Beasts of a Little Land(41)

*

ON HER THIRD MORNING IN JAIL, Dani woke up with a nauseating wetness on her lower body and realized that she’d urinated in her sleep. Since getting arrested at the March, she had held herself instead of pissing straight onto the floor like the others. There was no chamber pot in the women’s cell. They weren’t getting water either, but she’d nonetheless felt the poison building pressure and spreading throughout her body, turning her skin yellow. Before she fell asleep the previous night, she—an intelligent and courageous woman—could think of no greater wish or pleasure than pissing like a waterfall, utterly alone.

As Dani gained full consciousness, the sheer, dumb, bodily relief turned into shame, and she cried for the first time since her arrest. No other inmate remarked on her accident or her sobbing, but they didn’t comfort her either. In prolonged destruction, there was no spirit of unity such as the one they had shared in face of a quick and heroic death.

The door at the end of the hallway clanked open, and a soldier approached with a bucket. Dani braced for him to throw the water into the cell, as he did so the past two days to dampen the putrefying smells. But he set the bucket down and called out.

“Kokoni Kimu Dani iru?”

She stood up, wobbling on her weakened legs. “Watashiga Kimu Dani desu.”

The soldier wrinkled his nose and put a fat finger to his nostrils, as if he could sense her stench growing stronger with her movement. His wispy mustache, waxed and curled like the f-hole of a violin, shook lightly as he beckoned her with his other hand.

“Out,” he said, opening the door.

No other explanation was given, but Dani knew who had saved her. She stumbled out of the cell before the guard could change his mind. As he locked the door once more, she didn’t look back at the others still inside.

ALL DANI COULD DO in the first few hours of her release was wash herself and drink water. Then she fell onto the clean warmth of her bed and slept for an untold amount of time. She felt she never wanted to go outside her room or speak to anyone again. She wished to hole up in her cocoon and jealously guard her body, energy, and sanity. It took her days to summon Luna’s baby, and even then she barely held her or told the girls that they’d all done such a good job. Jade tried to tell her about her friend who brought over the midwife, but Dani merely shrugged.

“But without him, Luna would never have made it,” Jade persisted in a small voice. “She could’ve died.”

“That’s enough,” Dani snapped. “Luna didn’t die, did she? Many, many people did die and I almost did as well. Now leave me alone, I need to rest.”

While she recuperated, Dani was absorbed only in waiting for the Judge. A week later when he finally came to her house, she was wearing her most becoming outfit, a dress from Paris decorated with jet beads. A necklace of diamonds glittered at her throat, and a single magnolia was pinned to her chest. Her skin gleamed like marble under the black velvet; her red lips had the look of suede.

“You look pale,” the Judge said in Japanese upon seeing her. Dani smiled her most deferential smile, reaching out and taking his mottled hand. She raised it to her lips for a kiss, then pressed it against her décolletage.

“I haven’t been myself lately, as you know . . .” she replied. “Still, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

The Judge merely looked back at her, and Dani filled the void by pouring his sake. Next to the lacquered serving table, she’d put the rest of the earliest magnolias into a late eighteenth-century vase, knowing that would please her patron. With his cloudy eyes, the Judge saw and noticed everything and formed his conclusions quietly and precisely.

A faint yet voluptuous scent of the magnolias filled the room. But more than the flowers’ beauty and fragrance, the Judge appreciated that the tree outside was stripped bare of its first blossoms for his sake—and that Dani knew exactly how his mind worked. That was what he had always found most attractive about Dani: he admired her looks and poise, but was seduced by her singular ability to communicate beneath the surface. It was an elegance of the mind.

“You see, I have two friends who are still in custody. They are just as innocent as I am,” Dani began speaking again.

“One is my maid, Hesoon, who has served me faithfully over the years. She was only accompanying me on errands when we got caught up by the crowd. They put her in a different cell with all the commoners, so I don’t know how she could be doing, the poor girl. She knows nothing, understands nothing, and can be guilty of nothing,” Dani explained.

“The other is a cousin of mine. I don’t know his whole story, why he was arrested . . . But I am sure he is also innocent, as he is not in the least political. As far as his family background goes, it is of the best: his father is a wealthy landowner down in the country, and his great-uncle is a former finance minister with a famous Jongno mansion that has ninety-nine rooms. He went to university in Tokyo, as well. His name is Lee MyungBo.”

“Lee MyungBo? Your cousin?” the Judge asked with eyes lowered over his sake.

“Yes.”

“I did not know you had Lee cousins. On your mother’s side, I assume?”

Dani blushed slightly, before replying, “Yes. On my mother’s side.”

The Judge sighed. “Lee MyungBo is one of the thirty-three signers who were arrested at MyungWol. Even I can’t just release him. But I can try to mitigate his sentence, and in the meantime, make him a bit more comfortable in jail. As for your maid, that should not be difficult.”