Logan's Mother's Visit: Early Days Part 6

Again, I'm going to tell some of these "Early Days" stories out of order. Everything so far has been within my first week in Korea, but this story happened after I had been here almost three months. It happened right before I started my blog, so it didn't make it on...until now.

I should have known there was going to be problems when Logan, Darryl, and Simon told me the bar was all-you-can-drink.

"This only happens once a month," they said. "We should really go check it out."

Lucky Strike is a bar located in Kun-dong, an area of the city that's mostly a college hang out. The bar isn't really a foreigner bar, per ce, at least not in the way that some bars intentially try to get foreigners in with hip-hop nights and waitresses that speak English. But on all-you-can-drink night many foreigners come out.

We arrived at about 11 and everyone got drinking right away. The three drinks I had didn't make the 20,000 won cover (about $20) worthwhile, but almost everyone else there was taking full advantage of the special price. Even Logan's mother and her friend, who were visiting for the week, took advantage of the drinks. By the time we decided to head to another bar at two in the morning, everyone was good and drunk.

Oddly, the bar we went to was owned by a man that was drinking with us as Lucky Strike. I wondered why he didn't just drink at his own bar, but I guess he had more fun on the street above. The second bar was a dark little dance bar located on the second basement level of a building just up the street.

I danced a little but not too much. Darryl kept talking about how much he wanted to hang from the mesh ceiling. I knew there was no stopping him, and eventually, he went for it. When he came back down, his hands looked a little like thin sliced deli ham. Luckily, he had had enough to drink that they didn't hurt much--just enough for him to decide to go home when the rest of us headed downtown a little after three in the morning.

Only one bar was still open when we made it downtown: Watermelon Sugar. This is the bar that I've mentioned before that's known as a hang out for gay men, but it's also just generally a crazy place. Lots of people go home together from Watermelon. Lots of people get really drunk. And lots of people get in fights. You never really know what will happen when you go there. Once, I sat beside a guy that went through trying to set me up with nearly every Korean woman that sat near us. His English wasn't good enough (and my Korean wasn't nearly good enough) for me to explain to him that I didn't want to meet all these women.

I got stuck at the bar almost beside Darren right away. Please note: Darren not Darryl. Darren is a guy that I see at bars sometimes. He dated Terrilynn, my former coworker, for a while and still held a huge flame that came out every time he was drinking...so did his speech impediment. In any case, he slurred on about Terri for a good half hour before Logan's mom came up to me.

"Have you seen Chris?" She asked. Chris is Logan's real name, but it's easier to call him Logan because there are so many Chrises here.

"Not in about 20 minutes," I said and looked around. A tall blond-haired guy is pretty easy to find in a Korean bar, so I knew he was gone right away.

"He wouldn't have just left me," she said. "I raised him better than that."

I agreed to look for him at the other bars downtown but had no luck finding him. When I came back about 15 minutes later, Darren was making out with Logan's Mom's friend: a woman probably 15 years his senior. Their little romance didn't last long, though. Darren passed out mid-make out and went down on the floor--hard. When he came back up, blood was already running down his face and soaking into his shirt.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," he said, but he clearly wasn't. We convinced him to go out to taxi, but he fought us the moment we got the stairs going out. "I'm not ready to go home yet."

He nearly fell down the steep concrete stairs but I caught time from below and Logan's Mom's friend caught him from above. We practically carried him outside. When we finally got him to a cab, he didn't want to go home.

I'm just going to change my shirt," which was blood soaked at that point, " and come right back." I doubted he'd even be able to go home.

The cab driver didn't want to take him for obvious reasons, but I pleeded with him in Korean. "Please take him," I said. "I don't know how he's going to get home otherwise." Eventually he left with Darren in tow, but I turned around to another problem.

"Do you think Chris will come back?" I had no idea where Logan had gone, let alone if he'd come back. I thought there was no use in waiting to see.

"Well, let's just try to get you back to your hotel," I told his mother. "He can find you there." Getting them back to their hotel wasn't easy. They knew they were staying at a Best Western, but the cab driver didn't know where that was.

"I think there was a place called "Legend" close by," Logan's mother remembered.

"Le-jun-duh," I tried to say to the driver in my best phonetic Korean.

"Ah," he said, "I'll take them." And off they went. Almost as soon as they were gone, I realized I probably should have gone with them. What if "Le-jun-duh" meant something different than I thought? How would they get anywhere on their own knowing no Korean?

I shrugged off the thought and found my own taxi. My day was done, I thought. But when we got back to my apartment, I opened my wallet to find nothing. I wasn't sure how that had happened. I hadn't had anything to drink for hours at that point (it was late enough that the sun was coming up), and there was nothing that I needed to buy. Even now, the only thing that I can figure is that my money fell out when I got out Logan's cell number to try and call him.

I showed the cab driver my empty wallet and told him I was sorry. "Please take me up to Seven-Eleven," I said. Got out enough money for my fare, a nice tip, and some juice for myself and the driver. I apologized again and set him on his way. He seemed surprisingly understanding.

I stumbled back home, tired and worn out from the experience.

The next day when I ran into Logan, I asked him what happened. "I don't know," he said. "I came to eating breakfast at some Korean guy's house and realized I left my mom back at the bar. Thanks for getting her back to her hotel." So she made it. And Darren didn't die. And I got some rest. But that was the last all-you-can-drink night I went to.

R