Page 3

"Paint?" his father had asked, when he mentioned it later. "Whatever for?"

"It’s ugly," young Park had tried to explain. "It looks dirty."

"We can’t afford to paint the place," his father had snapped, and that was that.

Park had cut out pictures of flowers and mountains from the papers and stuck them over the worst of the faces, but they had just looked tacky and drawn attention to the faces he couldn’t cover up.  Especially, Kim Jong Il, whose face, framed by a view of Mount Myohyangsan and a snowbound field, looked as though it were positively leering. He had ended up taking all the pictures down again, and throwing them away.

He hadn’t dared ask Kim Mi Hyun to come back home with him again. In fact, he’d only met her once more alone.

It had been the night before he’d left town to travel to Rason for his induction into the Navy. He’d waited for her in the street and met her as she’d walked home, alone.

"I’ll be leaving tomorrow," he’d said.

She’d nodded, not looking directly at him. "Yes, I heard. So you’ve decided on a career in the Navy?"

He’d shrugged. "It’s a job. So...you know, when I get done with training, I’ll have quarters. Maybe you could come visit then."

"Me – a civilian in naval accommodation? Don’t be daft. They’d never allow me in."

"I didn’t mean it quite that way. I was thinking...perhaps we might get married someday, or something."

"Marry you?"

"I just had the idea..."

Mi Hyun had glanced up at him quickly under her eyelashes. "I don’t know, Kang Ho," she’d said. "I used to imagine I understood you. But sometimes I look at you across the room, and I try to guess what you’re thinking – and I can never find anything. It’s like you’ve put up a wall around your mind. I just don’t feel comfortable with you any longer."

Park had swallowed painfully. "Well, perhaps you might change your mind."

She’d smiled, just a little. "Maybe. We’ll see. Well, I’m home now. Have a good trip."

But when he’d gone home on leave, he hadn’t met her. Later he’d heard that she’d married a railway official, or a doctor, or something like that. Nobody was sure and nobody cared either way. Most of them barely remembered who she was.

Park shook his head. Why had he allowed his mind to wander from his hometown to Kim Mi Hyun? He tried to think of what he’d heard about the new changes in the town his mother had written about. There was a new shopping mall, where even the ordinary people could go, she’d said, with shelves full of Chinese products. There was also a huge park, with thick beds of flowers and benches to sit on, she’d said, and included a couple of photos. The benches seemed occupied by young lovers.

When I get through with this mission, Park thought, I’ll be due for leave. I’ll go home and buy gifts for my parents at the mall, see the flowers and the paths for myself, and sit on the benches. Who knows, Mi Hyun might even be there. Maybe she didn’t get married after all. Maybe she’ll change her mind about me.

Yeah, and maybe one of the pigs in the pen behind the petty officer’s quarters at Haeju Naval Base would sprout wings and fly in through the window.

"Sangsa? Hey, Park!"

Park’s eyes snapped open at the voice. Lee was staring across at him. "What the hell are you doing? Falling asleep?"

"No, Comrade Daewi. I was concentrating on the sonar."

"Yeah? Well, is there anything on it, if I might ask?"

Park shook his head. "Nothing, Comrade Daewi." At least he had been listening, though he had heard nothing. "Nothing at all."

Lee grunted. "We’re getting close. You get changed, both of you."

Park removed the headphones and stood up reluctantly. The Southern puppet soldier’s uniform they’d given him was too tight across the shoulders, too short in the sleeves and trousers, and he felt ridiculous in it. But they couldn’t risk being identified if caught ashore, of course – not if the mission were to succeed.

[ Continue to page 4 ]