Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

by K T Durham

  Elly shrugged non-committally. “I’m just curious.”

  Grandma, too distracted to pry, turned to go into the office. “See you back here at twelve thirty,” she repeated before pushing the door open and giving Elly a little wave.

  Elly leapt down the stairs and surveyed the street before her. That morning, Grandma had shoved some money into her hands. “You ought to have a share of the money we’ve made, child, since you’ve been such a great help,” she urged. But Elly had shaken her head vigorously after taking only a few notes. “No, I want you to keep it all. You need the money to take care of yourself and Jong-Min,” she insisted. Elly now fished around in her pocket and figured that she should have enough to pay for a snack or two.

  So she went exploring the streets of Gangnam, meaning “south of the Han River.” She whipped out the guidebook she had borrowed from the library and scanned the page.

  Gangnam was considered one of Seoul’s hippest and most expensive, up-scale districts. Looking up, she saw large billboards of beautiful Korean men and women touting some cosmetic brand or other, and the neon-lit signs made her dizzy. Well-dressed pedestrians passed her by, many talking into their sleek smartphones. One street was lined with food stalls selling snacks that made her stomach churn: fried octopus, giant potato fries, roasted cuttlefish. Then she spotted an old woman in a fuzzy purple beret crouched on a low stool selling dduk all by her lonesome. Elly bought a box of the colourful dumplings, grinning as she thought about the street cart named Desire. The old woman smiled up at her. “Bless you, pretty child.” The dduk tasted good but not better than Grandma’s, she thought loyally.

  Suddenly there was an explosion of excited shouts and screams followed by the pounding of music. Startled, Elly ran towards the source of the noise, and in a matter of seconds she found herself back where they had gotten off the bus. That blustering crowd had burgeoned in the past hour; she could barely see the base of that makeshift stage as the thick crowd surrounded it like bees to a honey hive. Somebody was speaking into a microphone: “We need four volunteers! Who’s game enough to come on stage and vie for the grand prize? All you need to do is imitate some dance moves! Come on, don’t be shy!”

  About a dozen hands shot up. Elly stood on tiptoe and craned her neck to see over the sea of heads. She looked towards the stage and froze when she saw him.

  The round-faced man with dark sunglasses was taller and thinner than he looked on the CD cover. He was dressed flamboyantly in a bright blue suit with a black bow tie, his slim-fitting suit pants exposing his ankles, and on his feet were black patent-leather shoes.

  Elly stared in amazement and then laughed. It was the horse-dancing singer! What were the chances of meeting him here? She shook her head in disbelief and looked around at the screaming crowd. He really must be awfully popular.

  Three very excited volunteers stood on the stage next to Sunglasses. Two of them were girls, one tall and wearing bright purple lipstick, the other short and tomboyish, and there was one boy who wore a yellow shirt with a huge shark on the front with the caption, “Bite me!” When Elly looked up again, she saw that Sunglasses was looking straight at her.

  She gulped. Sunglasses flashed her a very white smile and whispered something into the MC’s ear. “Very good for international audiences,” she heard him say in Korean. “Pick her. That foreigner girl with the crazy hair and the big green eyes.”

  Oh no, no, no.

  She had to get out of there. Slowly, she started backing away.

  The MC’s voice rang out over the microphone. “The lovely young lady at the back, the one with the curly black hair and green eyes!”

  Elly groaned. So much for not drawing attention to herself.

  People turned and stared at her, then started cheering and coaxing her to go on stage. “Come on, you lucky girl, go on up!” they urged. She jumped in surprise when several of them started nudging her forwards gently. Despite herself, she giggled. Well, why not? It wouldn’t hurt to partake in some silly game, right? Besides, she would have something quite extraordinary to tell Lily and Maddy when she saw them next.

  So she drew in a deep breath, squeezed past the crowd on either side of her, and walked up the stage, her heart hammering. Dozens pairs of eyes followed her.

  Ellanor, are you sure this is a good idea? You should not be drawing attention to yourself. We don’t know who might be watching.

  Why shouldn’t I have some fun, Greymore? It’s just a silly game.

  The man with the microphone, the MC, spoke in halting, heavily accented English. He was a tall, handsome man in a slim-fitting black suit and silver tie, and he was wearing some sort of pungent perfume (Elly would later learn it was cologne), which made her wrinkle her nose.

  “Hello, pretty girl! Where are you from?” he asked with an over-exuberant smile, sizing her up. What an extraordinary-looking girl! She must be one of those bratty international school students whose wealthy but clueless expatriate parents had no idea she was skipping school on a Monday. Why else was she here?

  Elly smiled nervously. “Hello, I’m Elly. I’m visiting from London, and I’ve been staying here with some friends,” she said, and there was a momentary silence as everyone gaped at her.

  “My, you can speak Korean very well!” the MC exclaimed. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sunglasses raise his eyebrows at the audience and mouth “Wowsers!”

  “Where did you learn to speak Korean?” the MC asked. The crowd was murmuring amongst themselves.

  Elly shrugged and smiled at the MC. “It runs in the family. We happen to pick up languages very easily,” she said nonchalantly, but her palms became clammy with nerves.

  The MC chuckled and clapped. “Well, Elly, welcome to Seoul! Why don’t you join your friends over there,” he gently pushed her towards the three beaming youngsters, “and may the best dancer be the winner!”

  Elly glanced at the large clock at the far end of the square as she stumbled towards the other volunteers, who were sizing her up warily. She had to be back at the lawyer’s office to meet Grandma in about thirty minutes. Whatever she had to do, it better be quick.

  Music came blasting on again, and to her astonishment there was a cacophony of screams and shouts as Sunglasses took centre stage and started moving to the horse-dancing song, a choreographed dance that lasted about thirty seconds. Elly couldn’t figure out what horses or Gangnam had anything to do with the song, but the crowd went wild, so she supposed he couldn’t have danced that badly by human standards.

  “OK, who’s up first?” Sunglasses demanded as he wiped his brow, grinning at the four candidates. He winked at Elly, and she narrowed her eyes. The tomboyish girl with short hair and fluorescent sneakers raised her hand eagerly.

  Many in the crowd were laughing hysterically by the time the purple-lipped girl had finished. Then Elly realized that the three candidates were laughing at themselves, too, and she relaxed somewhat.

  “Emerald Eyes, you’re up!” the MC cried, doubled-over from laughing at the shark T-shirt boy who ended up floundering like an orangutan. The crowd roared and clapped. Elly frowned. Emerald Eyes?

  Sunglasses grinned at her. “So, what do you think? Maybe your London friends also listen to my album, yes?” he asked brightly. His English was more fluent than the MC’s.

  “What is the grand prize?” she asked, not realizing her voice was amplified by surrounding microphones. The crowd tittered, amused by her straightforwardness.

  Sunglasses puffed out his thick chest. “Well, since you asked – if you win, the grand prize includes two copies of my latest album and … ta-da! … two first-class tickets from London to Seoul, topped with a lunch with me at the best Korean restaurant in town! If you win, you can come with your friend. Wouldn’t that be awesome?” This prompted more cheering and wolf-whistling from the crowd.

  His manager, a shorter man with a potbelly, nudged him i
rritably. “What are you saying? There’s no such prize! It’s just a photo with you and a couple of shopping coupons,” he muttered to Sunglasses in a whisper, but Elly could hear everything.

  “Hey, don’t sweat it. I doubt I would have to follow through,” Sunglasses whispered back with a grin. Offended, Elly glowered at him and rolled her shoulders. Her agility had improved significantly in the past year. Actually, by human standards, she was extremely agile. She had never been much of a dancer in Alendria, but then again, she didn’t really consider these monkey moves real dancing, anyway. After all the training she had been through, maybe she really could pull this off …

  The music came on. “Ready to rock!” the MC roared, clapping boisterously. The crowd wolf-whistled and cheered, readying for another hilarious performance.

  You could imagine the looks on their faces when Elly rendered a perfect rendition of the horse dance. Sunglasses’s jaw dropped, the MC did a double take, and the manager groaned. “So much for not following through,” he muttered, and Sunglasses concealed his shock by grinning at the crowd. “Wowsers!” he cried, and his manager rolled his eyes.

  “How did she do it? Is she a professional dancer?” the crowd muttered amongst themselves.

  So Elly won the grand prize, much to the surprise and envy of the other three candidates. A photographer snapped a Polaroid of her with Sunglasses, who flashed his trademark smile.

  “Please, can you autograph these two CDs for me?” she asked politely.

  His face lit up. “Sure thing. How do you spell your name?”

  “Oh! Actually, it’s for my two friends in London, Lily and Maddy. They are very fond of your music, especially that song we just all danced to. L-I-L-Y for Lily, and M-A-D-D-Y for Maddy,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  He whipped out his shiny black Mont Blanc pen. “How about an autograph for you, too?” he asked magnanimously, his pen poised in mid-air.

  Elly blinked. “Oh, no, not for me. It’s just for my two friends. I didn’t even know about you before they told me about you last week,” she said truthfully, and his face dropped, though she barely noticed as she was distracted by the cheers and flashing lights coming from various cameras in the audience.

  As he scribbled, she asked sweetly and loud enough for everyone to hear, “What about those two first-class plane tickets and the lunch with you at the best restaurant in town? You’ll follow through on your promise, right?”

  Sunglasses blinked in surprise, then, masking his annoyance, flashed her another toothy smile and nodded. “Of course!” he said airily while his manager gritted his teeth, and upon witnessing this promise, the crowd cheered.

  Sunglasses scribbled something on the back of the Polaroid. “Just call this number. My manager, Mr Song, will take care of it for you,” he said proudly.

  Elly smiled and thanked him. “I will definitely get in touch,” she promised with a wink, and his smile twitched ever so slightly.

  “Those plane tickets are coming out of your own pocket,” Mr Song mumbled to Sunglasses. Elly suppressed a giggle. Oh, Lily and Maddy would be over the moon!

  Then she gulped when she glanced at the clock again and saw what time it was. “I really have to go!” she cried, bowing quickly. “Thank you so much!” Before Sunglasses could utter another word, Elly went zooming off. She had to meet Grandma in two minutes!

  Sunglasses and his manager gaped after her. Facing the audience, the MC cried, “Well, well, she doesn’t waste any time, does she?”

  On the way, Elly clutched the two autographed CDs and the Polaroid and slipped them into her Royan, grinning at the rather bizarre events that had just transpired. Now, she really had an interesting story to tell Lily and Maddy, not to mention the best souvenirs they could hope for!

  She sprinted down the street, manoeuvring her way through the crowds and the narrow side streets. Those she zoomed past were startled as she swept by. “What was that?” they cried out, their hair and coats billowing in a sudden gust of wind.

  By the time she reached the corner store, she saw that Grandma was standing ashen-faced at the bottom of the stairs of the sad-looking five-storey building.

  Elly leapt towards her, alarmed. “Are you OK?” she cried as she saw that Grandma was leaning against the wall for support. She went to take her arm, but the old woman waved her away. “There you are, child. Right on time.” She smiled at Elly and grimaced as she took a few steps. “I’m a little tired. I think I better sit down and have a small bite to eat.” She glanced at the corner store. “Why don’t you come join me?”

  Elly nodded and then peered up at the office building. She needed to talk to that lawyer. “So how did the meeting go?” she asked casually as she helped Grandma towards the corner store, where plastic tables and chairs were set up. A couple of high school students were slurping up instant ramyun at one table, and they stared curiously at Elly and the old woman, for they made an interesting pair indeed.

  Grandma sat down heavily in one of the plastic chairs and winced. “He explained a whole lot of legal stuff and asked me to sign a bunch of papers. Since I’m Jong-Min’s legal guardian, I’ve had to sign the papers legalizing his adoption. His useless father granted me that authority, at least. I can’t trust him and that awful wife of his to do everything they can to find Jong-Min a good family.” Then she looked at Elly curiously, whose cheeks were flushed. “Where did you go while I was up there?”

  Grinning, Elly showed Grandma the Polaroid. The old woman laughed and shook her head in disbelief. “You actually got to meet that man! Jong-Min loves his music.” She, on the other hand, detested all forms of contemporary pop music, especially the noisy songs with ridiculous lyrics. “They just don’t make music like they used to,” she lamented.

  Elly bought Grandma a cup of hot jasmine tea and a bowl of ramyun with kimchi and egg. She settled on a bottle of water and an apple for herself.

  “Mr Lee said it’s very difficult to get a nice family to adopt Jong-Min,” Grandma said with a sigh. She clasped her hands on her lap, and Elly saw that they were trembling. “It scares me. What if I die before he gets taken into a family?” she said softly.

  Elly put a hand over the gnarly old one. “I’m sure everything will work out,” she said earnestly, not very sure at all. But what else could she say to comfort Grandma? She didn’t know anything about adoption, not to mention the laws that governed the human realm. She had no idea how Charlie and Sue would be able to adopt Jong-Min. Then the unthinkable occurred to her: what if Sue doesn’t want to take back Jong-Min?

  She bit her lip. No matter what, she owed it to Jong-Min to give it a try. After all, this was why the Guardian had brought them together, right? She must talk to that lawyer. But she couldn’t possibly explain any of this to Grandma.

  “Do you have pen and paper?” she asked, putting the apple on the table uneaten.

  The old woman picked up the wooden chopsticks and looked up wearily. “Just get them from my bag. There’s an old pen in there, somewhere.” Seconds later, she watched as Elly wrote something on a piece of scrap paper. She frowned. “What are you doing?”

  Elly tucked the note into her coat pocket. “I just had to scribble down something before it slipped my mind. Anyway, I need to use the restroom. Can you wait here for me?”

  The old woman was slurping up her ramyun. “All right. We should head back soon,” she said, chewing loudly. “I need to get home and take my medication, sleep it off. I don’t want Jong-Min to see me looking this tired when he gets home from school.”

  Elly stood up. “I won’t be long.” She strode to the office building and then darted up the stairs. At the fourth floor, she pushed the door open, bells jingling. The woman sitting behind the front desk looked up from the soap opera she was watching on her laptop.

  “How may I help you?” she asked warily as she gave Elly a once-over, barely masking her annoyance. Who is th
is foreign girl? Darn, my English isn’t so good.

  Elly bowed. “Good afternoon. My name is Elly, and I am a friend of the Mrs Park who just came to see Mr Lee. I need to pass him a note. Mrs Park forgot to give it to him.”

  The woman’s jaw dropped as she listened to the girl speak flawless Korean. Then she scowled and picked up the phone to call her boss. He was probably dozing off right now. “Excuse me, but you’re not allowed in without an appointment,” she said curtly, glancing down at her manicured nails. Darn, one of them had cracked! Then she looked up, and the girl was nowhere to be seen. “Wait, where did you go?” she cried, swivelling around.

  Inside Mr Lee’s office, the white-haired lawyer was indeed dozing off for his usual pre-lunch nap. Shortly after lunch at his favourite jjajangmyun shop one block away, he would then doze off for his post-lunch nap. He never tired of those delicious noodles with black bean sauce. It was no wonder his belly kept growing bigger by the year. If only his business grew that quickly …

  “Mr Lee.”

  Was he dreaming? He opened one eye lazily.

  Then his head snapped up. “Who are you?” he demanded of the foreign-looking girl standing in front of his desk. It was her eyes that made him stare, for they were the most peculiar shade of green. Why didn’t Min-Yee call to notify him first? She shouldn’t have just let this girl come into his office without his consent! Another hopeless case. He better start advertising for a new receptionist, again.

  To his surprise, the green-eyed girl gave a deep bow. “Hello, Mr Lee. Excuse my abruptness,” she said in perfect Korean. “But I really need to speak with you about Park Jong-Min, grandson of Park Ga Yin who just came to see you.”

  The man stared at her. Foreigner or not, she could speak Korean better than his receptionist, who suffered from poor enunciation. She was also using honorifics correctly. Who in the world was she? “What nonsense is this? Such audacity!” he cried, picking up his phone. The meeting with old Mrs Park ended just fifteen minutes ago.