“My friend,” said the man, entering his room. “Are you Ch’otchae?”
Ch’otchae was at a loss as to what was happening, and looked around the room nervously before answering.
“Well, yes . . .”
He shook the hand extended toward him.
“Something terrible has happened, my friend.”
Ch’otchae stared at him searchingly, wondering what he meant by this.
“Sinch’ol was arrested today, at about one o’clock this afternoon.”
Ch’otchae’s eyes opened wide.
“Arrested? Where?”
“They got him at home, so now the whole area around his place is under tight surveillance. You’re going to have to move too. I’ve found a place you can stay for the time being, but you’ll have to move again soon to a more suitable house. Now, come on, we’ve got to move quickly.”
He took a quick glance around the room and then stood up to go. But Ch’otchae was still in shock from the news of Sinch’ol’s arrest. Of course he knew that he had countless other friends besides Sinch’ol who were working behind the scenes, but having learned under Sinch’ol’s guidance, Chotchae felt like a child who’d lost his mother—no words could describe how heartbroken he felt. And now he’d been caught before we even finished our mission, thought Ch’otchae, hanging his head. His new friend whispered something into his ear, then left the room. Ch’otchae followed him with his things to the new house where he sat alone in an unfamiliar room, his heart pounding with each thought that raced through his mind.
The sun seemed to set in no time at all. Ch’otchae lay down on the floor facing the ceiling. The scene of the dockworkers demonstrating kept coming to mind, and then he pictured Sinch’ol tied up with rope . . .f
After letting his mind wander like this, he looked around and found that night had already darkened the room. Suddenly the door was quietly opening. Ch’otchae jumped to his feet.
“Why don’t you have a light on in here?”
“Oh, it’s you . . .”
Had it been anyone else but his friend, Ch’otchae would have thrown himself on top of him. For some reason he felt he might be able to curtail his grief by wrestling it out of himself in a good brawl. But instead, he collapsed to the floor.
“What happened?” asked Ch’otchae softly. “I mean, with the dockworkers?”
His friend turned on the light and then came to Ch’otchae’s side with the bread he had bought for him.
“Here, have some! We have other friends in charge of the longshoremen’s strike, so just sit back and relax for a while!”
Ch’otchae picked up the bread and took a big bite out of the loaf, nodding his head in reply. Each time their eyes met they felt a warmth of affection in the shared silence between them.
“Now, how about getting some sleep?”
His friend stood up. Ch’otchae saw him off without a word of farewell, turned out the light, and then finished eating his bread. As he sat there in the darkness, Ch’otchae imagined the future victory of the workers on the docks, and he smiled. Then he pictured the Taedong Spinning Mill in his mind’s eye, and wondered why they hadn’t joined the strike. That really got to him! His thoughts then turned to Sonbi once again. If only she could open her eyes to the truth . . . But then Ch’otchae remembered that Sinch’ol had been arrested, and his chest tightened. He could feel the warmth rushing into his head.
108
Sonbi was on her way out of the factory, having just finished the night-shift, when she felt something being slipped into her hand. Looking up, she saw Kannan pass by with a strange look on her face. She closed her fist tightly as soon as she realized it was Kannan, for now she knew what was in her hand. She looked over to see if Hyoae, who was pushing through the crowd with her, had noticed. But as usual, Hyoae was going on about something or other in a voice far too soft to be heard.
“Um . . . um . . . I know,” replied Sonbi, though she hadn’t caught a word.
“Well, make sure you do it tomorrow, okay?” said Hyoae, entering her room.
Though Sonbi had no idea what Hyoae wanted her to do, she turned around to go without asking for clarification. She raced up the stairs and dashed into her room. Luckily none of her roommates had come back yet. Her heart racing, she unfolded the tiny piece of paper.
“Meet me in outhouse—1:00 tonight.”
Afraid that someone might see the note, Sonbi popped it into her mouth and swallowed it. She could hear the clamor of footsteps making their way up the stairs. Sonbi was spreading out the bedding when the door opened and her roommates came inside.
“You’re already here, Sonbi? Boy, are you fast!” said one of her roommates with a smile.
“Thanks for spreading out my bed, too!”
The third roommate looked at Sonbi as she plopped down onto the floor.
“Hey! How many reels did you spin today?”
This was the sort of question they all asked each other as they threw off their clothes and lay down to bed. Sonbi pretended not to hear them, however, and pulled the covers over her head—she kept thinking that Kannan must have received another message from someone on the outside. Then she remembered how the supervisor had stood in front of her all day while she worked, with that ear-to-ear smile fixed on his face. Oh, she could have just died! The nerve of him to stand in front of her like that all day long—how humiliating!
Sonbi had just dozed off when she heard the clock in the night duty room strike one. She jumped up in alarm. She picked up some pillows and placed them inside her bedding so that it looked like someone was still sleeping there, and snuck out the door. She opened the front door carefully so as not to make any noise, and made her way outside.
The bright electric light left on above the entrance to the dormitory exposed her whole body. Taken by surprise, Sonbi quickly fled into the darkness for cover. She scanned her surroundings, then hesitated for some time for fear that the supervisor might be out there somewhere. Nothing caught her eye, though, so she set out once again. When she made it to the outhouse, she found Kannan inside.
“Have you been waiting long?” asked Sonbi, as she stepped in. Kannan put her lips to Sonbi’s ear.
“The supervisor just walked by a second ago.”
Sonbi flinched, then slowly looked behind her for fear that he had followed her. She and Kannan sat facing each other, but didn’t say anything for some time.
“I’m going outside to see if the coast is clear, but I’ll be right back, so stay put,” said Kannan.
Sonbi stood there, her ear bent toward the door. Soon Kannan came back inside.
“I just saw the supervisor go inside the dorm,” gasped Kannan, completely out of breath. “Listen, Sonbi. On orders from the XX,g I am to hand over everything to you and leave the factory tonight!”
Kannan grasped Sonbi’s hand tightly and stared straight into her face, lit up by the faint electric light in the outhouse. Sonbi was stunned by this unexpected news, and as she looked at Kannan, she could feel a heaviness descend upon her.
“But why so suddenly? Why tonight?”
Just then, something made a rustling sound outside. Their conversation broke off, and they both listened at the door. It was the sound of the wind, but the noise coming from the factory suddenly seemed louder as well.
“It’s an urgent directive, Sonbi. It seems like something big has happened on the outside.”
Sonbi’s legs were trembling and her heart was beating with terrifying speed. Kannan had been like an older sister to her as well as her best friend, and now she was leaving her behind—the thought of it was far too depressing.
“Sonbi, we’ve got to fight to the very end—even if it kills us! You made a pledge, didn’t you?”
Kannan’s eyes were turning red now. She brought her cheek up against Sonbi’s.
“Don’t worry about me!” insisted Sonbi. Just take care of yourself once you’re out there!”
She gave Kannan a hug and Kannan wiped away Sonbi
’s tears.
“Sonbi! No matter what happens, you can’t lose heart. You’ve got to fight, you hear? So none of this crying. Be strong, Sonbi. Now, come on, I have to go.”
They made their way out of the outhouse.
109
Kannan and Sonbi crept to the base of the wall. Then Kannan pulled a rope out from her pants.
“I’m going to climb up on your shoulders, so keep steady. And I want you to hold tightly onto this rope.”
A gust of wind swept by. They quickly looked behind them, thinking it was the sound of someone’s footsteps. The wind blew again, though, gradually gathering more speed. While they were relieved to realize it was only the wind, they were now both short of breath and their hearts were racing. Each gust that blew still sounded like the supervisor making a mad dash towards them, or like a pair of hands about to grab them. A cold sweat poured down the small of their backs.
Sonbi crouched so Kannan could climb onto her shoulders; then Sonbi grabbed the wall and tried to get to her feet. It felt as though her collar bone was about to snap in half, and no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn’t manage to stand up. Only after several failed attempts was she able, just barely, to get to her feet. Though her own legs were unsteady, Kannan somehow managed with great effort to stand up straight and grab the very top of the wall. But Kannan found it impossible to leap up off of Sonbi’s shoulders. She put the rope between her teeth, and with both hands firmly gripping the top of the wall, tried to lift herself over it. But all her efforts were in vain. Her sweaty hands slipped and she almost lost her balance.
As Kannan tried again to push off from Sonbi’s shoulders, Sonbi finally tumbled over backward to the ground. With a loud shriek, Kannan, too, came crashing down on top of her. Sonbi quickly helped Kannan get up and glanced behind her. Still, the only sound she heard was the wind, blowing fiercely. That wind seemed to be blowing for their sake alone.
“Now, when I get out, toss these shoes over for me, okay?”
Sonbi nodded and crouched on the ground again, this time with her hands against the wall. But just as soon as Kannan had climbed up onto Sonbi’s shoulders and grabbed the top of the wall, she was startled by a whistling sound. With bated breath Kannan listened carefully to see if the sound was coming from inside the factory walls or from the outside. At first the whistling seemed to come from inside the factory wall, but then it seemed to be coming from the other side. But then again perhaps it was just the wind. Kannan still hadn’t managed to pull herself over the wall, and now she was at a loss as to what she should do. Again a gust of spring wind blew with a terrifying force. She pressed her cheek tightly against the wall so as not to lose her balance, and she listened all the while, still trying to make out the whistling sound and where it had come from.
A moment later, more certain that what she had heard was the wind, Kannan tried again with all her might to hoist herself over the wall. She simply couldn’t do it. She finally managed to rise off Sonbi’s shoulders, but she couldn’t get onto the top of the wall. Sonbi stood on her tiptoes and gave Kannan’s feet a push from below. After struggling for more than an hour, Kannan finally scaled the wall. Sonbi then took a firm grip on the rope. She felt several tugs on it, and then saw Kannan disappear over the wall. Sonbi quickly tied the rope to the shoes and tossed them over. The rope disappeared into the darkness. Amidst the howling of the wind, she could hear the faint sound of something hitting the ground. Sonbi wiped the sweat off her brow and took a careful look around. She let out a deep sigh and pressed herself against the wall, anxious that Kannan might have hurt herself, and hoping to catch the sound of her footsteps running off into the distance. At the same time, Sonbi kept her eyes peeled for anyone lurking on this side of the wall who might have seen them. She could feel the warm wind blow against her flushed face, but she heard nothing except a faint sound coming from the factory. Yet she felt more afraid than ever, for getting back to her room would be no easy feat. She could almost feel the supervisor’s eyes glaring at her from the darkness and she could almost hear the sound of his footsteps as she imagined him swaggering toward her. Only after clinging, weak-willed, to the wall for some time did she finally set off.
She made it back to her room without incident and lay down in her bed. When her cheek touched the fresh pillow, she was surprised to find tears rolling down her face. Though she’d made it back to her room safely and was back in her bed, each time the wind rattled the glass window she kept thinking someone might barge through the door any minute, screaming, You little bitches! You helped Kannan escape, didn’t you? She could just imagine how he’d threaten them. At the same time, she thought of Kannan bracing herself against that terrifying wind. Where could she be rushing off to? she wondered.
“Oh, Kannan! Kannan!”
Sonbi cried out to Kannan several times in her heart. She couldn’t help feeling that she’d never see Kannan again. Her work at the factory would be more difficult now. And there were still so many questions she wanted to ask Kannan.
110
The next morning it seemed as though something major had happened in the dormitory.
Rumor had it that all the girls who’d had anything to do with Kannan had been called in by their supervisors and been threatened, some even beaten. People were whispering to each other in each corner of the dormitory.
Sonbi was certain that the supervisor was going call her in, and all day long she could feel her heart racing. She couldn’t concentrate on her work, and her threads kept breaking. All the girls who had been close to Kannan were called in by the supervisor, even the girls in the neighboring rooms. But for some reason no one called Sonbi. This made her even more nervous. The whole dorm knew that she and Kannan had been close friends—even the supervisors knew that much—so anyone would have thought that she’d be the first person to be questioned. But as the day drew to a close, she still had heard no word from any of the supervisors, and she thought it all so strange that she started to feel very scared.
“I say good for Kannan! W hat’s the use of being in here anyway?”
“You can say that again. But only the devil knows how she did it.”
“Who knows, maybe she fell in love with some man? Someone must have helped her escape, right . . . ?”
“Even if she had a boyfriend, though, how could she have climbed over a wall that high? And where would she have gone?”
Kannan had caused something of a sensation among the girls who discussed it as they ate in the cafeteria; they knew that even if the skies collapsed, they wouldn’t be able to escape.
“Hey, Sonbi, I bet you know all the details. Kannan must have told you she was leaving. She did, didn’t she?” It was the girl who was always joking.
Sonbi was afraid the girl had some way of knowing what had actually happened. Her faced flushed and she bent her head down. But after pretending to pick out a stone from her bowl of rice, she lifted her head up and smiled.
“Actually, just before Kannan escaped, she asked me to go with her. But since I like working here in the factory so much, I turned down her offer.”
All of them burst into a peal of laughter.
“The truth is, I’d be the first one to pick up and leave this place if I ever had the chance, that’s for sure. I mean, why should anyone have to put up with this?”
“Well, I heard from Kannan that she wasn’t getting along with Sonbi any longer. You want to hear what she said?”
Speaking with her mouth full, a girl with thin eyelids looked Sonbi square in the face. While at one time Sonbi would have blushed to hear such a thing, she now felt quite pleased that the factory girls had come up with this interpretation.
“Well, d’you want to hear about it, or not?” said the thin-lidded girl with a grin.
“Look, if you want to say something, just come out and say it,” exclaimed a long-faced girl. “Why try to torture us like this, reading into everything we say, when the most you’re going to tell us is that the supervisor has the h
ots for Sonbi. Am I right? Well, why pretend it’s such a big secret? Hell, the whole dorm knows that much.”
The long-faced girl spoke as though she wasn’t interested in the slightest, and she continued to stuff herself with rice. Sonbi felt uncomfortable hearing “the whole dorm knows,” but her feelings were so confused that it would have been hard for her to explain herself. She forced herself to smile.
Once Sonbi came back upstairs from the cafeteria, the supervisor called to her from his office.
She could feel a lump in her throat. All the answers she’d spent the whole night preparing in case the supervisor were to question her seemed to disappear into thin air. She didn’t know what to do and just stood there blankly.
“Well, if you haven’t done anything wrong, then what’s there to worry about,” said one of her roommates beside her. Sonbi’s legs were trembling.
Only after he called a second time did Sonbi get up to go. She made her way out of her room and rubbed her flushed face. She tried to calm herself, but her heart kept racing. She took one step forward, and then one step back.
“How will I ever be able to carry out my work here acting like this? I’ve got to be strong! I’ve got to make my lies sound convincing in front of them!” she thought. It was as though she were shouting these words to herself as she opened the door to the supervisor’s office and walked inside.
The man took a drag on his cigarette, and smiled as soon he saw Sonbi. She stood silently, gathering all the courage she possibly could. He cleared his throat and started to speak.
111
“Have you been sick recently?”
At the unanticipated question, Sonbi was unsure if she understood what he’d actually said. When she lifted her head just enough to look at him, she saw that it wasn’t the Tiger Supervisor, with those hatefully shifting eyes, but rather Supervisor Ko, the one they’d all nicknamed the Clown. Sonbi’s nerves were put somewhat at ease. Ko had less of an attitude. He may have joked around a little too much, but he was always quick to sense somebody’s feelings. For this reason the girls treated him more kindly than any of the other supervisors.
From Wonso Pond Page 32
