In the brightly lit alley behind the church, Hana leaned backward with one foot remaining on the ground and the other leg bent against the wall. She was smoking a cigarette. Again, she asked him why they couldn’t get beers.
There were kids at his school who drank, but Solomon didn’t like the taste much, and his friends invariably got in trouble when drunk. His father wouldn’t have gotten mad at him for stuff like that, and in a way, Solomon felt free to say no to his friends at parties because it wasn’t a big deal. But it was difficult to say no to Hana, because she was relentless when it came to what she wanted. Hana already thought he was too square.
Hana inhaled her cigarette deeply, making a lovely pout as she exhaled.
“No beer. Respects his great-grandmother’s funeral. Never angry at his father. Oh, Solomon, maybe you can be a minister.”
She clasped her hands in prayer and closed her eyes.
“I’m not going to be a minister. But what should I do when I grow up?” he asked.
An older boy at school had told a bunch of guys that all women are whores and all men are killers; girls cared about your future job because they wanted to marry rich guys.
“I don’t know, Minister Pachinko.” She laughed. “Hey, Christians aren’t supposed to fuck before marriage, right?”
Solomon buttoned his suit jacket. It felt chilly outside, and his coat was still hanging in the hall closet upstairs.
“You’re still a virgin,” she said, smiling. “I know. That’s okay. You’re only fourteen. Do you want to?”
“What?”
“With me? I can, you know.” She sucked on her cigarette again, even more suggestively. “I’ve done it. A lot. I know what you’ll like.” Hana held the necktie his father had tied for him that morning by the knot, then released her grasp slowly.
Solomon refused to look at her face.
The back door of the church opened slowly. Etsuko waved to them from the threshold.
“It’s cold. Why don’t you come inside? Solomon, you should be with your dad to greet the guests, right?”
Solomon could hear the anxiety in Etsuko’s voice. Hana tossed her cigarette and followed him inside.
At the reception, Hana continued to trail after Solomon. She asked him to guess her bra size. Solomon had no idea, but he was now thinking of her breasts.
The guests, mostly old people, left them alone, so the two milled around the reception.
“Let’s get beer at the 7-Eleven. We can go to my house to drink it. Or we can go to the park.”
“I don’t feel like beer.”
“Maybe you feel like having some pussy.”
“Hana!”
“Oh, shut up. You like me. I know you do.”
“Why do you have to talk like that?”
“Because I’m not a nice girl, and you don’t want to fuck a nice girl. Especially for your first time. Nobody does. I don’t want to marry you, Solomon. I don’t need your money.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Fuck you,” Hana said, and walked away from him.
Solomon caught up with her and grabbed her arm.
Hana gave him a chilly smile. It was as if she’d become someone else. She was wearing a dark blue wool dress with a white Peter Pan collar that made her look younger than him.
His grandmother Sunja appeared.
“Halmoni,” Solomon said, relieved to see her. He felt excited around Hana, but she also made him nervous and afraid. In her presence, it felt safer to have an adult around. Just yesterday, he caught her stealing a packet of chocolate wafers at the conbini. When she left the shop, Solomon had lingered to give the clerk the money for the wafers, worried that the clerk might get in trouble. In his dad’s business, if items were missing, clerks were fired immediately.
Sunja smiled at them. She touched Solomon’s upper arm as if to calm him. He looked flustered.
“You look very handsome in your suit.”
“This is Hana,” Solomon said, and Hana bowed to her formally.
Sunja nodded. The girl was very beautiful, but she had a defiant chin.
Sunja was on her way to talk with Mozasu but felt funny leaving Solomon with the beautiful girl.
“I’ll see you at home afterwards?” she asked.
Solomon nodded.
As soon as Sunja turned in the other direction, the girl led him outside the building.
Koh Hansu was walking with a cane. When he spotted Sunja walking diagonally across the reception room, he called out to her.
Sunja heard his voice; this was too much.
“Your mother was a tough woman. I always thought she was tougher than you.”
Sunja stared at him. In the moments before her death, her mother had said that this man had ruined her life, but had he? He had given her Noa; unless she had been pregnant, she wouldn’t have married Isak, and without Isak, she wouldn’t have had Mozasu and now her grandson Solomon. She didn’t want to hate him anymore. What did Joseph say to his brothers who had sold him into slavery when he saw them again? “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” This was something Isak had taught her when she’d asked him about the evil of this world.
“I came by to see if you were okay. If you needed anything.”
“Thank you.”