Korean Friendship

Chapter 1

My father always told me not to go to the north side, I never knew why, that is until I crossed the border and I made a friend, a friend I remembered for the rest of my life. Heres my story, heres how it all started, how it began, how i made a friend.

It was cold that night, January 24th 1972, my father made me stay in so i had to sit at home and play with my little brother Hyo, he was only two so it wasn't much fun. My father was looking very carefully at what we were doing then looked into the rainy outdoors and back to us and then to the outdoors again and back to us, over and over again. Ever since mother died, he'd always kept a special eye out for us, for the past few weeks he hasn't even been letting us out of the moon garden by ourselves; there's a shop round the corner and whenever he needs something, i always offer to go and get it but he says no. Last time he was so scared we had to go to sleep without dinner, boy was my stomach rumbling badly that night?

The gigantic antique grandfather clock we got from the last trip to London with mother bellowed 9:00pm, father always made us go to bed on the dot nowadays, i think he's worried, something to do with the border of North Korea and South Korea. We live in Janggok on a high hill so we can just about see the border line. I could tell it was to do with the border since he keeps looking out towards it and he always buys these weird big Korean maps. You would think an un-educated thirteen year old girl wouldn't understand what was on the map but watching my father do his work and helping him, i picked up a few things. 

Every night it's the same routine, i brush my teeth, get into bed, look out the window at all the northern city lights and eventually get to sleep. This night it looked different, so different it looked as if heaven dropped with a bang on earth. "How comes we can't go over there?" i thought to myself before wrapping myself into my warm cosy blanket and slowly drooping into my bed. I slept that night with thoughts, lots of thoughts, thoughts about the north and how i dreamed of one day maybe going there but then a horrible negative rock will come crashing down and remind me that it would never happen besides dreams will always remain dreams for us.

The next morning, i woke up bright and early to get all the work i needed to do done. After mother had died, i had to become the mother of my family, this meant taking care of my little brother when my father went to work. I didn't really mind it as it had given me a chance to show my dad that i could take care of myself alone and prove him wrong. I had just finished putting out the laundry and i was preparing breakfast when i suddenly looked outside the kitchen window again, the north looked even better now. It was so nice and loud over there, so lively, so exciting but where i lived was so dull and dead as a rabbit being run over and then a fox eventually coming to eat it.

My father eventually awoke as well but quite happily, and so did my little brother but he woke up crying as always. I served the fish, mash and peas on mine and my fathers plate and started feeding my little brother some of my mash. My father literally swooped into his chair and smiled "Where do you want to go today Eun? I'll take you anywhere! Boy, has business been great!" cried my father, he worked as a manager of a factory... a shampoo factory so i never really mentioned it to any neighbours. Today was his day off, he always takes us somewhere on his day off as he only gets it once every two weeks, he is a manager of course. Today he didn't need to remind me not to open the door, to lock the door and windows then he would lock the door from the outside, not to mention locking the moon garden gate as well although, that would do nothing, it was so short a six year old would be able to hop over.

I looked out through the window again, maybe i could take this happy opportunity to ask him, ask him what happens there? What it is? Could we maybe possibly go over there? But no, i had to get up and just ask the last question "Father, can we go over there?" I pointed towards the bright lights and cheery people. Father got up and slammed his fists against the table "No! How dare you even ask that stupid question! Do you know what that is? Well do you?" I slowly nodded from left to right frightened of my father "Then don't you dare ask!"

The rest of the day my father was angry, we didn't go anywhere that day, or for the next two day offs. I felt bad. I didn't want my father to get annoyed like that, i just wanted to go there, thats all and my little brother, I'd felt sorry for him too, because of me he was stuck at home. I tried to play with him to entertain him but most of the time i was far too busy. He always came to me and tugged at my dress to play but i always had to delay him. After fathers reaction to what i said, it made me even more curious as to why we couldn't go there? What was in there that my father didn't like or disapprove of? I had to find out...