The girl didn’t want to, but she thought she’d try calling home, so she found a payphone and made an international call, but nobody answered. She tried a couple more times, but was only met by a dial tone. Disheartened, the girl came out of the phone booth; suddenly an old woman pushed the door open and came into the waiting room. The old woman seemed to have difficulty getting around, she was limping, and her back was hunched. The old woman was looking around the waiting room with worry. The girl saw her and thought: “this must be my grandmother”. The girl had been waiting for over two and half hours. Tears started to well up in the girl’s eyes, she yelled out: “GRANDMA!”. The old woman looked around to see where the sound had come from, when she found the girl walking towards her. The old woman grasped the girl’s hand tightly with her rough hands, and asked in a thick eastern Korean dialect.
“You must be Soojin, my granddaughter Soojin?”
Soojin wiped away her tears, and nodded her head.
“Oh my god! You’re my granddaughter Soojin? Oh my baby!”
Soojin’s grandmother said in a trembling voice as she touched her granddaughter’s hands and face. After their tears dried up the two held hands tight and came out of the waiting room.
Soojin felt bad at the sight of her grandmother struggling to get around. It hurt her to know her grandmother had to come alone all this way to come get her. Father had said that grandmother lived alone, but did she really not have a single relative here? How could father have neglected her like this? Soojin started to resent her father more and more. Soojin and her grandmother boarded an airport bus, and headed for Tokyo. As the bus sped away from Narita International Airport Soojin watched the passing houses from the bus window. They were different from the ones in Korea, and the streets were eerily clean. Soojin turned her gaze to her grandmother, she was asleep, and holding Soojin’s hand. Her hands were as rough as the bark of an oak tree. Soojin was eager to find out more about her grandmother and father’s relationship; she had the thought to ask her grandmother why she parted with her father, but decided now wasn’t the time. The airport bus stopped in front of a hotel located in Ikebukuro, the two got off the bus, and received their luggage from the driver. After the bus left, a taxi driver discovered the two standing in front of the hotel, and tried to load their luggage into his trunk.
“No no, it’s okay!”
Soojin’s grandmother was surprised, and took the luggage back while shaking her hand at the driver, then took the luggage and walked to a nearby bus stop. Soojin in the confusion of the moment apologized to the taxi driver in Korean, and followed behind her grandmother. Her grandmother looked down at her and said “Because it’s too expensive”.
******
Soojin’s grandmother’s house was on the outskirts of Tokyo, the two had to change buses twice, and walk for nearly 10 minutes to get there from the hotel. To find her grandmother’s house you had to go through a maze of back alleys. If Soojin had had to find her grandmother’s house alone, she would have undoubtedly gotten lost. Her grandmother’s home was a shabby 105 square foot japanese style room, with a tatami floor attached to a kitchen. On the left side of the room was a big window, with a frame that came up to Soojin’s waist. Soojin’s grandmother dragged her luggage inside with tenacity, and much difficulty. After putting Soojin’s suitcase inside the room, Soojin's grandmother yelled at her to come in.
“There we go, come on in! Come on in!”
“Is this a dream? I can’t believe how much our Soojin has grown, Oh my baby!”
After Soojin’s grandma had finished hugging and kissing her granddaughter, she got up and started to prepare dinner in what scarcely resembled a kitchen.
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“Grandma, I’ll do it. Go rest.”
“No no, don’t you move. It’ll be ready soon”
Soojin reluctantly sat back down, and looked around the room.
Her grandmother’s living conditions were poor, Soojin’s house in Korea wasn’t big, but it wasn’t this bad. Her grandmother’s home looked like a room just for sleeping or some kind of vagrant’s house. The room gave off a musty smell, and wrinkled clothes were hanging all around. As Soojin was looking around, her eyes suddenly landed on a picture frame hanging on the wall, it was a picture of her grandfather. Her grandfather was strikingly similar to her father. Being reminded of her father, Soojin became sure of one thing: her father had abandoned her. A sudden bitter feeling came over Soojin, she looked away from the photo, plopped down on the floor with her back against the wall, and rested her chin on top of her knees. Across from her was a window, a faint yellow sunbeam was shining in. The area around her grandmother’s home was quiet, besides the occasional sound of a passing bicycle, it was peaceful: no people shouting, and not a single car.
“Just a little bit longer! It’s almost ready!”
As Soojin’s grandmother was preparing the food she kept hitting her lower back in pain. She then looked back at Soojin and said:
“Why does my precious granddaughter look mad? Don’t worry even if it’s hard at first you will get used to it.” And patted Soojin’s back. “Anyway, how are your mom and dad doing these days?” Soojin’s grandma asked affectionately, but Soojin was confused, did she mean her mother, or her stepmother?
“You mean my stepmom?”
Her grandmother eyes widened
“Stepmom?”
“Mom died… from breast cancer.”
“Wha- are you serious?”
“Yes, she died 2 years ago. She had surgery but she didn't last a few months..”
Soojin’s grandmother looked devastated.
“I can’t believe this…”
Soojin leaned closer to her grandmother and asked:
“So you really didn’t know about mom’s passing?”
Her grandmother glanced at her, then covered her scornful, tearful eyes and grumbled.
“Your father… that bastard.. No matter how much you hate your in-laws, if something like that happens you should let them know…”
After some time, Soojin ate dinner, unpacked her suitcase and laid next to her grandmother for the first time. But hearing a strange sound, Soojin woke from her slumber. She looked around and saw nothing. “Was I dreaming?” she thought, when she heard a meow from somewhere. She focused her ears. The faint sound seemed to be coming from the window, which was illuminated by the faint yellow light of the street light outside. Careful not to wake her grandmother, Soojin crawled carefully inside the darkness towards the window, and opened it. As soon as she did, a chilly air brushed across her face. Just below the window was a small flower bed, filled with nothing but weeds, and across from it was another house, squeezed close to her grandmothers. Soojin leaned out the window, and looked around when she saw a small kitten.
“Meow… meow…”
Soojin was relieved: “Phew, I thought something was wrong.”
Almost out of Soojin’s reach was a round eyed kitten, curled up and crying plaintively, as if it was cold. Soojin leaned over the window sill and tried to grab the kitten, but when she did, it hissed, puffed up and jumped backwards. Soojin scoffed.
“You rascal, you think I can’t get you?”
Thanks to the moldy wall behind the kitten, and the enclosed space, the kitten became an easy target for Soojin. She smiled and reached out again trying to grab the kitten. This time it swiped at Soojin’s hand, but it was a fruitless attempt at self defense. Soojin picked up the kitten by the scruff of his neck.
“I told you it was useless, didn’t I? Oh my, Aren’t you a cute little one?”
Soojin whispered as she petted the back of the kitten. The kitten had white fur spotted with black, and judging from his cotton candy soft fur, must have been a baby. Soojin nuzzled the kitten to her face, when her grandmother woke up, and asked:
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I woke up because I heard a cat crying. Grandma, look isn’t it cute?”
Soojin showed the kitten to her Grandmother.
“Oh shoot, put it back outside. Cats are evil.”
“evil?”