The Orphan Master's Son_ A Novel - Adam Johnson [114]
Out the window, light rain had begun to fall, and Commander Ga could make out an old woman in a shift, now nearly see-through, making her way through the upper branches of an oak tree, hunting down acorns, which all citizens know is forbidden until acorn-harvesting season is officially declared. Perhaps years of prison inspection had given the Commander a soft spot for our older citizens.
It was then that the entire vacuum system came to a halt, and in the eerie silence that followed, everyone looked up to the maze of clear tubes overhead, knowing what was to follow: the system was being prepared for a personal delivery from the Dear Leader himself. Suddenly, the sucking whistle began again, and all eyes watched as a golden tube snaked its way through the system to land in the hopper at the edge of Commander Ga’s desk.
Commander Ga removed the golden tube. The note inside read only, “Would you do us the courtesy of your presence?”
The tension in the room was palpable. Was it possible that Commander Ga was not leaping high to run to the aid of his glorious leader? No, instead, he fumbled with the items on his desk, choosing to inspect more closely a device called a Geiger counter, made to detect the presence of nuclear materials, for our country is rich in deeply buried nuclear materials. Did he make a plan to put this valuable piece of equipment to work? Did he assign it a guardian for safekeeping? No, citizens, Commander Ga took this detector and climbed out the window, where he stepped onto a wet oak bough. Climbing high, he handed it to the old woman, saying, “Sell this at the night market. Then buy yourself a proper meal.”
Of course, citizens, he lied: there’s no such thing as a night market!
What’s important is that no one looked up when Ga returned through the window. All kept working as he brushed wet leaves from his uniform. In the South, workers would be tittyweeping that someone had broken the “rules” by giving away government property. But here, discipline reigns, and people know that nothing happens without a purpose, that no task goes unnoticed, that if a man gives an old woman in an oak tree a nuclear detector, he does so because the Dear Leader wishes him to. That if there are two Commander Gas or one or none, it is as the Dear Leader desires.
Walking toward his destiny, Commander Ga caught the eye of Comrade Buc, who threw him the thumbs-up sign. Some people may find Comrade Buc humorous or even jaunty. Sure, he has an adorable scar splitting his brow that, owing to his wife’s inability to sew, no longer connected. But remember that the thumbs-up was the signal the Yanks gave before dropping their payloads upon the innocents of North Korea. Just watch the movies, and you’ll see the smiles, the thumbs-up, and then the bombs falling on Mother Korea. Watch Sneak Attack, starring Ga’s own lovely wife. Watch The Last Day of March, which dramatizes the day in 1951 in which the Americans dropped a hundred and twenty thousand tons of napalm, leaving only three buildings standing in Pyongyang. So give Buc a thumbs-down and pay no more attention to him! His name, regrettably, will be heard from time to time, but he is no longer a character in this story and you are to henceforth ignore him.
And of Commander Ga? However lacking, however feeble you have judged his character, know that this is a story of growth and redemption, one in which enlightenment is gained by the lowliest of figures. Let this story be an inspiration when dealing with the weak-minded who share your communal housing blocks and the selfish who use all the soap in your group bathing wells. Know that change is achievable and that happy endings do come, for