1941
THOUGH JADE DID EVERYTHING SHE COULD TO NURSE DANI BACK TO health, her conditions became worse as the summer wore on. Without telling the older woman, Jade had already dug out and sold most of the jewelry under the cherry tree to pay for medicine and food. A few doctors had come and gone without improving Dani’s fever and consumption. Among the handful of trinkets that remained, Jade only resolved to keep the diamond necklace until the last. Her gold comb was enough to convince a Western-trained doctor to pay a visit.
“There are sores on her back,” Jade whispered as she helped turn Dani to the other side.
“Yes. Typical for the last stage of syphilis,” the doctor pronounced, pushing back his glasses. “She must have had a long latency. It’s probable that she contracted it when she was still active as a courtesan . . . Syphilis also causes infertility. She has never gotten pregnant, has she?”
Jade looked in fear at Dani’s sweat-streaked face; her eyes were closed, her mind was in feverish dreams.
“The other doctors said nothing about syphilis,” Jade protested quietly.
“This disease can look like many other things, until the very end when the sores come out. Be careful not to touch them, they are very contagious. As for the prognosis, it’s hard to say how long she has left. Tomorrow, I’ll send my servant with some arsenic she can take to ease the symptoms.”
After the doctor left, Jade went to the kitchen to make whatever she could for dinner. In the pantry there was just a cup of barley left and some dried seaweed she could dress with a half thimble of oil and vinegar. Mindlessly, she pulled out the knife and the cutting board and then realized there wasn’t anything that even required chopping. Still, she grasped the handle of the knife with her bony hand, fighting the tears clouding her eyes. She was remembering how she’d cut her hand all those years ago on a hot summer night. If the knife sliced just a few inches above that scar, all her sorrows would be over.
She laid down the knife and prepared the simple barley porridge.
When she went back, Dani was in an increasingly rare, clear, and calm mood. “How ever did you manage to make dinner again?” Dani asked as Jade set down the tray next to her.
“We still had a bit of barley left from when JungHo visited,” Jade lied; that supply had run out a long time ago, and the barley was from the black market. “Also, don’t worry about where I get the food. You just worry about getting better.”
“I’m such a burden on you,” Dani said. She was trying to swallow the porridge that Jade was spooning into her mouth without dribbling. But even the control of her facial muscles cost her tremendous effort, and a glistening drop slid down the side of her mouth. “I am like an old, senile woman,” Dani said, smiling painfully.
“You will never be an old, senile woman,” Jade said. “You will always be beautiful. None of us, not even Luna, could ever compare to you.”
“You’re just being kind. But more than kind . . .” Dani blinked, and a tear escaped from her still lovely eye. “Do you remember? In PyongYang, when my sister Silver asked me to take you in, I refused at first. This girl doesn’t have a personality, she’s so bland and boring, I told her. But she said you were a good one. She was right; I was wrong.”
“I was happy to go along with whatever Lotus suggested. She was the vivacious one. I was shy,” Jade said.
“But in hindsight, you’re the strongest one of all of us . . . Even after I die, and after the war is over, you’ll survive—and hopefully, find a good man and settle down.”
“You won’t die! Why are you saying such things,” Jade protested, though she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
“I heard the doctor—I wasn’t asleep,” Dani whispered in a fading voice, straining to turn her face. Jade rushed to lower her head down onto the pillow.
“Shh, you must rest now. Don’t tire yourself out by saying such useless things.”
“Don’t pretend it’s not true, because I don’t have a lot of time to waste. Listen to me carefully, Jade. Just two things . . .” She closed her eyes. “First, I want you to have my diamond necklace. No matter what, hold on to it. Don’t sell it right now—use it when there seems to be no other recourse. Of course, this whole house and everything in it will be yours too when I’m gone. But that necklace is itself more valuable than everything else combined, remember that.
“Secondly, I’d like to see two people before I die. They are the only two men I’ve truly cared for in my life. Will you help to bring them here? I don’t think I can even write a letter anymore.”
The next day, Jade wrote and mailed out two letters: one to Lee MyungBo’s home address, and the other to Kim SungSoo at his publishing house.
*