창작과 비평

Once they got as far as the first town in the area the bus had to slow down because motorcycles and mini-tractors kept getting in the way. The rice mill, post office, clothes store, and fire station that made up the town stood next to each other. Next came the elementary school playground with wall bars, a jungle gym, seesaw, and swing set planted in the middle. Then there were fields and rice paddies one after another. Beyond them in the distance would be groups of renovated traditional houses huddled close together. After passing a few more towns that looked pretty much the same the road narrowed and the pavement came to an end. After that it was all gravel. The bus shook as it went along the unpaved road and threw the woman about in her seat.
Thick rows of red pines stood at the sides of the road. Their shadows made it look as if the road was wet. Only after about twenty minutes on the gravel did the view clear up and the sea could be seen in the distance. It looked like it was low tide because the water was almost as far as the horizon.
The bus stopped in the parking long so they got off and followed the trail. It had been a long time since there had been any visitors and the trail was overgrown with weeds to the point where there was not much left of it. The growth was as high as her knees scratched at her calves as the woman made her way.
The horrid remains of the building had long been cleared away. The place where it once stood had grown thick with weeds. They never got around to filling up the swimming pool. A dead pigeon was floating in the rainwater that had gathered at the deep end.
A small boat was stuck in the silt exposed by the tide. The day her daughter left for summer camp the woman cut the mouth off of a plastic bottle and tied string to holes she punched in the side. According to the schedule they would go digging in the silt to find clams and crabs with plastic bottles. Her daughter hung the string around her neck and jumped up and down in excitement as she told her she would come back with the bottle filled with crabs.
It was not easy finding where room 204 of section B had been, the place where the fire had started. A few of the men and women moved about guessing and arguing over where was the right spot. A mat was spread on the ground. A low table was set up and the frames holding the children's pictures were placed upright next to each other. Favorite toys like a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll and little motor car were placed in front of their pictures.
Hun's mother placed pieces of the chicken, now cold from the air conditioned bus, in front of her son's picture and dropped plump down on the ground. The woman's husband placed the bouquet of chrysanthemums, the ones that reminded her of a fully steamed bean paste bun, in front of her daughter's picture and looked into the sun that stood above his head. There was not the least bit of shade to hide to hide under. Tears left salt on her face. They burned when they got to her lips.
Room 204 in section B which was located between the two other sections of the structure. The fire swallowed the whole of section B in seconds. The children in Room 204 were the ones that had nodded off to sleep earlier than the others. Being a mountainous area there were a lot of mosquitoes. One of the teachers had lit a mosquito coil and left the room. There were rumors of all kinds. Some said the door had been locked from the outside to keep the children in. They said that with the children asleep the teachers to the beach and started drinking. By the time they smelled something burning the fires was already out of control. Room 204 was at the end of the hallway and they could not get anywhere near it because of the flames and the sting of the smoke. Twenty-two children from the Forsythia Class of Morning Star Kindergarten had been in that room. Shockingly enough they said it was the mosquito coil that started the fire.
The fire was out completely by the time the woman arrived at the scene. The structure had collapsed in a pile of ashes with the steel melted and bent out of shape. The portable freight containers houses it had been made from were each a horrible monstrosity and you could see the insides packaging of their walls. What was left of the structure was black like a kettle, covered with the mixture of ash and water from the fire engine. The woman stood next too it and cried out her daughter's name until she fainted. Hers was one of the twenty-two lost in the fire.