“My sister thinks I’m a useless idiot.”
“Well, I’m afraid that would be the case regardless of where you live. It’s just this thing between big sisters and little brothers. When you’re older you’ll probably be really close.”
“I doubt it.”
“No, you will. Because what you’re experiencing right now is so unique, Tommy, and you and your sister will always share that experience. She may not let on, but I would imagine this has been hard for her too.”
“No it hasn’t! Everybody loves Claire.”
“Really, everybody?”
Tommy looked at the shells in his bucket. “Well, there are a few girls at her school that give her a hard time. And she says one teacher hates her because she doesn’t like Dad.”
“So not everybody loves her, then.”
“No.”
“Your mother obviously loves you a lot.”
“She’s always bossing me. Fixing my clothes, my hair. Checking my homework, telling me to do stuff.”
“Right. I guess it’d be a lot easier on you if she didn’t care.”
“What?”
“You know, she’s the First Lady. She can do pretty much anything she wants. She could have come up here by herself. Maybe go to the spa, get her hair and nails done. Eat out all the time. See old friends. But here she is bringing you here, collecting seashells with you on the beach. And I heard her say later there’s going to be a big Scrabble tournament.”
“I’m good at Scrabble. I almost beat my mom once.”
“Wow, that’s pretty impressive.”
Tommy looked over at his mom. To Reel he said, “Are you close to your mother?”
“She’s not alive anymore.”
Tommy looked shocked. “Oh, I’m sorry. And your dad?”
Reel pursed her lips and looked away. “He’s been gone from my life for a long time.”
“Were you ever close to him?”
“No. We didn’t have a good relationship at all, Tommy. Which I guess is why I envy people like you. Because you obviously have parents who love you very much. Not all kids do. In fact, too many don’t.”
Tommy stood there for a bit fingering a shell. “I think I’m going to show my mom this one. I think she’ll like it.”
“Good idea.”
Reel watched as he ran across the packed sand toward his mother.
Then she looked away, out to the ocean, as far as she could see.
When she turned back she looked upward toward the parking lot that bordered the beach.
A small, young Asian woman was walking hand in hand with a little girl about Tommy’s age. She could see that the little girl was watching them curiously, although the woman didn’t glance their way as they trudged along.
As Reel looked away she was thinking that life was quite odd. And families, in a way, were by far the most satisfying, and exasperating, parts of life.
Chapter
69
WHO ARE THEY?” ASKED MIN.
Chung-Cha glanced at the beach. “Just people. Tourists. They are picking up seashells like we did yesterday.”
“Why are all those men around them? And what are those things in their ears?”
“I don’t know,” said Chung-Cha. “Perhaps they have bad hearing and it helps them.”
In that one glance Chung-Cha had registered the fact that the two people who had been at Bukchang were also here. She did not know Robie’s or Reel’s names, but she wondered if they were here because the Americans had been warned about an attack against the first family. This was certainly a complication that needed to be addressed.
She pulled Min along as they left the parking lot. Chung-Cha sat on a bench and wrote out a note, folded it, and said to Min, “There is a man behind the counter in that store over there.” She pointed. “He is short and bald and Korean. You will give him this note.”
Min took the paper and looked down at it. “What does it say?”
“Just a note.”
“You know this man too? Like at the other place?”
“Yes. Now please go and give it to him. He may ask you to wait while he writes a reply. Go now.”
Min hurried across the street and into the shop. Chung-Cha could see the man through the window as Min walked up to the counter. There were no other customers in the shop. He had gotten this job very quickly, because after the summer season was over, many of the young people who performed these tasks went back to the mainland.
She watched as the man read the note and then wrote out a reply for Min to take back. He took a minute to put together some things for Min in a plastic bag, as though she had purchased them.
Min came back across the street with the bag in her hand. She gave Chung-Cha the note and they walked together back to their car. Chung-Cha sat in the driver’s seat and read the coded note twice over while Min sat looking at her.
“Something is wrong, Chung-Cha,” said Min as Chung-Cha folded up the note and put it in her pocket. “You do not look good.”
“I am fine, Min. Just fine.”
They drove back to the cottage in silence. When they got there Chung-Cha turned on the fireplace and made herself and Min some hot tea. They sat on the floor in front of the fire.
Finally Min said, “Why did you take me from Yodok?”
Chung-Cha kept her gaze on the flames. “Are you happy that I did so?”
“Yes. But why me?”
“Because you reminded me of…me.” She glanced at Min to find her gaze full upon her. “Many years before you were there, Min, I was also at that place. I was not born at Yodok, as you were, but I went there at such a young age that I cannot remember my life before Yodok.”
“Why did you go there?”
“I was sent there. Because my parents spoke out against our country’s leaders.”
“Why would they do that?” asked an astonished Min.
Chung-Cha started to shake her head and then said, “Because they once had courage.”
Min’s eyes widened, as though she could not believe what she had just heard. “Courage?” she asked.
Chung-Cha nodded. “It takes courage to speak your heart, when others do not want you to.”
Min thought about this as she sipped her tea. “I guess it does.”
“Like when you were defiant in the camp, Min. That took courage. You did not let the guards break you.”
Min nodded. “I hated the guards. I hated everyone there.”
“They made you hate everyone, even the ones who were like you. That is what they do, so the prisoners will not rise up against them. Instead, they would turn on each other. It makes the guards’ job much easier.”
Min nodded again. “Because people snitch on each other?”
“Yes,” said Chung-Cha. “Yes,” she said more emphatically.
“That boy on the beach?” began Min.
“What of him?”
“Do you think he would let me pick up shells with him?”
Chung-Cha froze at this suggestion. “I do not think that would be a good idea, Min,” she said slowly.
“Why not?”
“Just not a good idea. I will be back in just a few minutes.”
Chung-Cha went into her room and sat down in front of a small desk set against one wall. She took the note out and read through it once more.
The man had voiced his concerns about the presence of Robie and Reel with the first family. He had broached the idea of calling off the hit and waiting for another opportunity.