Fiction REINCARNATION, Vol. 1

Miraculous Recovery

<43> Miraculous Recovery

Where am I? I feel like I'm in bed, but I can't open my eyes. My whole body aches and pains. I want to wake up, but my body doesn't listen and my mind wanders. Suddenly, scenes of childhood unfolded before my eyes and memories of a vigorous military march came back. Is this a dream or a reality? Like a broken computer's memory works at random, memories appear mixed up and then quickly cut off. A while ago, I seem to have seen customers walking around in my convenience store and residents working at the coffee plantation in Laos. My thoughts and memories don't connect coherently and they just snap off. What the hell happened to me? Now I'm standing in front of the gate of my hometown and can hear my friend's voice.

"Dae-geun, there comes the groom."

"I'll let my father know."

I ran into the house with my friend, Sang-ho. My sister, Lee Myung-hee, is getting married today. After graduating from high school, she was working at a bank in Choongju City when she met the groom through a matchmaker. These days, wedding ceremonies are being held at urban wedding halls. However, we decided to hold a traditional wedding ceremony at home according to grandfather's insistence. And now my brother-in-law and his party have arrived at the bride's house for the ceremony.

"Dad, my brother-in-law has arrived."

"Okay, I'll go out."

My friend looks at me with envious eyes as my father goes out the gate. He is the eldest of a family of three sons, so he always envied my house with my brothers and sister.

"Dae-geun, your sister looks happy."

"I don't know if she is happy or not. She grabbed my hand yesterday and cried."

"I'm sure your sister didn't cry because she didn't want to get married. Your sister took good care of you and your brother Hyung-geun. Don't you feel bad about your sister getting married?"

"I've got a brother-in-law, so there's something good about it."

"What if your sister only takes care of the groom and his family? Then you'll be robbed of your sister."

"Even so, I can't help it. My grandfather always told his only granddaughter, 'You're not my family if you're married. You must share your fate with your husband and his family no matter what.' He treated my sister as if he were going to kick her out."

"I don't know why older people treat women so differently."

After a while, my father met my brother-in-law's family, greeted them with a loud voice, and went into the yard together. The wedding will begin soon. I think I saw two families and villagers packed in my yard, but the scene suddenly disappeared. It's a scene of my sister's wedding in my hometown in the mid-1990s when I was a sixth grader. So why did it show up and disappear? As I pondered on what the scene had to do with me now, I was losing my mind again. And I think I fell into a deep sleep.

How much time has passed? It was early in the morning and I felt cluttered around. I heard my family crying and someone shook me up. It was my elder brother, Lee Sung-geun.

"Dae-geun, get up. Grandfather is likely to die soon."

After I entered a high school in Choongju City, I went to school at my sister's house. Yesterday, I was informed that my grandfather was in critical condition, and ran to my hometown with my sister. My grandfather, who cared more about me than anyone else, had fought his illness hard for months, and now he seems to have difficulty recovering. He was very thin and didn't seem to have the energy to say a word. But when he saw me, he had a light smile on his face. I clasped his cold hand and wailed. My grandfather's haggard looks made me very sad, but there was nothing I could do. I just went out with the last greeting, 'Cheer up, Grandpa.'