Recitation by Suah Bae

Author:Suah Bae
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781941920473
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Published: 2016-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

6. Absurdly, the sight reminded Kyung-hee of a particular day a long time ago, whose morning had been spent diligently studying the Reader’s Digest she’d been given at the bus stop on the way to school, while in the evening she’d watched a film called The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds…

Around half an hour later Kyung-hee came out of the supermarket. She walked over to the bench in front of the Volksbank where Banchi was sitting. Banchi had Kyung-hee’s already-withered bunch of yellow chrysanthemums resting on his knee and was absent-mindedly reading the text on the newspaper they were wrapped in, but wasn’t touching either the flowers or the newspaper with his hands. The sun swiftly concealed itself behind the clouds. Banchi scattered the crumbs of his leftover bread for the pigeons. The newspaper rustled ceaselessly. As the wind was cold and heavy with moisture, altogether bleak, it was clear that right at this moment somewhere very far away, a grape-sized snowflake was about to fall heavily onto a Karakorum mountaintop. In Kyung-hee’s hand was a bottle of blue-tinted nail polish remover. “I felt like I needed to buy something,” Kyung-hee said as she sat down next to Banchi, as though by way of an excuse.

“Did you talk to her?” Banchi asked without looking up from the newspaper.

“Of course I did. But Banchi, Maria says…” Kyung-hee trailed off. Banchi only gazed at her wordlessly. “Now is an incredibly busy time for her, and also she said that you coming to call on her out of the blue like this has thrown her off balance a bit.”

“I haven’t ‘come to call’ on Maria. We were just passing by, and then the thought came to me while I was waiting here on this bench.”

“Right, that’s what I said too.”

“I was aware that she would be busy. And that I ought not to disturb her while she’s working.”

“Right, that’s what Maria thought too.”

“And to be precise, I followed you. You were on your way to see Maria at the supermarket where she works as a cashier, and I was just strolling along after you.”

“Right, I was the one who suggested you come with me.”

“Is Maria doing okay?”

“Looks to be.”

“Healthy?”

“Looks to be.”

“That’s great. And now’s a busy time for her, but the fact is that she doesn’t want to see me.”

“It’s not as though she actually said that, not in so many words, but…”

“I understand. In any case, if that’s the way it is then there’s no reason for me to sit here anymore!” Still, Banchi didn’t get up right away. He only jogged his knees for a bit. Kyung-hee rescued the withered bunch of flowers that was slipping from Banchi’s knees, and cleared her throat.

“So, Banchi, the friends you met last night were all from your hometown?”

“Most of them were.”

“But there seemed to be people from other countries, countries a little further to the south. Or Tibet.”

“That’s right,” Banchi nodded reluctantly. “There were a couple others, but they were from India, not Tibet.

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