supadupacool

I was going though my old sketchbooks and came across this guy. The Phong Master.

During my trip to 'Nam in 2010, I'm walking down a street in Ho Chi Minh when I catch a glimpse of some movement in the back of a dark building. I stop. Looks like an old, run down movie theater. The door's open -- apparently some older dudes are pinging some pong at a big table in the middle of the lobby. Asia is awesome. Gotta' get in on this. I wait in line for a while, basking in the confused stares of the veteran vietnamese ping-pongers. A short while later, they wave me over.

I've been watching them play. Pretty good, nothing crazy. Pretty standard fare. It's 'Nam -- These guys are supposed to play the stuff of ping-pong legend, but whatever man -- these guys are geezers. I can do this. I can take 'em. Actually, maybe I'll lose, who knows, but at least it'll be interesting. Let's rock this.

The guy serves.

I angle in, hold my racket up -- not too hard, let's just bounce it back gently and start warming u-----

The hell--?

The ball shoots across the lobby. The guy looks at me. He looks peaceful.

Alright. Ok Juan. Just run and grab it. And try again. Next time is go-time.

I toss the ball back to the old man.

The old man serves again.

Just gonna hold this racket up as gently as I ---The ball whizzes across the lobby. Something's off. Run across the lobby. Grab ball. Toss it back to dude.

Old man serves again.

Lobby.

And again.

Lobby.

And again.

Lobby.

That expression on his face. It's gentle and nice and kind. But it's also a little bit smug. More smug than nice and gentle and kind.

Serves again.

And-

Ten unanswered serves later, it's time to take a bow and hand back the racket. It's been great, I say as I bow profusely -- Gotta get going though, I act out the best I can. (The extent of my Vietnamese is really just a set of very thorough charades). The old guy bows and smiles, in a nice and gentle and kind way.

I walk away in bitter defeat, the musical sound of ping-pong ball on ping-pong table behind me, never to discover whatever arcane vietnamese ping-pong secret lies behind that unanswerable serve of his.