them hidden by the scent of smoke. We walked on towards the international part of the city, where English was more than just a breakfast tea.

Dinner consisted of a meal had facing each other across a faux wood table. There was an omelette with rice, a tonkatsu, some ramen. We laughed and it sounded real enough when it came back to us in echoes. Everything that echoes is real enough. The bill for three people was less that sixteen dollars and I was fairly amazed by that fact - in a city where opulence is the norm, one could still eat like a pauper but dine like a prince. The world is a thing that only makes sense when everything is placed side by side, matching green bowls and the color of flavors iridescent dew overhead.

After dinner we headed into the city and found a small bar. It was a Tuesday and the normal tuesday crowd was present...we did not mingle with them but instead headed up onto the rooftop where we watched foot traffic underneath us. My brother ordered a giant blood dark beer and Bickford ordered a light beer and I ordered a diet coke because we all have to be healthy. It made sense under that cloaked sea of stars and we laughed and pointed out beautiful women, but all women are beautiful somehow so we pointed at all of them.

Eventually the night ran out and we yawned with the effort of swaying upright. Bickford walked back with us part of the way until we saw him off - a wave and he vanished down a side road towards his condo. My brother and I shuffled back into the hotel with the changing of the guard and sleep carried us up in velvety quiet elevators.

-Rich
we use our mobile mobiles to sing of stars