By Kim Heung-sook
As a sunlit house is a blessing in the winter, it is as much a curse in the summer. Here is the story of a woman who lives in a sunny home. Struggling to beat the heat, she pulls down the window shades to the bottom first thing in the morning, but the sunrays creep onto the floor like silent, industrious bugs. She dips her burning buttocks, limbs and torso in a tub of piped water only to find the water warming before it takes a few degrees off her body.
Out of the tub, she is amazed at how fast the water on her skin evaporates and is replaced by salty sweat. She turns on an electric fan and feels the wonderful sensation aroused by the artificial wind. Wind is wind, whether generated by man or nature, she acknowledges. At the moment at least, she can understand people who don’t mind beautification through plastic surgery.
Ten minutes into the wind, she feels its warmth escalating and is tempted to head for an air-conditioned café. Buy the cool air and a nice café latte just for 4,000 won, part of her says. At the same time, a sense of guilt lurks in her mind, telling her that having a latte in a cool café without a justifiable reason is wrong. Think about all those working in the sun!
Part of her gives up on going out, yet part of her insists that going to one of the three cafés in her neighborhood would be the wisest thing to do under the circumstances. Calculations and justifications continue, as she walks towards the cafes and finally chooses Café H. Within three minutes in the café, her skin dries and her body heat goes down. She can tell that she is more focused on her reading and writing than any other time this summer. She even has a hunch that she will create a really wonderful piece.
Just then, a group of five ladies in their 40s marches into the café, awaking dozers scattered around. When they order, the whole café knows that they want two lattes, two Americanos and a huge bowl of ``patbingsu,” the ice flakes topped by sweet red beans, sweetened milk and numerous other ingredients.
The group keeps the audience, no matter how unwilling they are, informed of everything as they talk about one very important topic ― how to improve their children’s academic performance. A self-appointed keynote speaker asserts that there are two things mothers should do for their sons and daughters during the summer vacation. First, they should enhance the children’s English skills. Second, they should make the children read as many books as possible.
When one ardent discussant emphasizes that the children need to read three or four books a week, another snaps: ``You must be talking about non-vacation days. It is vacation time and their volume of reading needs be raised.” Another agrees breathlessly: ``Absolutely! They should read a book a day during vacation when they are free!”
The second keynote speaker reports on her recent discovery of a ``real good” English teacher. ``She has been teaching English to junior high school students for nearly 10 years in private. She is terrific though she is a little expensive. She gets twenty from each for two for two.” The youngest-looking woman follows immediately, ``Who would mind paying thirty if only she is really good!” Their words are coded.
Having closed her notebook, the woman from the sunlit house shuts her eyes, too. She is curious to know if the children will comply with all the demands of their mothers. As if to satisfy her curiosity, two chubby boys come in through the back door of the café. ``Have you done well at the institute?” the mothers sing in unison. ``Of course, I did,” the boys reply likewise. No hints of complaint or disobedience in their voices.
It is apparent that the boys, if asked what they want to be in the future, will respond without hesitation, ``Whatever my mother wants me to be.” The mothers may have invaded their children’s dreams all through their lives and planted their own yearnings and hopes in the unsuspecting minds and hearts through “Inception,” she reasons.
Then suddenly she wonders about herself. Did anyone ``extract” my original nature and inclination and plant an obsession with justice into my subconscious mind? Perhaps, I, as well as the children, need ``kicks” to wake up from the lives we perceive as ours, she observes as she slips deeper into her sleep.