The Spirit of the Dragon by William Andrews

Author:William Andrews [Andrews, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542004657
Published: 2019-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

Time moved slowly in the rebel camp. Every month or so, the men went on a raid, taking them out of camp for days or weeks at a time, while the women stayed back, gathering food and doing their daily chores. I stuck to the routine of fetching water with Young-ee in the morning and evening. Every day, I thought of Hisashi and Young-chul.

One summer morning after I’d been in camp over a year, the man named Jin-mo came on a horse, galloping into the compound. He stopped at Commissar Kim’s tent and said something to the guard at the door. The guard ducked inside the tent as Jin-mo galloped away. The guard came out and ran to talk to the men. Then, everyone started scrambling about.

Ki-soo ran over to one of the men to find out what was going on. “We have to move,” she said when she returned. “The Japanese are near. The men are planning a raid and it is not safe here.”

The women sprang into action. Young-ee took my hand and led me to the horses. “We need to get a lot of water. We can use the horses.”

“But I thought it was too dangerous to use the horses,” I said, running with her.

“The danger of staying here is greater,” she said. “Quickly, quickly!”

We took two horses, and Young-ee got slings. We cinched the slings on the horses, hung six empty toks on each one, then led them to the spring. When we got to the knoll, Young-ee went ahead as I held the horses. She came back after a few minutes and declared it was safe, so we led the horses to the pond.

Young-ee had just dipped a tok into the water when from within the grass, a mamushi snake uncoiled and struck her arm, sinking its fangs deep into her flesh. Then it quickly slithered away. Young-ee dropped the tok and screamed. She gripped her arm. The horses started, so I grabbed the leads. They reared and snorted, but I held firm. Young-ee looked at me wide-eyed. “I have been bitten! I have to get back!”

She started to run. “Wait!” I said. “We have to get the water.” Young-ee kept running toward camp. I looked at the horses, still carrying the empty toks. I untied the toks and took them to the pond. I slapped the pond to scare away the mamushi, then kneeled at the pond’s edge. As quickly as I could, I filled each tok and tied it onto the horses. I grabbed the horses’ leads and hurried to camp.

I caught up to Young-ee halfway to camp. She was stumbling about and looked confused. “Which way do I go?” she cried.

Her arm was swelling and her eyes swam. A streak of blood dripped from the bite in her arm. I dropped the leads and went to her. “I’ll take you,” I said. “Get on my back.” I crouched and lifted Young-ee onto me. On my back, she was not much heavier than the toks that I carried every day.

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