Slave Again

by Alana Terry

  Benjamin coughed from his corner of the table, the first sound Mee-Kyong heard him make all morning. “Just a little,” she answered and returned Benjamin’s raised eyebrows with a defiant tilt of her chin.

  Mrs. Stern cleared her throat. “Well, after we eat, we’ll go upstairs together and make sure Kennedy’s old bathing suit fits you. Sound all right?”

  Mee-Kyong fabricated an enthusiastic nod.

  Benjamin scooted his chair back noisily. “Thank you for breakfast,” he mumbled, his mouth still stuffed with hot roll. All their gazes followed him as he sulked away from the table, turned down the hallway, and slammed the door to his room.

  ***

  Eve thought she heard a woman’s voice on the other side of the door. “Come on, Tiger,” she yelled. “Open up.” She heard a series of rustles, accompanied by a suppressed giggle. Eve had been out all night getting everything ready. She didn’t have time for games. The door swung open just as she was about to throw her shoulder against it.

  Tiger stood there in shorts and an undershirt, his hair disheveled and his cheeks flushed. Eve regained her balance. Had he been drinking already? She peeked around the corner. “Is someone else in here?”

  He leaned against the doorframe and smirked. “What are you talking about, sugar?”

  She walked in and looked around. “I thought I heard someone.”

  He grabbed her wrist and brushed her cheek with the back of one finger. “You might need to get your ears checked. Let me give you an examination.”

  “That’s not why I’m here.” She clutched her handbag, shoved him aside, and then strode to the small closet door.

  He jumped in front of her and put both hands on her shoulders. “You look tense, baby. You tired? I wasn’t expecting you today.”

  She glanced at the closet and crossed her arms. “Yeah, I can see that.”

  His face grew red, and his eyes widened imploringly. “Come on, sugar. Let me ...”

  Eve kicked the door in. A woman shrieked and covered her face. “Just a friend?” Eve asked with one eyebrow raised. Before Tiger could answer, Eve pulled her revolver from her handbag and fired a single round into the woman’s skull.

  Tiger gawked, his arms frozen in front of his body. “You ... She was ... What ...?”

  Eve didn’t have time for his babbling. She raised the revolver to his chest and pulled the trigger. Then she grabbed her cell phone from her purse and punched in Ryuk’s number.

  “This is Agent Ko. I’m ready.”

  CHAPTER 39

  The next morning, Mee-Kyong woke up with a gnawing emptiness in her gut that twisted up her insides into a tangled, knotted mess. Mrs. Stern rapped lightly on her door. “Are you awake, sweetheart?”

  Mee-Kyong wondered if pet names and early-morning wake-up calls were blessings reserved just for the initiated. She pulled the quilt up to her shoulders. “Come in.”

  Her benefactress waddled through the door, her smile as wide as her girth. “It’s your special day,” she chirped in a sing-songy voice. Mee-Kyong hoped the early hour would excuse her from having to gush enthusiasm.

  Mrs. Stern held up a hairbrush and a handbag. “I brought you some things. To get ready.” Mee-Kyong sat up. Mrs. Stern lowered herself behind her on the bed and ran the brush through her hair. “I remember the day I was baptized,” she sighed. Mee-Kyong felt ill. Almost an hour later, after yanking, braiding, combing, twisting, and eventually pinning Mee-Kyong’s hair up in a simple braid, Mrs. Stern was satisfied. She then moved to the other side of the bed and dumped out the contents of her bag. Colorful tubes and jars of lipstick, skin cream, eye make-up, and facial powder spilled out on the mattress between them.

  Mee-Kyong’s jaw ached from being clenched so tightly. She shook her head. “No.”

  Mrs. Stern leaned back. “No?”

  “I’m not wearing make-up.”

  Mrs. Stern gently rested two fingers on a tube of lipstick. “I just thought that ... with it being such an important day ...”

  Mee-Kyong turned her face away so she didn’t have to look at the rainbow of Mrs. Stern’s vials. “No make-up.”

  Mrs. Stern took her hands off the lipstick and held them up in surrender. “Okay. No make-up. Do you want help getting dressed?”

  Mee-Kyong crossed her arms. “I used to earn a living taking off my clothes. I think I can figure out how to put them back on.”

  ***

  “She’s probably just nervous.” Roger ran his fingers up and down his wife’s spine. “Weren’t you just a little bit nervous the day you got baptized?”

  “Even if I was, I didn’t bite anyone’s head off.”

  Through her sweater, Roger felt Juliette tighten up all her muscles. He put both hands on her shoulders and started to knead the tension away. “She’s young. You’ve said it before; she’s been through a lot.”

  “That’s still no reason to get crass with me.”

  “No, it’s not.” Roger locked his thumbs to get a deeper rub. “But what’s done is done. Mee-Kyong’s getting baptized. It’s because of your hard work and compassion for her that she’s come this far. So let’s not ruin the day splitting hairs over who said what, okay? Let’s make this a great day for Mee-Kyong, a day she’ll never forget.” He glanced toward the clock on the nightstand, but his wife’s head blocked his view. “How much longer do we have?”

  Juliette looked over. “Little less than an hour. Should we start getting the hot tub filled?”

  “Not yet. We still have time.” Roger paused. “There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you, Baby Cakes.” He swallowed once. “Benjamin’s decided not to join us this afternoon.”

  “Not join us?” Juliette glared at him in the mirror. “What’s going on? Has every single refugee living under our roof turned against us for some reason?”

  Her pitch was rising, and Roger knew he needed to deescalate things quickly. “It’s nothing like that, Baby Cakes. It’s just ... well, he didn’t say it in so many words, but after what happened with Eve, I just don’t think he wants to be around.”

  “Eve?” Juliette huffed, and Roger realized what a mistake it was to remind his wife of their ministry’s most recent drop-out. “What’s Eve got to do with this?”

  Roger sighed. Did she really need him to spell this out for her? “It’s a baptism,” he stated. “It’s in our bedroom, in a hot tub.” Juliette’s face still hadn’t relaxed. “She’ll be wearing a swimsuit.”

  Juliette’s exasperated breath was hot on Roger’s arm. “It’s not like it’s a bikini. Besides, she’ll have a T-shirt on over it.”

  Roger sighed. “Baby Cakes, it’s a guy thing. And probably a cultural one, too. Let’s just not push it, okay? This can still be a great day for all of us if we just go into it with the right attitude.”

  “That’s what I was trying to do all along,” Juliette muttered.

  ***

  Mee-Kyong glowered at herself in the mirror, scowling at the way Mrs. Stern had swept her bangs to the side of her face. She picked at the strands and tucked them into her braid. Make-up? Mrs. Stern had actually expected her to paint her face just for some aquatic ritual? The clinging bathing suit stretched across her belly. The material prickled against her skin but clung too tight for her to scratch the flea-bite tingles away. Her fingernails set to work methodically on her skin instead until her neck and shoulders glared red in the mirror.

  She scowled at her reflection. If Sun had kept herself alive, they could be out of Yanji. Life might have been hard at first, but Mee-Kyong would have watched out for them both. She would have found a situation for them by the first snowfall, one that didn’t involve entertaining hotel guests or copying Western literature until their finger muscles seized up.

  Mee-Kyong wet her hands and tried to rub away the scratch marks on her neck. It wouldn’t matter anyway. None of the Sterns could see them once she put the oversized cotton shirt on over the bathing suit. She let out a short, mirthless laugh. How ironic the Sterns were co
ncerned about the modesty of their little brothel rescue.

  She turned her head toward the door. “Almost ready, dear?” Mrs. Stern’s voice was mouse-like, almost apologetic.

  Mee-Kyong stood and yanked the big red shirt over her suit. It was the same shade as Sun’s old dress. “I’m ready,” she called out, throwing her shoulders back as she swung open the bedroom door.

  ***

  “You did well, Agent Ko. I hear the director is already planning for your next assignment.”

  There was no reason for Eve to blush before Ryuk. She had known the old man even before she started training at the Academy. She also knew platitudes meant nothing to him, so she swallowed down her pre-programmed reply about honor and service to the Party. She would save the rhetoric for her meeting with the director.

  “I’m curious,” Ryuk continued as the two agents made their way to the train station. “What did you find out about the big one? The security guard.”

  Eve checked her lipstick in her compact mirror. She hated not getting enough sleep. It worked horrors on her skin. “I sent my write-up on to the bureau. They never told me they wanted anything else.”

  Ryuk took her arm. It was a paternal gesture, fitting for their assumed roles as father and daughter. “You wouldn’t be covering up anything for him, would you?”

  “Of course not.” Eve puckered her lips, scowled at her reflection, and snapped the mirror shut. Ryuk scrutinized her out of the corners of his eyes, so she added, “He never meant anything to me.”

  A lopsided grin crept to one side of his face. “I’ve read your reports to the director,” he reminded her. “I also know there was information you deliberately left out.”

  Eve buried her mirror in her handbag and flung her hair off her shoulder. “Have you been checking up on me, Ryuk? I didn’t think you were the type to get jealous.” She pressed her body a little closer to his as they walked.

  “And what about that other one? That Tiger?”

  Eve laughed. “A diversion. You have no idea how bored you get serving tea all day on silver platters.”

  “I take it he knew nothing of your work?” Ryuk stopped beneath a streetlamp and stared at her.

  She shrugged again. “Of course not. I told you, I took care of everything before I came here.”

  Ryuk sighed and continued walking. “Well, you know the director will ask questions. With the security guard, you can at least argue you were gathering intel. Trying to gain trust. But a sleazy punk off the streets? Come on, Ko. What’s the director going to think of that?”

  She ran her fingers up and down the sleeve of his suit. “Who’s to say the director has to find out?”

  CHAPTER 40

  The water was warmer than Mee-Kyong expected and almost scalded her leg when she first stepped in. She gasped.

  “Is it all right?” Mrs. Stern was out of her fancy chair and to the side of the tub in half a second.

  “I’m fine.” Mee-Kyong forced a smile, if only to make up for her comments earlier when Mrs. Stern had tried to help her get ready. She hadn’t intended to lose her composure like that, but she was already prostituting her soul to the Sterns and their American God. There was no way she was going to do it looking like she just stepped out of the Round Robin Inn.

  Mee-Kyong put her second leg over the side of the tub. Mr. Stern was already waist deep in the water. “Well, we all know why we’re here today, don’t we?” He talked as if he were addressing a room full of witnesses, but it was just his wife and their newest religious convert. Not even Benjamin had come to her baptism. Did he refuse to participate since he knew it was a farce?

  “Sister Mee-Kyong.” Mr. Stern put one arm on her shoulder, and Mee-Kyong forced in a deep breath to keep from squirming away. “Because of your confession of faith and your desire to accept Jesus as your Lord, Savior, and Master, it is my privilege to baptize you today.”

  Mee-Kyong clenched her jaw shut. Yes, she would submit to this strange ritual. She would let Mr. Stern submerge her in water and congratulate himself on yet another Asian convert. Why should it matter to her? She had been conceived behind bars. What right did she have to think she might one day be free?

  Mr. and Mrs. Stern both watched her expectantly. Realizing she had missed something, Mee-Kyong glanced from one to the other, trying to pick up some sort of cue. “I asked if you believe that Jesus died for your sins and came back to life,” Mr. Stern prompted.

  “Oh.” Mee-Kyong placed a stray wisp from her hair behind her ear. Mrs. Stern could make her own blond curls perform staggering stunts that defied physics, but she obviously had no experience with fine, straight Korean hair. “Yeah, I believe that.”

  “And do you want to live your life from now on in obedience and submission to him?”

  “Sure.” The word tumbled out of Mee-Kyong’s mouth before she could correct it. “I mean, yes. Yes, that’s what I want.”

  Mr. Stern frowned slightly, but he cleared his throat and went on. “Well then, Sister Mee-Kyong, it is my pleasure to baptize you in the name of the Father ...”

  His hand was on her shoulder. His other held her wrist. Mee-Kyong locked her knees in place.

  “... and of the Son ...”

  He moved her hand and covered her mouth. She opened her lips to try to suck in a breath of air, but he clamped his palm down over her. She shut her eyes and braced herself.

  “... and of the Holy Spirit.”

  He pressed down on her shoulder. She opened her eyes, her pupils screaming although her throat couldn’t. She wasn’t even under the water yet, but she needed air. Air. She gulped a mouthful of nothing. A vacuum. Her lungs made the motion of inhaling but didn’t suck anything in. She thrashed both arms out wildly and scratched at whatever she found. The motion startled her restrainer. She pushed him back. “Get away from me.” The water seared her skin. She lifted one red leg out of the tub, flinging her hands behind her to keep him from grabbing her again.

  The woman was standing now, blocking her path. With a worried frown on her adipose face, she reached her arms out, groping, grabbing. Mee-Kyong wrestled free, flinging her abductors aside and racing out the room, dripping water as she scrambled toward the hallway and down the stairs.

  ***

  Benjamin wiped his brow. It was so cold he could actually see the sweat steaming off his forearms. He jabbed the shovel into the ground that would soon be hard from frost. Why should he care if Eve left? What did it matter to him? He had already evicted her from his heart. He should be glad at least now he didn’t need to live with the walking, breathing witness to his shame and guilt.

  When it came right down to it, the Party was to blame. His superiors were the first ones to introduce Benjamin to voyeuristic pleasures, back when he was young enough he should have stayed ignorant. They liked taunting the boys they trained. “This is how you’ll be rewarded once you’ve risen through the ranks.” And Benjamin had worked harder than any of his peers.

  He cursed the Party. He cursed the day the head recruiter arrived at his school to “ask him some questions.” He cursed the tears he shed when the man told him he couldn’t say good-bye to his family. “Your training is top-secret. It’s a matter of national security.” Benjamin plunged the shovel blade into the earth once more and thought about all the men and women he had buried so deep they would never be discovered. That was the problem working at the Sterns’. All he wanted was to forget, but haunting reminders lurked in every shovelful of dirt.

  A commotion from inside made him turn once toward the house. A few seconds later, the back door flew open. Mee-Kyong stumbled past him and collapsed near the mound of soil. Doubled over, she gasped noisily, her shoulders heaving with each breath. The shovel dropped to the earth, and Benjamin knelt down beside her. “You okay?”

  She glanced up at him. The only part of her that wasn’t wet was the messy braid of hair on top of her head. He placed himself in front of her and laid his hands on her shoulders.

  “Look at me,” h
e ordered. She raised her gaze up once before retching onto the ground. “Look at me,” he snapped again. Mee-Kyong shut her eyes for a moment and then opened them slowly. He nodded. “Better.” He got up and closed the door behind him. If he knew the Sterns, they would be coming after her soon. “Let’s go back here. It’s quieter.”

  ***

  Mee-Kyong wrapped Benjamin’s sweatshirt around her shoulders, hugged her knees, and prayed to whatever deity might exist the Sterns wouldn’t follow her. Benjamin sat down next to her on the bench, keeping a considerable distance between them. “Want to tell me what happened?”

  Mee-Kyong glared at her bare toes, the cold bite of winter stinging her wet skin. “I couldn’t do it,” she whispered.

  “The baptism?”

  She nodded. “I thought I was ready. But I was there in that huge tub, and he was about to dunk me ...” She glanced around and heard Mrs. Stern calling her name. Please let them just leave me in peace.

  Benjamin frowned and adjusted the sweatshirt so it covered a little more of her shoulders. “Nobody made you.”

  Mee-Kyong shook her head and rocked slowly back and forth on the bench. “It wasn’t supposed to be such a big deal.”

  “Maybe that’s your problem.”

  Her teeth started to chatter. “What do you mean?”

  “Baptism is a big deal. Supposed to be, at least.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t see it that way.”

  “Then you probably weren’t ready.”

  Mee-Kyong was shaking too hard to argue with the security guard who got drunk every weekend. “I was at least hoping to make it through the whole winter.”

  Benjamin wrinkled his brow. “What?”

  “I don’t want to be on the streets again. Not with winter coming.” She glanced at the fence that shielded them from the road and wondered how long she had before the first snowfall. Oh, well. Her reprieve had been nice enough while it lasted.

  “Nobody’s turning you out, Mee-Kyong.” The way he spoke her name made her turn toward him again. “Stay as long as you want.”