Yom Sang-seop - Three Generations

After almost an hour of brutality, Gyeong-ae’s mother fumbled around in the dark to find her clothes, sobbing and wiping the tears away with stiff, rubbery hands. She followed the detective out to a brightly lit room. Her molars clattering against each other, she couldn’t shut her mouth; she didn’t even possess the energy to sit down. Her hands and feet felt as if they had been cut away from her body.

“There’s just one thing you need to say. This ranting and raving will get you nowhere, and your daughter will have to go through the same thing. If you love her at all, you’d better tell us what we want to know. We know everything, so don’t pull any tricks,” coaxed the detective.

No, she would endure it, for if she didn’t, she knew her daughter and Byeong-hwa would be subject to treatment several times harsher than hers.

When Sang-hun heard that his son had been arrested, he quietly stopped by the big house. It had been a while since his last visit. He knew that his son wasn’t guilty and that he’d be out after a few months in a detention cell. It might even be good for him. Sang-hun took the news lightly, figuring that it wouldn’t be inconvenient for him if his son were out of sight for a while. He would be able to do as he pleased.

Sang-hun’s wife refused to greet him, but his daughter-in-law welcomed him in.

“How’s the baby? Where is he?”

“He’s sleeping in the main room.”

Sang-hun’s wife wondered what had sparked the sudden interest in his grandson. Her husband went into the empty main room and remained quiet for a long time. Has he been watching his sleeping grandson all this time? “Go and see what he’s up to,” Sang-hun’s wife told her daughter-in-law.

In spite of the resentment San-hun felt for his own son, it was possible that he loved his grandson. The two women, however, didn’t trust his sudden devotion. They had found it hard to look him in the face that afternoon; his expression was oddly distorted, and his eyes wandered wildly. Was he now in dire need of money after inviting his concubine to live with him? Was he under the influence of opium?

The daughter-in-law hesitated before the door, made rustling sounds, and opened it a crack. “Is the baby still asleep?”

Sang-hun was fumbling in his son’s desk at the far end of the room. Startled, he looked toward the door. “Yes. Child, why don’t you come in for a minute?”

“Are you looking for something, sir?”

The desk drawers were all open.

“Do you know where he put the key to the cabinet in the outer quarters?”

“I don’t know. It should be there somewhere.” She knew that the keys were kept in the small safe at the front of the loft, and Deok-gi always carried the key to the small safe in his wallet.

“It’s just that during the funeral I left one of my documents in the cabinet, and I think the police would release Deok-gi if I could show it to them.” His eyes took on a faraway look, as if he were indeed in deep trouble. “Are you sure you don’t know?” he studied her face.

She didn’t like to deceive her elder, even if, admittedly, he behaved more like a young playboy. Now he had whirled into the house and had begun to ransack it for its valuables.

“Child, where is the small safe the grandfather used?”

The daughter-in-law opened the loft, took out the safe, and brought it to him.

His face brightened. “Bring me the key.”

“Your son always carries it with him.”

Sang-hun grew despondent again. Like a child playing with a toy, he tried to open it with other keys. By no means did he fit the picture of a dignified elder.

The daughter-in-law was about to leave when she asked, “Since the police want it, maybe we could send a messenger over to retrieve the key from my husband.” She didn’t know what he was after, but the possibility of her husband’s release tempted her.

“Forget it. We’ll open it some other way.”

The daughter-in-law went over to the other room and recounted the conversation to her mother-in-law. The old woman was furious. “That’s ridiculous! He’s making up stories to steal the key to the main safe — he knows it’s on the same key ring.”

She flung the door open. The daughter-in-law feared that there was going to be a scene and stayed put. She could hear the ruckus in the main room and the thump of the iron safe landing on the veranda.

Deok-gi’s wife could hear her mother-in-law bawling, “Do you want to see us kicked out on the street with a beggar’s bowl in our hands? Why are you here, making a fuss about small and big keys? You’re like a burglar in broad daylight! You might as well carry the safe away on your back. You put your son in that miserable place just to try to get your hands on it! You’re the one who should be locked up!”

Without replying, Sang-hun came out with his hat in hand. He told his daughter-in-law, “I wash my hands of it. Let the inspectors come for it themselves.”

Deok-hui arrived home from school shortly after he left. When she saw the disarray and everyone standing around unsure of what to do next, she flinched, imagining the scene that she must have just missed. Moments before, when she stepped off the streetcar, she caught sight of her father in the distance, but his eyes darted away from hers, and he walked off briskly. His indifference hurt her, and she turned around several times to watch him go.

At school and when she visited her friends’ houses, she talked freely and laughed as other girls did, but once in her own home, she felt stifled, as if something heavy weighed her down. She wanted to remove herself from all of them. It was enough to make her not want to come home.

Deok-hui didn’t get along very well with her mother, and even less so with her father. It frustrated her that her mother didn’t seem to care what was going on at school, and her constant complaints and frequent outbursts drove her to despair. She felt close to only one person in her family, her brother; he took the trouble to try to understand her. They were close in age, and he treated her with affection. But now he was in jail.

“Was Father here?” Deok-hui asked her sister-in-law. “What’s the matter? Did they fight?”

“No. He came to get the key to the safe.”

“My father’s pathetic,” Deok-hui sighed. “Deok-gi is in real trouble, but he can’t stop thinking about the safe. He’s losing his mind — he must be senile,” Deok-hui said under her breath as she entered her study room.

“Senile? How can he be senile when he’s not even fifty?” The mother resumed her harangue, sitting on the edge of the veranda. “He’s an overgrown child. You’d think he’s a man in his twenties by the way he falls over women.”

Deok-hui shut the door to her room. Other parents are not like this. Why do mine have to be so infuriating? Deok-hui envied her friend whose family ran a grocery. Both brother and sister lamented their lot of being born into a rich family.

As they were about to sit down for dinner, the old man watching the outer quarters in lieu of Secretary Ji came in, followed by Sang-hun, and two men clad in Western suits. There was no need to ask who they were.

“Where is it?” The detective was impatient.

Sang-hun scrambled up to the veranda and opened the door to the main room, obedient as a puppy. The detectives went in, saying that they would allow the inhabitant of the room to be present. Deok-gi’s wife stood closely behind her father-in-law. Her mother-in-law, Deok-hui, and the helpers stood on the veranda in mortified silence.