Saha by Cho Nam-Joo

Author:Cho Nam-Joo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2022-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

EUNJIN, UNIT 305. THIRTY YEARS EARLIER.

A new strain of infectious respiratory disease had spread worldwide. Apart from speculations that it was communicable through saliva, nothing was revealed about its cause or cure. Healthy people suffered from cold-like symptoms that cleared in a couple weeks, but for those with weak respiratory systems or preexisting conditions it was fatal. The elderly, the pregnant, and babies were especially vulnerable. The fatality rate in the first area of outbreak was over forty percent, and pregnant women who contracted the disease miscarried without exception, regardless of what trimester they were in. The fate of humanity itself rested on the outcome of the pandemic.

Town had very little contact with the rest of the world, and its people could not travel overseas freely. So Town alone was insulated from the worldwide panic. No one had to wash their hands thoroughly, wear masks, or be vigilant about not coughing on others. They only heard about the symptoms of patients overseas on the news, and shook their heads as they sat back and tracked the rising death toll. Why can’t they cure a disease? What has the world come to?

THE CHILD’S BREATH had turned raspy on a Friday night. On the small side for a four-year-old, he kept tossing and turning in his struggle to breathe, and wound up rolling all the way over to the built-in closet in the corner of the bedroom. Curled up in the crawling position, he panted and struggled like a dying bug and broke into fits of dry cough. He was known to be susceptible to minor illnesses, which led the caregivers to dismiss this as another cold. The sun was warm, and the air was clean and not too dry after the recent spring showers. They were expecting this turn of season to be uneventful. Only Eunjin, the contract caregiver, thought something was off.

The child’s condition grew worse over the weekend. The medical staff and the senior caregivers at the orphanage had the weekend off, so Eunjin administered meds from the first-aid kit. She gave him barley tea and rice porridge, put a scarf around his neck, and held him all day as he fussed in agony and tried to fight off whatever he had. His cheeks flushed, the child fell asleep in Eunjin’s arms with his mouth open. He woke up and cried, then fell asleep again. Eunjin’s arms felt ready to fall off from holding the child all day. The other caregivers complained that she was giving all her attention to one child, who was only getting worse despite her efforts, and the flustered Eunjin wanted to cry along with him.

Eunjin had once been a child in the orphanage herself. In the wake of Town’s independence, many native residents went missing, and even more children were abandoned; and Eunjin had been one of them. She was twelve at the time.

When Eunjin was living in the orphanage, a younger girl in her room got her right hand caught in a door.

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