Round the corner from my house is a small Korean Mom and Pop fish and chips operation. The interior has been painted over so many times the tin ceiling panels are almost flat now. There is an original 70s Pepsi ad of a dad and son on their stomachs, facing each other, sharing a soda and some manly advice. Slightly torn and yellowing posters explaining the difference between trout and salmon adorn the walls. There is a “No Credit” sign on the wall. The benches look like they were pulled from a burning church for midgets.

The Pop doesnt say a word. Slim and gaunt, he preps the fish in the batter and when it’s done, adeptly scoops it out of the fat and slops it into Mom’s draining mesh. Thats all Ive ever seen him do. The Mom is the personality of the duo, always greeting me with a loud “HELLO yeh!” and a plastered on smile. Something about her says she is perpetually in a state of nervous fast forward as if she will forget EVERYTHING if she doesnt get it done RIGHT NOW. She repeats your order 4 or 5 times when you tell her (“Fish yeh? fish! Fish!? Yeh?”). She adds a slight, terse “yeh” after her sentences. She expertly flips your order of fish twice so that there is an even coverage of vinegar over the slab of fried mercury and dough. She must have the last “Goodbye!” as you exit. Must! All of this is insignificant in comparison to her greatest need: to touch the tape dispenser several times before actually wrapping your order in the Tsing Tao Daily. Right on the counter is an old-style brown tape dispenser she uses to seal the newspaper. When I first started to go there I would count the times she would touch the tape and not pull one off, as it were. Once! Twice! Folds the paper over the bundle! Three times! More paper! Four…? Rip! Yes!

I eventually made a contest out of it with Sharkboy: “Who Would Get More Tape Touches?” I was winning at 5 touches when one day we went in and Sharkboy made an astute observation: she touched the dispenser, which was moist at the cutting edge, to wet her fingers so she can grab the newpaper that goes around the fish. It made sense. There was usually 3-4 sheets of newsprint around the order…

Damn it! There went a little quirky thing that I loved about a total stranger, right out the window. I honestly thought with all her idiosyncrasies, she had full on OCD.

I still play the “Goodbye Game” with her, thought. Ive only won once and that was by saying it really fast and slamming the door.