Train Tickets

Hyun calls me on Tuesday evening and asks me about the train ticket.

“You said you could get me a later ticket,” I explain.

“The trains are all sold out man.”

“I know that.”

“I’m going to the station now.”

“Okay.”

Fifteen minutes later my phone rings again.

“Oh Sara…..”

“Yes.”

“My darling.”

“Yes.”

“You will be very happy.”

“Did you get it?”

“I got it,” Hyun sing songs to me. I smile. “I’ll tell you about it at the Lonely Hearts.”

The arrangement is to see Hyun late evening and pick up my tickets.

It is the last day of New Year and many have already returned home, however there are still a number of travelers as many companies give an extra day off for the return trip because of the five day weekend, making it a solid six day weekend for some people. Lonely Hearts is much like I last left it, only with  a table of Korean college students drinking together.

As I sit there a few more walk in. Before Hyun arrives there are about twenty Koreans drinking at the bar. I sit by myself and enjoy my small corner of bar.

Hyun walks in and comes up to me “What the hell?”

“I need to get the tickets.”

“Why did you call me so late?”

“I didn’t your phone was turned off, I left a message.”

“Yeah, but it was so late.”

“Yeah, but if I had sent it sooner you might not have gotten the ticket.”

“Oh, come on man.” We laugh. He explains how he badgered a railway teller to keep pushing the button until a ticket magically came up and then he snatched it up for me. This is all good.

And for all good there must be some bad.

After the drama that was my last show, and I still don’t want to talk about that, I was looking forward to a drama free show in Seoul to see Beirut, who I deeply desire. I had missed the Beirut show in Chicago do to some unforeseen circumstances and was looking forward to a chance to see them at all.

“Okay, here is the thing,” Hyun  begins to explain. “My father, he’s old, you know. He has like, what do you call it, dementia, you know? So he got the mail with the ticket and he lost it.”

“What now?”

“But don’t worry cause I have the receipt. So you just need to be a really good actress and then it will all be no problem.”

“What?”

Hyun’s elderly and aging father had misplaced the concert ticket and since a new ticket could not be issued, Hyun had given me the receipt. With this I was to cajole my way into a show by pretending to have lost my ticket, silly foreigner, and then I would beg for a new ticket, and worse case I would just buy a new one.

I was getting less amused.

“No, man, it will be okay. Trust me. Just, you have to be a really good actress, okay?”

“Keep your phone on, I will be calling you,” I tell him. We agree and with that I take my  real train ticket and my fake concert ticket and head home to get some sleep for the busy day of work, travel, work, and music show.