Black Flower by Kim Young-ha

Author:Kim, Young-ha [Kim, Young-ha]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2012-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

42

“FIND ME A BRUSH and some paper.” Early one morning when the others were going out to work, Yi Jongdo opened his mouth for the first time in what seemed like weeks as he lay in his bed. Lady Yun, who was busy preparing to leave for the fields, at first pretended not to hear him. Yi Jongdo said again, “Find me a brush and some paper.” Lady Yun replied curtly, “And what are you going to do with them?” Yi Jongdo did not reply. Instead, his son said, “I don’t think there are any brushes, but I will see if I can find something similar.” Yi Jinu put on his leggings and gloves and went outside. The weather had grown a little cooler since May, when they had first arrived. Lady Yun gently grasped her son’s shoulder as he went out. “Don’t go to too much trouble.”

On his way back, Jinu asked Gwon Yongjun to find a brush and some paper, but the interpreter didn’t seem interested in listening to him. With no other choice, Jinu went to the store and asked if he could buy some paper and a writing instrument. Unexpectedly, they readily gave him the notebook, pen, and ink that they used and told him that they would take the price out of his pay.

Yi Jongdo tore the notebook paper a few times with the unfamiliar pen as he diligently began to write something. He rose in the morning and washed his face with the water that Lady Yun had drawn, then sat down before a discarded wooden box and slowly wrote one character after another. He devoted his entire day to the effort. At times he stared into space as if trying to jog his memory, and at others he took deep breaths as if emotions were welling up inside him. At lunchtime, Lady Yun offered him a tortilla, but he refused and wrote with glittering eyes.

In the evening, people began to gather at Yi Jongdo’s house. The rumor must have spread that he had spent all day writing something. No one dared to speak to him, but many of them peeked into the house and murmured. Jinu made his way past them and went inside. Yeonsu couldn’t budge within the prison of gazes. When the chattering outside grew louder, Yi Jongdo opened the door and looked out. The eyes of those who could not write pleaded with him: You are writing a letter, aren’t you? We won’t get in your way, so please write the letter. We will just wait. Let His Majesty and the government know what has really happened to us. We don’t need money or fields, so ask them to please take us back. And when you have finished writing that letter, when you have written a letter to your kinfolk, to your flesh and blood, please write letters for us as well. Tell our brothers, our families, that all is not well, but we are fine. This is what their eyes said to him.

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