Slave Again

by Alana Terry

  Roger moved a box off his desk and sat down. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you, Baby Cakes.” Juliette had been so wrapped up in motherhood for the past eighteen years that the empty nest would have been hard on her no matter what. Losing the Secret Seminary students at the same time only worsened the blow. “Do you think that maybe God just wants you to relax a little? Do we have to jump right into another round of ministry right away?”

  Juliette labeled a new filing folder. “I like to stay busy.”

  He smiled. “I know. But sometimes all that does is leave the rest of us exhausted. Why don’t you spend some extra time with Eve or something? She enjoys your attention.”

  Juliette stopped working long enough to brush some curls behind her ear and out of her face. “It was actually talking to Eve that gave me the idea.”

  “Eve talked with you? About the brothel?”

  She nodded. “I know. I was surprised, too. But it just made me start thinking about doing something there again.”

  Roger sighed. “Why don’t you go visit the hotel district yourself?” he asked.

  She didn’t respond to his joke. Roger couldn’t remember the last time his wife laughed heartily. Probably sometime before Kennedy went off to college.

  “I’m about done with this pile over here,” Juliette announced abruptly. “Do you want me to start on the human resource file now or save it for later?”

  “Let’s forget it until tomorrow,” Roger answered. “It’s a pretty big one.” He patted her bottom as she walked by. “You’ve been working hard. Why don’t you go get a candy bar from the vending machine as an early payment?”

  She turned the corners of her mouth up. “Just let me sort through this junk mail first.” Roger wondered when the smile would return to his wife’s eyes.

  ***

  Eve sat in the den, staring down at the scene below. A fine layer of frost covered Mrs. Stern’s bushes and herbs. She spread a blanket across her lap. In the garden, Benjamin dug holes to fit posts for a new gate around the garden. She studied him through the slats in the blinds, her eyes tracing the outline of his bare arm muscles. She counted back the months on her fingers. How long had it been?

  Eve glanced at the tall grandfather clock, its ticking frustratingly out of sync with Benjamin’s shoveling. Mrs. Stern had gone to help her husband at the office. Besides Benjamin, there was nobody else home, and nobody was expected back for several more hours. She pouted and brought a finger to her lip. She nibbled on her nail in rhythm with Benjamin’s labor. He looked up once. She pulled back, startled. Could he see her even through the blinds? She let the blanket fall to the ground. They might be the only two at home, but Eve may as well have been completely alone.

  CHAPTER 18

  Juliette held up a sheet of paper. “Does this order from Liberty Press go in this month’s file or last’s?”

  Roger glanced at the letterhead. “This month’s.” He bent down over the shredder.

  “What about this one?” She held up an unopened envelope.

  “That’s just trash. Pass it here.” After feeding the junk mail through the shredder, Roger straightened up and stretched his back. He ran his hand over his head, fingering his small bald spot. Last year it was the size of a penny. Now it was at least as large as a quarter. “Think you’ll be ready for some lunch soon?”

  Juliette straightened a stack of papers on his desk. “Whatever.”

  “Well, don’t sound so excited.”

  She shrugged one shoulder but didn’t look up. “I’m not really hungry.”

  Roger was about to joke about how rare it was for his wife to turn down food of any kind, but his twenty-two years of experience suggested it wouldn’t go over very well. He walked over to Juliette and placed his hand over hers. “You’ve been working all morning. Why don’t we at least take a break? We can go for a walk or something.”

  “Actually, I should get home before too long. Eve might have made lunch already.” She shifted some papers around on the desk. It wasn’t nearly as cluttered as it had been this morning, but there were still foot-tall stacks waiting to be sorted.

  Roger frowned. “Baby Cakes, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I just thought that once I was done here I’d go home and have lunch with Eve. She’s been all by herself all morning, and she’s probably gotten lonely.”

  “You know Eve’s old enough to take care of herself, don’t you? She did just fine when you spent eight hours a day in the den with the Secret Seminary students.”

  Juliette glared up at Roger. “It was less than a week ago. Did you think I’d forgotten?”

  Roger threw his hands to his side. “Of course not. I was only trying to say that Eve’s a big girl. She can be on her own for a few hours. That’s all.”

  Juliette dropped a file of papers onto the table and spun around without looking at the strewn contents. “I think I know more about my housekeeper than you.”

  Roger rolled his eyes. Juliette flung the door wide open and huffed out. Roger reached for his coat to follow after her, changed his mind, and went back to the shredder.

  ***

  In Pyongyang’s Office 341, Special Agent Chun-Hee leaned back and stared at the director. “So the information from Yanji was solid?

  The director took a sip of his coffee. “Rock solid.”

  Chun-Hee raised an eyebrow.

  “You don’t need to act so startled,” the director commented. “You know Agent Ko is top quality.”

  Chun-Hee let out a huff of air.

  The director scowled. “The two of you will have to put your differences behind you. Once Ko’s out of Yanji, you’ll be working together on your next assignment.”

  Chun-Hee’s thoughts trailed back to the Academy. “Can’t wait.”

  ***

  “I’ve been thinking about trying to rescue a few more girls like you.” Juliette watched Eve closely to gauge her reaction. The girl betrayed no emotion as she cracked the egg into the mixing bowl.

  “Has Mr. Stern decided to go back to the hotel district?”

  Juliette took a deep breath. “Not exactly.” She grabbed the spoon from Eve and stirred the batter. Roger had not only flat-out refused, but at one point he mentioned something about cleansing the house from all trace of chocolate and sweets if Juliette happened to broach the subject again.

  Eve dumped the oil into the bowl. “How do you plan to help the girls there, then?”

  Juliette stuck her finger in and tasted the batter. “I haven’t figured that part out yet.” She thought about the refugee they hired as their security guard. “I guess we could see if Benjamin wanted to.”

  Eve’s head shot up. “Not Benjamin.”

  Juliette peered down at Eve from over the top of her glasses. “Why not?”

  Eve glanced out the window to the garden. “No girl’s going to trust a man who’s using her.”

  “What’s that got to do with Benjamin?”

  Eve stared into the dark batter. “Just because someone says he’s a Christian, that doesn’t mean they always act like it.” Her face was so low her nose almost touched the mix.

  Juliette smoothed out the back of her hair. “So you don’t think Benjamin is sincere?” Eve fidgeted with the mixing spoon, and her face turned red. Juliette sighed. “Never mind. You don’t have to answer that. I guess we’ll just have to find someone else who can go in for us.”

  Later that afternoon, Juliette sat alone in the den in front of a half-filled Scrabble board. She had been trying all afternoon to think about something besides the hotel district. She rested her chin on her knuckles and stared absently at the wall. If she was quiet enough, beneath the ticking of the grandfather clock she could almost hear the hymns of the Secret Seminary students echoing against the bookshelves. There was Hannah with her quivering little bird-like voice, and Simon with his out-of-tune confidence. Juliette closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.

  With a frown, she moved a few tiles around with her finger
. “Well you’re really racking up the points,” she muttered into the loneliness. She hadn’t laid a new word down in ten minutes or more. She never bothered keeping score when playing by herself, but the sum of her three- and four-letter words probably wouldn’t even break a hundred.

  Besides one granola bar and the brownies she and Eve baked, Juliette hadn’t eaten all day, which would worry Roger if he found out. Juliette hadn’t completely lost her appetite like this since her mom died, and back then it had taken almost a month until she could even consider the taste of chocolate. She took a sip of unsweetened tea. The herbal concoction was bitter and already tepid.

  “Do you need anything?” Eve’s voice from the doorway drowned out the sacred echoes in Juliette’s memory.

  She didn’t turn around. “No, I’m fine.” The housekeeper left without saying anything.

  Juliette still hadn’t played another word by the time Roger walked in. She straightened her back and smoothed her hair as her husband sat down on the opposite side of the game table and eyed her board. “This all you got?”

  She shrugged and tried to smile. The last thing she needed was for Roger to pester her about her mood. “Yeah, it is pretty pathetic, isn’t it?”

  “Not if you were Eve and didn’t know how to read English.”

  Her laugh sounded forced, even to her own ears. “Let’s just pretend this was an English lesson for Eve, then.”

  “So, you want to play a game for real?”

  Juliette considered for a minute. “I’m actually getting pretty tired. I spent all morning slaving in some American executive’s office.”

  “I hope he paid you well.”

  Juliette adjusted her glasses. “He keeps a running tab.”

  Roger chuckled and sat down. “So did you have a good afternoon with Eve?”

  Juliette played with her hair. “Mmm-hmm.”

  “What’d you make this time? Chocolate fondue? Grandma Sherry’s no-bakes?”

  “Ordinary brownies.” She noted Roger’s slight grin.

  “Tell me the truth. How many did you eat?”

  “Just two.”

  “Uh-huh.” Roger sounded unconvinced, but Juliette didn’t have the energy to defend herself. “So, are you going to clear the board so I can beat you or what?”

  She yawned. “Actually, I wasn’t joking about being tired. I don’t know why that kind of office work always feels so draining. I think I might just take a bath and go to bed.”

  “Have you had dinner yet?”

  She laughed. “Oh, yeah. Bath, dinner, and then bed.”

  Roger watched Juliette. With his head cocked to the side like that, he reminded her of the parakeet they bought their daughter when they first arrived in Yanji. “Don’t tell me you’ve lost your appetite.”

  “Never,” Juliette lied. “You know me.”

  “Of course I know you. That’s why I got you this.” Beaming like a schoolboy, Roger reached into his coat and pulled out a candy bar. “It’s not Godiva, but it’s a step up from plain generic, right?”

  She took the gift. “Two steps up.”

  “So now I figure you owe me at least one chance to beat you at Scrabble. A real game this time.”

  Juliette didn’t even glance at the chocolate in her hand. “If that’s what you want.”

  “Don’t look so excited, Baby Cakes.”

  She forced herself to look at him. “I guess I’m a whole lot hungrier than I thought. Sorry. Being hungry makes me forget my manners.”

  Roger gave her playful pat on her backside when she stood up. He always claimed to love her shape and size, but considering the extra sixty pounds she carried, she was pretty sure he was either lying or delusional. Her husband winked. “I won’t tell Eve if you eat it all up before dinner.”

  She made a show of opening the wrapper. “You know me too well.”

  “Go take your bath.” He eyed her flirtatiously. “I’ll ask Eve to serve us dinner in here, and I’ll play you a proper game of Scrabble while we eat. Deal?”

  “Deal.” After she locked herself in the master bathroom and started the water running in the hot tub, Juliette looked for a place to hide Roger’s gift.

  CHAPTER 19

  “I thought we were through talking about this.”

  Juliette crossed her arms. This conversation was going about as well as the others had. She scowled at her husband and snatched up two more Scrabble tiles. “I just wondered why Eve would say Benjamin isn’t trustworthy.”

  Roger put down a five-letter word and added up his score. “I’ve had doubts about Benjamin myself.”

  “Really? Why didn’t you say something?”

  He didn’t look up from the board, even when his turn was over. “Because you thought it’d be a great idea to have a security guard.”

  “Well, I do. All the other expats in Yanji have one.” Juliette frowned. That hadn’t come out quite right. “If everyone else thinks security is important, we shouldn’t take it lightly,” she tried again.

  “I never said we should take it lightly. But now I’m starting to wonder why we hired an illegal alien in the first place.”

  “What’s wrong with him being a refugee? It gives Benjamin a job, and it keeps us protected.”

  Roger took out more letters. “It also gives him the perfect reason to betray us.”

  Juliette hadn’t even looked at her tiles since her husband played his last word. “Why would Benjamin ever consider going against us? We’ve done nothing but help him since the day he came here.”

  “Think about it.” Roger put his elbows on the game table and leaned toward his wife. “Benjamin’s position in Yanji isn’t exactly above board.”

  Juliette narrowed her eyes. “So?”

  “So all it takes is one person to find out he’s an illegal alien, and then they can hold it over him for as long as he’s here.”

  “You think someone would blackmail him to get at us?”

  Roger indicated the Scrabble board, which was waiting for Juliette’s move. “The thought has crossed my mind, yes. And did you ever wonder how he got to be so big? I mean, have you ever seen anybody from North Korea with that kind of muscle? Or that tall?”

  Juliette shrugged. “So, he’s got good genes. And besides, if you were concerned about this for so long, why didn’t you think to tell me before now?”

  Roger moved a few tiles around on his letter board. “Because whenever you get ideas in your head about rescuing somebody, it’s a waste of energy trying to stop you.”

  Juliette laid down the word rams. It only gave her six points, but at least Roger couldn’t blame her for holding up the game. “I was just trying to help him. He needed a job, and we needed a security guard.”

  Roger was ready with modern, which he laid down for twenty-four points. “Not everyone who needs rescuing is our responsibility. I guess that’s all I wanted to say.”

  “So what do we do about Benjamin?” Juliette stared at her tiles, but without any vowels open on the board, she couldn’t play a single word.

  He took out a few more letters. “Nothing, at least not until I have a chance to think things through more. The last thing we need is to give him a reason to get back at us. He knows all about what we do now. It’s your move,” Roger added.

  Juliette sighed. Game night was turning out just about as badly as she expected.

  ***

  Roger stood behind his wife. Even while doing the simplest things like brushing her teeth, Juliette was stunning. He brought his nose close to her blond curls. “So tell me honestly. Was that chocolate bar as good as a Godiva?”

  Juliette spat in the sink. “Good as a Godiva? Watch your tongue.”

  Roger wrapped his arms around his wife. “But it was an okay present? Okay enough, at least?”

  “Of course.”

  Roger studied her in the bathroom mirror as she rinsed her mouth one more time. “You sure?”

  “I already told you. It was great.”

  “You did
n’t eat much at dinner.”

  She dried her face. “Guess your little present spoiled my appetite after all.”

  Roger kept staring at her reflection as she headed toward the closet. “You sure nothing’s wrong?”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  Roger plopped onto the mattress and watched Juliette prepare for bed. He couldn’t really blame her for her recent mood swings. It was hard enough for him not knowing what was going on with the Secret Seminary students, but at least he had work to focus on. Juliette spent all day here alone, with nothing to do but teach her housekeeper new recipes and worry about those she loved. What else could he do to help her stay encouraged and engaged? A nice dinner out? Maybe even a weekend at one of the fancy tourist resorts? They didn’t have any obligations right now besides the business. There weren’t any new refugees to think of. Maybe it was time to plan a little get-away.

  Roger rubbed the back of his head before stretching out on the bed. He would take the next few weeks to plan something really special.

  PART 3

  CHAPTER 20

  “Get up. Now.” The proprietor barely managed to fit his girth through the width of Sun’s door. Mee-Kyong felt a chill on the base of her neck as he summoned the girl.

  Sun glanced up tentatively toward Mee-Kyong, who gave her hand a pat. “Go on, little cousin. I’ll be here waiting for you.” Sun followed Mr. Lee out into the hallway, looking back once at Mee-Kyong. For the next thirty minutes, Mee-Kyong paced back and forth, her eyes continually darting toward the closed door. Why had Mr. Lee called her? Was he upset with her performance? Were her customers unhappy?

  Mee-Kyong kneaded her abdomen. Two weeks after the delivery, she was now able to stand up tall without hunching over from the pain. Her breasts felt a little heavier than normal but didn’t ache like they had with her initial engorgement. She was tired, but that had as much to do with her schedule at the Round Robin as it did with the delivery. She should rest before her shift started, but that would be impossible while she waited for Sun to return. Besides, the scant sleep she could find these days was muddled with dreams of Pang. The method of the murder in her nightmares varied considerably, from drowning to strangulation to shooting. What stayed the same was that he always woke up right before she killed him. She was lucky if she got two hours of sleep at a time. It didn’t matter. Conditions had been worse in the gulag. Much worse.