Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller

Author:Nora Okja Keller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Because of that tae-mong, the first birth dream, I knew my baby was a boy. I was so sure of this, I told my husband. See, fire and dragon and sun, I said, all yang. And salt, really good luck because it’s so valuable. I am having a boy.

He told me he had not heard such superstitious nonsense since leaving Korea. Didn’t he teach me to leave all that behind, to give it up for the Lord? Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

But still, underneath the words of disapproval, I read the pleasure and the pride in his eyes.

Consequently we were both surprised when we saw the baby’s genitals. I remember how hazy everything looked to me, how the faces of the doctor and the nurses blurred until they turned into those of Induk, my mother, my sisters. When they held my baby up to me, I remember first thinking: Oh no, something is wrong with his jajie—where is it? And then I realized I had a daughter and knew a fierce joy, more awesome because of its unexpectedness.

This baby was for me, mine, not my husband’s son but my daughter.

I still feel that joy as if it were brand-new, so hot that it hurts, burning blue-white and brilliant, sharp as a dragon’s teeth.

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