The Best Girls by Min Jin Lee

Author:Min Jin Lee [Lee, Min Jin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-26T23:00:00+00:00

The backyard is my favorite place. No one had noticed me leaving the house, even when the back door squeaked a little. Everyone was still sleeping. It wasn’t too cold outside. Seated on the lower step, I hugged my arms and took a deep breath. A tiny, tiny mouse drew near my rubber-soled canvas shoe, and I picked it up. It might have eaten some of the medicine already, and it didn’t squirm in my hand. Its paws had dirt on them. Unlike Okmi, who isn’t afraid of anything, I’d never held a mouse before. Its fur was short and smooth, its breath steady. No matter, a mouse would always be despised—fat or skinny, fed or unfed. I’d never been taught its utility. I held the mouse still as I walked to the shed and got more of the medicine. It was easy to pop open the lid of the aluminum tin. I poured a bit of white powder onto my hand. The mouse would no longer steal our rice. The brown-gray creature put its snout to the powder to sniff it. Its weight shifted to its warm belly. I felt the bottom of its gentle warmth in my left hand. Once, I saw my father kill a rat with his shoe. I’ll never forget the bloodstain by the front door. This mouse would never feel the blow of a dusty black shoe. I placed it beside a cluster of dandelions.

When Mama and Dad go to work tomorrow morning, I will help Grandmother make breakfast. Grandfather doesn’t stir until nine, when Jaesung wakes up. It’s my job to make sure that my sisters eat their morning meal while Grandmother washes dishes and prepares the day’s lunch and supper. In the morning, when my grandmother is in the kitchen, I will place enough of this powder into my sisters’ and my porridge bowls. Mama and Dad will be sad, but it will be all right.

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