창작과 비평

Hun's mother had collapsed herself near the front of the store. She shouted.
"Don't you think it could have just as well been a boy if it had short hair?"
Suddenly there was excitement among the parents of the boys.
"There's no way. It walked like a girl, no doubt about it. And it had its heels hanging over the back of its sneakers."
Another woman cried out. "That's our girl! She always wore her sneakers with her heels hanging over the end!"
The eyes of the women came alive with excitement. A late middle-aged woman walked in, making her way between everyone as she knocked dust off her pants with a towel. She was angry with the man as soon as she saw him.
"I see we've been pouring down the drinks in the bright of day. What am I going to do? How can I go on working my skin to the bones all by myself like this? It's like pouring water in a bottomless jug."
The man faked a cough in response. Everyone turned to the man again.
"Try to think some more. Can you remember anything else?" someone asked.
"Not really. It walked right by. And it was kind of dark."
The middle-aged woman raised her voice.
"Darn it. What is this nonsense? You people don't pay too much attention to what this gentleman says. He's got a bottle open all year round. He's even seen goblins walking around here."
The man burst out in a voice just as loud. "What's with you? You think I'm the only one who's goblins around here? Remember how Mister Choe the electrician said he's seen one, too?" He turned towards the mothers again. "The clothes were yellow, weren't they!"
"That's right!" said some of the women. They women patted their hands together as they listened to the man continue. But his wife interrupted.
"There you go again. All summer we had busses carrying children back and forth in front of here. Every day the store was full of children here for ice cream and stuff to drink. You're all confused. How could a kindergartner be walking around three kilometers from the campground at that hour? Doesn't make sense, does it… a child walking all alone in the dark of night like that. So you just keep your mouth shut about it. Don't be upsetting these folks any more than you already have."
If the kid had walked past the store at eleven it would have to have left the campground at about nine. There would not have been any cars passing by at that hour. It was a little much to think a six-year-old child would walk that far in the dark. Everyone was feeling weak from disappointment by the time they started getting back on the bus. The woman's husband held her as she tried to stand. The ground sank below her as if she had stepped in a small depression. The newly constructed road was glimmering in the sun in the distance, where it disappeared into the mountains. She felt dizzy and leaned with her hand against the window of the store, which was caked in dirt and dust. The man was still grumbling.
"I wasn't seeing things! I'm telling you I saw it with my own eyes. It had a pin on its chest the shape of a star."
The middle-aged woman ignored him.
"You must be some kind of ghost. Go in back and get some sleep."
The woman made it to her seat but the dizziness would not go away. A pin, of all things. She never wore stuff like that. If she had been wearing a pin of some sort they could have used it to identify her after the fire. Even if some child had walked past the store at that late hour it was not going to turn out to have been her daughter.
The area in front of Deoksu Palace was quiet when they arrived past midnight. It was completely different from the neon signs glimmering on the other side of the wide boulevard. The bus departed the moment everyone had gotten off. The men shook hands among themselves. The families of Jongseok and Mihyeon would be emigrating soon and it took people a while to say their goodbyes. Apparently they felt they could be free from thoughts of their children once under different skies in distant lands. The parents' committee refused to accept the official findings about the fire. It had demanded the government make a detailed look into the possibility that it was caused by a short circuit of electricity or something other than the mosquito coils. The government was not cooperating. Jongseok's mother said she couldn't take this country any longer. She momentarily grabbed the hands of some of the women.