Beasts of a Little Land(28)
“What might that be?” Yamada asked.
“I find that they are more headstrong than our geisha, who are like water, soothing and yielding. These Joseon courtesans have fire—they will fight you with passion. But there is such a distinct pleasure to be had at overcoming their resistance. It’s like cracking the shell of a walnut to get to the meat inside.” Ito winked, making a lewd gesture with his hands.
Just then, a pair of very young apprentices walked past with linked arms, smiling winningly at the crowd, and Ito cried, “Look at those baby courtesans. Adorable, aren’t they? Charming!”
AS THEY NEARED THE END of the parade, Jade suddenly felt overwhelmed by all the strangers so pointedly looking at her. The subtle weight of Lotus’s right elbow resting on her left elbow reassured her, and she tried to suppress her anxieties. In her other arm Jade carried a basket of cosmoses and mums, cut just that morning from Dani’s garden. Once in a while, Lotus reached over to the basket with her left hand and tossed the flowers at the crowd. Each time the petals rained down, people cheered and clapped.
“Now you try, it’s really fun,” Lotus whispered, taking the basket from Jade.
“I don’t think I can throw far like you!” Jade said in a panic. Then they both giggled secretively.
“Don’t be silly, they weigh nothing,” Lotus coached. “Just don’t think about it too much and don’t throw them right at people’s faces.”
Jade took a handful of flowers in her hand and tossed them to her right. The petals were carried by a light blue breeze and floated for a moment before fluttering down, making pink, white, and violet patterns in the atmosphere. The crowd clapped, mesmerized. The city streets shot through with sunshine, the feeling of her shoes crunching on the packed sand—it all filled her lungs with something besides air. Here was something that Jade hadn’t known was possible: a sense of being free. She nearly wanted to flap her arms like wings. Resisting the fancy, she instead laughed and carelessly tossed a flower, which soared through the air and hit a boy in the face.
JUNGHO HAD BEEN WATCHING the parade of courtesans with intense fascination, standing between Loach, YoungGu, and the dog. YoungGu and JungHo had become close friends as boys often do after a good fistfight. The dog was a new addition to the group: one day in September, YoungGu found it wandering underneath the bridge, dirty and emaciated but still energetic. JungHo and Loach had both wanted to sell it to the butcher, but YoungGu looked ready to get into another fight. JungHo finally relented and let YoungGu keep the dog, as long as he fed it from his own share of food. Thereafter, YoungGu split his own meager ration with the dog and tenderly picked its fur for fleas, which he squished between his fingers. The dog was always within a few feet of YoungGu, and proved to be surprisingly useful for finding crowded places to beg. They had been roaming aimlessly when the dog led them to the parade and sat down on its haunches in front of the spectators, as if it too wanted to enjoy the sight.
Until then, JungHo had never realized that women could be so beautiful. The courtesans were almost like a different kind of people from all the women he’d known previously. The sight was so overwhelming that his stomach felt sick, but he couldn’t look away. He noticed at the end of the parade a pair of girls closer to his age. They were about the same medium height and build, and dressed in identical costumes of long bud-green robes over a pink skirt. Objectively they were both little girls with ordinary faces, too young for their approaching beauty to be discerned. But his eyes were immediately fastened on one of them, as if he’d been searching precisely for her. She had a round face—especially set off by the strict center part from the hairline to the crown of her head—a pair of bright eyes, and cheeks like apples, slightly reddened from the crisp fall air. That and not much more, but that was all that was needed.
As he stared at her, she grabbed a cosmos blossom from the basket and threw it directly at his face, smiling radiantly. He met the soft flower with terror at the thought that she was taunting him on purpose—and euphoria, for the same reason. Noticing his amazement, Loach and YoungGu broke into laughter and began teasing him mercilessly, but JungHo couldn’t even find it in himself to be irritated. The consciousness of something wonderful had entered his heart, though he did not yet know what it was.
7
The Escape
1918
IT IS A CONDITION OF YOUTH TO HAVE AN UNQUESTIONING BELIEF that life is a steady progression. Jade took it for granted that one step must follow another, and that she had caught a certain forward momentum at the parade that would take her into adulthood. So she was surprised and disappointed when nothing changed in the smallness of their daily routine. Dani still didn’t allow them to go beyond five houses in either direction. Jade obeyed as she always had, but dust began to settle over the loveliness of the house. She’d seen that just a little outside their neighborhood, there were shows, music, wealthy housewives imitating the fashions of courtesans, starry-eyed high school students in newsboy caps, gentlemen in high collars and monocles, stores selling all manner of delicacies. The world pulled at her, irresistible and real like the first hot day of summer. But she was cut off from everything, walled up in the middle of Seoul. As winter set in, Jade developed a habit of going out alone and sitting at the end of their street, the farthest point from the house that Dani would allow. It was on one of these afternoons that she noticed a strange boy around the neighborhood.