American Seoul by Rho Helena

Author:Rho, Helena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little A
Published: 2022-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

A Successful Doctor

Gwangju, 1960. In beautiful Western-style dresses, my mother and my grandmother walk down a narrow alley lined with traditional Korean houses with charcoal-blue tile roofs. Because of my grandfather’s wealth and status as a banker, my mother and grandmother do not wear hanboks, women’s traditional dress. They speak softly about my mother’s upcoming wedding—the white dress, the beautiful flowers. My mother’s voice has an excited uplift; my grandmother’s is more cautious. They stop at a thick wooden door with massive black metal rings as handles. They enter a traditional courtyard, the serenity of silence and miniature trees greeting them. Easing off their shoes, they step up to a pine platform, slide open a door made of hanji paper and light wood, and kneel on crimson embroidered cushions on the bamboo floor. A black lacquered table separates them from the fortune-teller in a red hanbok.

The woman reaches for my mother’s pale, uncalloused hands, turns the palms upright.

My mother’s hands tremble. “What do you see?”

The woman’s face becomes blank; her fingers dig into vulnerable flesh.

My mother’s shoulders stiffen.

“You will have a son,” the woman intones.

My mother exhales her long-held breath.

“Your children will bring wealth and prestige to your family. One will become a doctor,” the fortune-teller says.

My mother smiles.

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