When I was leaving the zoo there was a parade going on at the amusement park. Confetti was everywhere. Characters vaguely resembling Disney counterparts were dancing and waving at all of the kids, a knock-off Cinderella rode by on a big float shaped like a dragon or something. This guy was walking around. I’m still trying to figure out what he was supposed to be. I guess he was some sort of marshmallow pirate.
Little Red Riding Hood walked up to me and shook my hand. She had a mask on, but she was close enough that I could see her eyes. I’d never seen eyes that clear and pale before, it was incredible. Obvious that she wasn’t Korean, I said hi and tried to ask her how I could get her job. It seemed like an easy job, much better than teaching middle school students. She walked away without talking to me, and I assumed she was probably on orders not to talk to anyone, especially during super-happy-parade-fun-time. Amusement park executives probably lay down some pretty strict ground rules. I doubt they ever have any fun. How ironic.
The parade ended when the confetti stopped falling from the sky, and I decided to eat some cotton candy. I was walking around with sticky hands that I needed to wash, and through a gap in a wood fence I saw people walking around. I wrapped my cotton candy in the plastic bag and pried open the fence enough for me to stick my head through the slats. All of the actors from the parade were back there, smoking cigarettes and drinking Korean liquor and beer. Not only were they not Korean, they were all Russian–sullen, drunk Russians dressed in ridiculous costumes–chatting away in that impossible language of theirs. With their masks off I could see how sweaty they all were, the smell from their unlaundered costuming was stale and tired.
Little Red Riding Hood was back there, not wearing her cape or mask anymore. She was beautiful with long red hair. She wasn’t nearly as sweaty as the others. Her arms were tight and svelte. She probably used to be an acrobat back in Ostrogozhsk or
What a woman, I thought. The things she could teach me.
I meant to ask her where she was from, in Korean, but instead I told her that I loved her. I was always getting my vocabulary mixed up like an idiot. Whenever I managed to say something comprehensible, it was always at a completely inopportune moment. Embarrassed, I pulled apart the fencing and got my head out from between the slats.
Amusement park parades staffed by Russians in
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