Chapter 39

39: Mina went downstairs where the people were already nervously sitting to breakfast.  She sat at a table with Bill and his son, her co-worker, Jeffrey.  "Did either of you manage to get any sleep?"
  "Not much.  I've been thinking about my wife, Sandy.  I think she's still alive where the Defectors are staying. If Chadwick makes it back here and is able to tell us where Rend's headquarters are, I would you, Jeffrey, to lead a rescue party to go find your mother.  I would like you to take the black truck.  It is large and powerful enough to handle the Revenant."
  Jeffrey was stunned by this.  His father had never let him drive the black truck, and wasn't sure if he could.  "Dad, I can't drive the black truck.  You've always driven it."
  "I have not always driven it.  It's your turn now.  Your mother is out there.  She needs you.  You can help her. I believe in you.  I know you can bring her back to us safely."  Jeffrey started to tear up.
  "Dad, you've always made me feel like I'm a little kid.  Now you want me to go out there and find mom?  What if I can't do it?"
  "Jeffrey, did I ever tell you about your grandfather?"
  "What do you mean?  What about him?"
  "I'm talking about why I hold him in such high regard.  Why you always know I'm serious when I swear on his grave.  There's a reason for that."  Bill took a sip of water before continuing.  "When your grandfather finished high school, he worked at a bank in Tangjin.  Back then in Korea, your parents were your matchmakers.  They arranged who you would marry.  He was matched with your grandmother and he thought she was beautiful.  The problem was that they lived 100 kilometers apart from each other.  Taxis were rare back then, but with the money he got from working at the bank, he paid for one every week to visit her.  He'd often bring a guitar, harmonica or flute so that he could serenade her.  Soon, they got married."
  Jeffrey looked like he was about to say something.  "Wait, Jeffrey.  Don't worry, I'm getting to the main part of the story.  That was just the set up.  So then, not too long after they got married, Japan invaded Korea.  Your grandfather drafted to fight for the Korean army.  He went to fight in Japan and was captured.  He was a prisoner of the Japanese.  He gathered a few men who wanted to escape and they hid in an abandoned building for a day or so while they tried to come up with a plan.  They built a fire during the night because the building had no electricity.  They had found an old empty can and an onion.  They had a little water so they boiled the onion in the can over the fire.  It tasted terrible without salt, but it kept them going.
  "The next day, there was an earthquake.  He and his two companions watched out the window of the building at the effects of the natural disaster.  Outside, a Japanese man was struck by a large chunk of fallen concrete.  The blood splattered onto the window my father was looking out of.  This frightened them so they waited until nightfall, left the building and made their way to the coast.
    "My father had a string of gold rings sewn into the seam of his pants, hidden from the Japanese.  He used a gold ring to pay someone for a boat.  The ocean was very dangerous with bad, high winds.  The three of them were almost killed, but they made it to the shore of Korea.
  "When he got to Tangjin, his family thought they were seeing a ghost because they were sure he was dead.  So many soldiers died in the Korean War.  When he got home, his travels had left him with a high fever which almost killed him.  The doctors in Tangjin nursed him back to health and saved his life.  He could have stayed in relative safety in Tangjin, but the love of his life was in another city.
  "Now at this time, North Korea had invaded Seoul.  Your grandmother had gone there to be with her family when my father had been sent off to war.  Nobody was allowed to leave the city.  The bridge over the Han River, connecting Seoul to the mainland had been destroyed.  Your grandmother was sick at that time.  She was hiding in the basement of the building her parents lived in.  Neighbors brought her food and other necessities.  One night, she had a dream that her husband would come to save her.  When she told her neighbors about the dream, they told her not to get her hopes up because no one could get into Seoul.
  "One day, someone who looked like a beggar approached the building.  No one recognized him, but from her hiding place in the basement, my mother could see that it was her husband.  The trip from Tangjin to Seoul had taken him over two weeks, but he had made it.  She ran to him.  He was all bloody and ragged.  She cleaned him up and her neighbors helped to bandage his wounds.  They had to get out of the city.
  "That night they made their way to the Han River.  There were many bodies floating in the water.  A lot of them had died trying to swim across the river.  Many had also frozen to death, since it was wintertime.  Still, they needed to cross to get away from that deathtrap.  Many other families were also trying to get across.  Many families were separated at that time.  Most of them never found each other again.  Recently, in Korea, there was a campaign to reunite people who had been separated from their families at that time.  Anyway, with the gold rings your grandfather had, they were able to get someone to help them cross.  It took them longer to get to Tangjin than he had taken to get to Seoul.  They finally made it to his family's house in Tangjin.
  "In the house, there was a loose floorboard that they were able to hide under whenever the North Koreans came around.  They were never sure when the house would be inspected by North Korean soldiers so they had to be constantly vigilant.  The time for Chusok came while they were in that house and your grandmother made some rice wine in order to honor their ancestors in the traditional ceremony.  Unfortunately, some soldiers came around, so the two of them had to get down to hide underneath the floorboards.  They had the alcohol with them under there.  The smell of it almost gave them away because the soldiers could smell it.  Fortunately, they weren't found.  The war soon ended and they survived."  Bill sat back and folded his hands into his lap.
  "Wow, I never knew that.  I mean, shit.  He really loved her," said Jeffrey.
  "You see, extreme heroism and bravery are in your blood.  You can have your band with you while you look for your mother.  Together you can face the odds."
  Jeffrey seemed to take some measure of comfort from this.  "I'll do it.  As soon as we find out where she is, we'll go and get her.  We're not just a band.  We've been friends through lots of shit.  You have no idea."
  "You know, I don't say this often enough, but I love you, son."
  For the first time in his life, Jeffrey actually believed his father.  "I love you too, dad."  They ate together in a warm and comfortable silence with many smiles and a few tears after that.

Chapter 14

14: Bill drove his black pickup truck with Barney in the passenger seat.  Mina rode with Kenn and Stratford, while Jeffrey and his band drove in the band's equipment van to the Happyville Playland Hotel of Wonders.  Bill was deep in thought about his wife during the nighttime drive.  The moonlight through the trees spelled out its calming poetry on his dashboard as he made his way closer to his destination.
  The moon had always held his fascination.  The day's events had left him with an empty place in his heart, but somehow the moonlight was a comfort to him because it reminded him of how he had met Sandy years ago.  He had only been five years old, living as the child of rice farmers in South Korea.
  It was the day of the Korean celebration of Chusok, during which families go to the graves of their ancestors to honor them.  It was similar in concept to the Spanish Day of the Dead.  Bill, whose Korean name is Ahn Young Su (Koreans put their family name before their given name), hated Chusok because he had to wear a traditional Korean silk robe called a han bok.  It was full of bright greens, purples, yellows, reds and blues which he thought made him look like a girl.
  His entire family had come to his house since his father was the eldest son of his deceased grandfather.  The women had prepared all the traditional food offerings.  There were rice cakes (dok), dumpling soup, pears, bowls of rice, and a reddish orange fruit called persimmons as well as the traditional Korean rice wine called mokoli.  There were also incense burners, candles and photographs of the beloved deceased.  Everyone made the annual walk to the grave site.
  During the long walk, little Young Su, which translates to "Chief", was daydreaming.  He looked up in the wide blue sky and saw what looked like a white rock in the sky.  He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life. He tugged on the sleeve of his mother's han bok and asked in Korean, "Mother, what's that rock?"
  She looked down at him and said, "It is the moon.  See the rabbit?"  Instead of the man in the moon that Americans see, Koreans see a legendary jumping rabbit of traditional folklore, within the heavenly orb.
  That answer didn't make sense to Young Su.  He was taught that the sun came out during the day and the moon came out at night.  He had seen the moon a thousand times at night, but never imagined that it could come out at daytime.  He hoped this would not be the only time he ever saw this.
  When his family reached his grandfather's burial mound, the adults offered the food, burned the incense and bowed to the grave.  The children were made to bow as well.  Young Su saw that nearby was another family who was honoring their ancestors also.  This was no new sight during Chusok, but then he saw her.  There was a little girl adorned in her own han bok, but when she wore it, it didn't look so garish.  On her it was a flower of adornment.  Pure beauty.  In one day, he had discovered the two most gorgeous things he had ever seen: a daytime moon and this girl.  It was the luckiest day of his life.  When he had finished bowing, he went to her.
  She had also finished bowing and was standing under a tree.  He asked her, "What's your name?"
  She looked at him and giggled and smiled.  "Lee Hae Yoo," she replied, then blushed and giggled some more.  It was the most glorious sound he had ever heard.  They spoke together for almost an hour before the adults had completed their honoring of the dead.  From that point on, Young Su looked forward to Chusok every year so that he could see Hae Yoo.  She lived in the next village.  When they were old enough, he went to see her whenever he could.
  His father died of stomach cancer when Young Su was seventeen and, since he was the eldest son, his family came to his house in Tangjin to celebrate Chusok.  His father had been buried in the family's plot of land right next to his grandfather's burial mound.  Young Su took his responsibility very seriously to honor his father's grave, but he was not going to let that shackle him to this provincial life.
  He had grown up planting and harvesting rice in the water-filled paddies, getting leeches on his legs.  He swore that he would not raise his children that way.  Throughout high school he worked at a local noodle stand and saved his money so that he could go to college.  All through college, he saved his money.  He and Hae Yoo dated all through their college years and got married once they graduated.  He had studied business and she studied accounting.  They had plans to start a business of their own, but the Korean economy was in poor shape.
  When Hae Yoo became pregnant with Jeffrey, the two of them decided to move to America to make a new life for themselves and raise their child.  His mother hated the idea and tried to talk him out of it, but their minds were made up.  They knew that their business would have a much better chance of succeeding in the land of the free.  The only thing Young Su regretted was leaving behind his father's grave.  His younger brother took on the annual responsibilities at Chusok.
  Their baby was born in the summer of 1979 at the Sierra Dophlet Memorial Hospital in Marble Cliffs, Arizona.  Young Su and Hae Yoo had started their modest little Asian grocery store and it was beginning to get recognized.  Just as many foreigners do when they arrive in the United States of America, the land of opportunity, they gave themselves more American sounding names.  Young Su was now William and Hae Yoo was Cassandra.  They named their son, Jeffrey and it never even occurred to them to give him a Korean name.  That little store of theirs kept growing in popularity and size over the years.  Their son also grew through the years.
  And now Sandy was gone.  This thought brought Bill out of his reverie and he struggled to hold back tears.  There would be plenty of time to grieve in his hotel room tonight.  There was much to do before then.  Bill concentrated on driving for now.