The Orphan Master's Son_ A Novel - Adam Johnson [111]
“You got him,” he said to her. “I can’t believe you got him.”
“Got him?” she asked. Her voice was suddenly serious. “How do you know its name?” she asked. “We’ve kept the dog a secret so he won’t be taken by the authorities.”
“How do I know his name? I named him,” he said. “Right before I sent him to you last year. ‘Brando’ is the word that Texans use to say something is yours forever.”
“Wait a minute,” she said, and all the theatrics were gone. “Just who exactly are you?”
“I’m the good husband. I’m the one who’s going to make everything up to you.”
There was a look on her face that Ga recognized, and it was not a happy one. It expressed an understanding that everything would be different now, that the person you’d been and the life you’d been living were over. It was a tough knowledge to suddenly gain, but it got better with tomorrows. And it would be easier since she’d probably worn that look once before, when the Dear Leader gave her, as a prize, to the winner of the Golden Belt, the man who’d beat Kimura.
In his dark room in Division 42, the smoldering cigarette in Commander Ga’s lips was nearly finished. It had been a long day, and the memory of Sun Moon had saved him yet again. But it was time to put her away in his mind—she’d always be there when he needed her. He smiled a last time at the thought of her, causing the cigarette to fall from his mouth into the well where his neck curved into collarbone. There it burned slowly against his skin, a tiny red glow in an otherwise black room.
Pain, what was pain?
CITIZENS, we bring good news! In your kitchens, in your offices, on your factory floors—wherever you hear this broadcast, turn up the volume! The first success we have to report is that our Grass into Meat Campaign is a complete triumph. Still, much more soil needs to be hauled to the rooftops, so all housing-block managers are instructed to schedule extra motivation meetings.
Also, this month’s recipe contest is upon us, citizens. The winning recipe will be painted on the front wall of the central bus terminal for all to copy down. The winner will be the citizen who submits the best recipe for: Celery Root Noodles!
Now for world news. Naked aggression continues from America—currently, two nuclear attack groups are parked in the East Sea, while in the U.S. Mainland, homeless citizens lie urine-soaked in the streets. And in poor South Korea, our soiled little sister, there is more flooding and hunger. Don’t worry, help is on the way—Dear Leader Kim Jong Il has ordered that sandbags and food shipments be sent south right away.
Finally, the first installment of this year’s Best North Korean Story begins today. Close your eyes and picture for a moment our national actress Sun Moon. Banish from your minds the foolish stories and gossip that have lately swirled our city about her. Picture her the way she will live forever in our national consciousness. Remember her famous “With Fever” scene in Woman of a Nation, where, following her rape at the hands of the Japanese, the sweat ran from her brow to meet, with moonlight, the tears upon her cheek, only to tumble down to her patriotic breasts? How can one tear, tracing its brief journey, start as a drop of ruin, trail into a drip of resolution, and, finally, splash with national fervor? Certainly, citizens, fresh in your minds is the final image of Motherless Fatherland, in which Sun Moon, clad only in bloodied gauze, emerges from the battlefield having saved the national flag, while behind her, the American Army is in ruins, foundering and aflame.
Now imagine her house, perched on the scenic cliffs of Mount Taesong. From below rose the purifying scents of kimjongilia and kimilsungia being grown in the botanical garden’s hothouses. And beyond that, the Central Zoo, the most profitable zoo in the world, with over four