창작과 비평

Three busses waiting at the front gate of Deoksu Palace, where everyone was supposed to meet. The narrow sidewalk was a bustling mixture of people on their way to work and others leaving on day trips out of town. Passers by accidentally kicked the cooler, the carton of alcoholic drinks, and the plastic bags filled with fruit and canned drinks they had set on the sidewalk.
One of the drivers had posted a sign reading 'Morning Star Kindergarten' in the window of his bus and was out smoking a cigarette while he had the engine running. He was looking up at the electric news board that stood atop the building across the street. Headlines from the morning papers were rapidly moving across the screen. It had been Hun's mother who had called to tell her where and when they would be gathering but it looked like she had not arrived yet. The woman set her shoulder bag on the ground and leaned against the palace walls. The corner of the frame that held her daughter's picture had poked at her thigh as she came on the subway.
A large woman came towards the bus, her body shaking as she ran. Once she had checked the sign on the bus she stopped and wiped the sweat from her face. It was Hun's mother. It seemed like she had gained a lot of weight in the two months since they had last met. She had a tiny freckle on her left cheek. She recognized the woman and immediately grabbed her hand. You could smell artificial seasoning coming from the plastic bag her shoulder. Her eyes blinked constantly as she smiled at the woman.
"I looked all over for a place that does fried chicken this early in the morning. I must've been to ten places. Finally I found a small place attached to where the owners live. Fried chicken was our son's favorite. I just had to bring some."
Familiar faces appeared next to the bus one by one. They were all people the woman had met over the past year as part of the parents' committee. They acknowledged each other from a distance but some of the men shook hands. The bus driver opened the cargo door but closed it before long. All people had were handbags and backpacks.
The bus reeked of gasoline. The woman held her nose. The blue vinyl seat covers made her eyes dizzy. There were water marks on the aisle floor as if it had been washed just before coming. Near her knees on the back of the seat in front of her was a cloth mesh storage pocket with a stamina drink bottle in it. Miseon's father started at the back of the bus and counted those who had gotten on until he stood next to the driver's seat. He acted as chairman of the parents' committee and was responsible for renting the bus and other little things.
Out from the subway entrance came her husband. He came in great strides once he had found the right bus. In one arm he had his suit coat and in the other he held some chrysanthemums that were in perfect bloom. He held the flowers in the air as if to keep them from being bumped into and loosing any petals. It kept him from moving as quickly as he might have liked to. Once they were passing in front of a flower shop. The owner was outside in touching up some chrysanthemums that were part of a mourning arrangement. Leaves and white petals were scattered about the ground out into the middle of the sidewalk. The owner had cut off the leaves and stems and was fixing the blossoms to the round styrofoam base. Her daughter pointed at the arrangement with her finger. Look, mommy. It looks just like a steamed bun with bean paste inside. She could still hear her daughter's voice but her face was as faint as it was in the picture taken on a spring picnic in front of Myeongjeong Hall.
Her husband briefly greeted the people seated towards the front of the bus as he came and sat beside her. She leaned over in his direction. He had hurried so much to get there on time that breathed heavily long after he had been seated. His shirt was wrinkled, and he had ring-around-the-collar. You could smell the urinous odor unique to chrysanthemums. Stopping to buy them must have been why he was late.
Once past the Sin'gal interchange they got in the bus-only lane and picked up speed. It was vacation season and in the other lanes were cars stuck in a standstill one right after another. Every time the bus driver applied the brakes the woman felt like she was about to throw up. This was partly because of the smell of seasoned chicken coming from Hun's mother somewhere towards the back. The air conditioning gave her forearm goose bumps yet the closed space kept the smell inside.
A karaoke machine was installed in the overhead luggage area near the driver's seat. The driver probably first thought he was taking a group of tourists and only figured things out when Miseon's father told him where they were going. He had been chewing on gum ever since he turned off the radio. Once in a while a buss full of tourists would go by. People would be in the aisle dancing as they clumsily shook their upper bodies.