The Orphan Master's Son_ A Novel - Adam Johnson [177]
The Dear Leader leaned forward some, happy to have her engage him again. “She is no you, I can tell you that. She has none of your beauty, your charm, your way with words.”
Sun Moon feigned being startled. “She has no way with words?”
“You tease me now,” he said. “You know she speaks only English. She is no Sun Moon, I grant you that, but don’t underestimate her, this American girl. Don’t think my Rower Girl doesn’t have her own special qualities, her own dark energy.”
Now Sun Moon leaned forward, so that over the bar, the two were close.
“Answer me this, my Dearest Leader,” she said. “And please, speak from the heart. Can a spoiled American girl handle the grand notions that emanate from a mind as great as yours? Can this girl from a land of corruption and greed comprehend the purity of your wisdom? Is she worthy of you, or should she be sent home so that a real woman can take her place?”
The Dear Leader reached behind the bar. He produced for Sun Moon a bar of soap, a comb, and a choson-ot that seemed cut from pure gold.
“That’s what you’re going to tell me,” he said.
Citizens, observe the hospitality our Dear Leader shows for all peoples of the world, even a subject of the despotic United States. Does the Dear Leader not dispatch our nation’s best woman to give solace and support to this wayward American? And does Sun Moon not find the Girl Rower housed in a beautiful room, fresh and white and brightly lit, with a pretty little window affording a view of a lovely North Korean meadow and the dappled horses that frolic there? This is not dingy China or soiled little South Korea, so do not picture some sort of a prison cell with lamp-blacked walls and rust-colored puddles on the floor. Instead, notice the large white tub fitted with golden lion’s feet and filled with the steaming restorative water of the Taedong.
Sun Moon approached her. Though the Rower was young, her skin had been marred by the sun and the sea. Still, her spirit seemed strong—perhaps her year as a guest of our great nation had given her life focus and conviction. Undoubtedly, it had provided this American the only chastity she’d ever known. Sun Moon helped her disrobe, holding the Rower’s garments as she removed them. The girl’s shoulders were broad and strong cords were visible in her neck. There was a small, circular scar on the Rower’s upper arm. When Sun Moon touched this, words came from the Rower that Sun Moon couldn’t understand. And yet a look crossed the Girl Rower’s face that reassured Sun Moon that the mark was a sign of something good, if such a wound was possible.
In the water, the American reclined, and Sun Moon sat at the head of the tub, wetting the Rower’s dark, straight hair one ladle at a time. The last inch of her hair was distressed and needed to come off, but Sun Moon had no scissors. Instead, Sun Moon massaged the soap into her scalp, raising a lather. “So you’re the woman of endurance, of aloneness, the survivor,” Sun Moon said as she rinsed and soaped and rinsed again. “The girl that has captured the attention of all the males. You are a female who struggles, yes, a student of solitude? You must think we know nothing of adversity in our happy little nation of plenty. Perhaps you think I am a doll on a shelf in a hall of yangbans. That my life will be a diet of shrimp and peaches until I retire to the beaches of Wonsan.”
Sun Moon moved to the foot of the tub, where she began washing the Rower’s long toes and ungainly feet. “My grandmother was a great beauty,” Sun Moon said. “During the occupation, she was singled out to become the comfort woman for Emperor Taisho, the decadent predecessor to Hirohito. The dictator was short and sickly, with thick glasses. She was kept in a fortress by the sea, which the emperor visited at the end of each week. He would ravage her at the bay window, where with binoculars, he could also keep track of his fleet. Such was his need to control her that the evil little man insisted that she act happy.”
Sun Moon soaped the Rower’s taut ankles and withered calves.
“When my grandmother attempted