Adam Johnson - The Orphan Master's Son

“I have read that there is a syndrome,” the Dear Leader said. “In this syndrome, a female captive begins to sympathize with her captor. Often it leads to love. Have you heard of this?”

The idea seemed impossible, preposterous, to him. What person could shift allegiance toward their oppressor? Who could possibly sympathize with the villain who stole your life?

Ga shook his head.

“The syndrome is real, I assure you. The only problem is they say it sometimes takes years to work, which it seems we don’t have.” He looked at the wall. “When you said you understood how I felt, did you mean that?”

“I did,” he said. “I do.”

The Dear Leader studied closely the ridges of the key in his hand. “I suppose you do,” he said. “You have Sun Moon. I used to confide in her. Yes, I used to tell her everything. That was years ago. Before you came and took her.” He looked at Ga now, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’re still alive. I can’t believe I didn’t throw you to the Pubyok. Tell me, where am I going to find another girl rower? One who’s tall and beautiful and who listens, a girl whose heart is true and yet she still knows how to take the blood out of her friend with her bare hands?” He stuck the key in the lock. “So she doesn’t understand the words I say to her—she gets the meaning, I’m sure of it. And she doesn’t need words—everything she feels crosses her face. Sun Moon was that way. Sun Moon was exactly like that,” he said, and turned the key in the lock.

Inside, the Girl Rower was at her studies. Her notebooks were stacked high, and she was silently transcribing an English version of The Vigorous Zeal of the Revolutionary Spirit by Kim Jong Il.

The Dear Leader stood leaning against the open doorframe, admiring her at a distance.

“She’s read every word I’ve written,” he said. “That’s the truest way to know the heart of another. Can you imagine it, Ga, if that syndrome is real, an American in love with me? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate victory? A brawny, beautiful American girl. Wouldn’t that be the last word?”

Ga knelt next to her and slid the lamp across the table so he could get a better look. Her skin was so pale it seemed translucent. There was a rattle when she breathed from the damp air.

The Dear Leader said, “Ask her if she knows what a choson-ot is. I honestly doubt it. She hasn’t seen another woman in a year. I bet the last woman she saw was being killed by her own hands.”

Ga got her to lock eyes with him. “Do you want to go home?” he asked her.

She nodded.

“Excellent,” the Dear Leader said. “So she does know what a choson-ot is. Tell her I’ll have someone come fit her for one.”

“This is very important,” Ga said to her. “The Americans are going to try to come get you. Right now , in your notebook , I need you to write what I say: Wanda , accept—”

“Tell her she will get her first bath, too,” the Dear Leader interrupted. “And assure her it will be a woman that helps her.”

Ga went on. “Write exactly what I say: Wanda , accept food aid , dog , and books.”

While she wrote, he looked back at the Dear Leader, backlit by the corridor lights.

The Dear Leader said to him, “Maybe I should let her out, take her to that spa treatment at the Koryo Hotel. She might start to look forward to things like that.”

“Excellent idea,” Ga told him, then turned to the girl. Quietly, clearly, he said, “Add: Hidden guests bring a valuable laptop.”

“Maybe I should spoil her a little,” the Dear Leader mused, looking at the ceiling. “Ask her if there’s anything she wants, anything.”

“When we leave , destroy that paper,” Ga told her. “Trust me , I’m going to get you home. In the meantime , is there anything you need?”

“Soap,” she said.

“Soap,” he told the Dear Leader.

“Soap?” the Dear Leader asked. “Didn’t you just tell her that she was getting a bath?”

“Not soap,” Ga told her.

“Not soap?” she asked. “Toothpaste , then. And a brush.”

“She meant the kind of soap you clean your teeth with,” Ga told him. “You know, toothpaste and a brush.”

The Dear Leader stared first at her, then at him. He pointed the cell key at Ga.

“She grows on a person, doesn’t she?” the Dear Leader asked. “How can I give her up? Tell me, what do you think the Americans would do if they came here, returned my property, got humiliated, and left with nothing but bags of rice and a mean dog?”

“I thought that was the plan.”

“Yes, that was the plan. But all my advisors, they’re like mice in a munitions factory. They tell me not to anger the Americans, that I can only push them so far, that now that the Americans know the Girl Rower’s alive, they’ll never relent.”

“The girl is yours,” Ga said. “That is the only fact. People must understand that whether she stays or goes or becomes a cinder in Division 42, it is as you wish it. If the Americans receive a tutorial in this fact, it doesn’t matter what happens to her.”

“True, true,” the Dear Leader said. “Except I don’t want to let her go. Is there a way, you think?”

“If the girl met with the Senator and told him herself that she wished to stay, then maybe there would be no incident.”

The Dear Leader shook his head at that distasteful suggestion. “If only I had another girl rower,” he said. “If only our little killer here hadn’t done away with her friend, then I could have sent home the one I liked the least.” Here he laughed. “That’s all I need, right? Two bad girls on my hands.” He wagged his finger at her. “Bad girl , bad girl,” he said, laughing. “Very bad girl.”

Commander Ga produced his camera. “If she’s going to get cleaned up and fitted for a choson-ot ,” he said, “I’ll need to get a ‘before’ photo.” He neared her and squatted low to snap the picture. “And maybe an action shot,” he announced, “of how our guest has documented the amassed knowledge of our glorious leader Kim Jong Il.”

He nodded to her. “Now hold up the book.”

Commander Ga was squinting to make sure everything fit perfectly, the woman and her book, the note to Wanda—everything had to be in focus—when he saw through the viewfinder that the Dear Leader was crouching down and squeezing into the frame, his hand pulling her close by her shoulder. Ga stared at the strange and dangerous image before him and decided it was right that cameras were illegal.

“Tell her to smile,” the Dear Leader said.

“Can you smile?” he asked.

She smiled.

“The truth is,” Ga said, his finger on the button, “that eventually everyone goes away.”

That these words should come from the lips of Commander Ga made the Dear Leader grin. “Isn’t that the truth of it,” he responded.

In English, Ga said, “Say ‘Cheese.’ ”

And then the Dear Leader and his dear rower were blinking together from the flash.

“I want copies of those,” the Dear Leader said, straining to get back to his feet.

I’D STAYED LATE at Division 42; my body felt weak. It was like there was some nourishment I was missing, like my body was hungering for some kind of food I’d simply never run across. I thought of the dogs in the Central Zoo that lived only on cabbage and old tomatoes. Had they forgotten the taste of meat? I felt like there was something, some sustenance that I’d simply never known. I breathed deeply, but the air smelled no different—grilled onion stalks, boiling peanuts, millet in the pan, dinner in Pyongyang. There was nothing to do but go home.