A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories by Jung Young-moon

Author:Jung Young-moon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Translated by Jung Yewon

Animal Songs of Boredom and Fury, Part Three: The Forest of Owls

The warm sun is shining down, and an old man is passing by a rock on the beach, with a black dog at his side. The dog is running around on the beach, sometimes ahead of the old man, sometimes behind, its feet sinking into the sand. The dog is running with all its might and hurls itself to catch the little ball that the old man throws, not very far because he doesn’t have much strength. How the dog loves the green tennis ball! The old man keeps throwing the ball, which the dog catches in its mouth, even as the man frowns, clutching his stomach as if he has peritonitis.

But how funny the old man looks! He’s wearing at an angle a hat with a tilted brim, and yellow rubber boots, the kind that children wear. He always wears yellow rubber boots, regardless of the weather or his mood. As if to make the point that he’s the only person in the world who wears yellow rubber boots regardless of the weather or his mood that day, as if to make the point that wearing those boots distinguishes him from all the other people in the world. I nearly burst out laughing the first time I saw him.

It was in a scene like this or one that reminds me of this scene, that we first met. I appeared before them at the moment the old man threw the ball and the dog ran after it. The old man acted as if he was surprised at my sudden appearance and glared at me. As if he had seen a beast that had come down from the mountain. At least, I felt that he felt that way about me. He looked at me as if he’d seen a beast. And I did look like a wild beast, due to the many days I’d spent homeless. The dog barked as if it, too, was flustered by my appearance, and came up to me a little later and began to sniff my groin. But it soon turned its head away, as if it had failed to find what it was looking for, or anything that drew its attention. Then it ran toward the ball, which the old man had thrown once again. After casting a brief glance at me, the old man began to walk on, again throwing the ball. As if he was done with me.

But for some reason, I began to follow the old man who was following his dog. After a short while, he turned around and saw that I was following him, but he paid no attention. His dog, however, which had been merrily catching the ball in mid-air and looked quite docile, suddenly took on a different attitude and growled at me, looking at me in a menacing way. But the dog merely growled, and did not stop me from following it.

I continued to follow them.

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