Juche by Maghan Lusk
In a whitewashed apartment building in Yanji, Kim Sang Kyu turned on his computer and unzipped his pants.
“You are Chinese,” his mother had said. “Joo-cheh. Each one chooses a path. My family in North Korea chose theirs. I chose mine before I met your father.”
He was a boy then. His father, a Jilin statesman, disappeared on a diplomatic trip to Pyongyang and left behind a great deal of money. His mother spent long hours since working as a public accountant. She never spoke of his father after the disappearance.
At dinner, they sat opposite one another. He grew up in a silent house apart from the clicking of chopsticks and the clucking of his mother’s tongue when he asked about her life in North Korea. She never said “hope.” She never said “free.” She said “work hard.” She said “forget.”
Sang Kyu was still a boy, a computer programmer by day, a lover by night. Her name was Mi-Cha. He knew it was not her real name, that she did not love him. Under the desk, he stroked himself out of habit as her face came into view. Mi-Cha bowed, the crescents of her cheeks like empty rice bowls. She glanced over her shoulder at the door.
Sang Kyu said, “I paid him twenty thousand yuan. He will bring you across the Tumen and put you on a bus to the safe house in Yanji. You still remember the address?” She nodded. “They will send you to Beijing, by train,” he said, looking away. Sang Kyu would not see her again, he knew.
“He will be there at three in the morning.” Mi-Cha’s smile was more of a grimace. He took a screen shot. It would be all that he had left of her. She never said “hope.” She never said “free.” Sang Kyu paid six hundred yuan a month for her services, then paid for her release.
“Good-bye, Mi-Cha,” he said. The screen went dark. He zipped his pants without finishing and took the stairs to the roof of the apartment building to smoke a cigarette. Crouched on the ledge, he imagined what the girl would see on the train ride to Beijing: the glimmer of a nightmare; her long-lost father’s face; a million tiny windows like candles shivering in the dark.
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About the Author
Maghan Lusk
Born: Greenwood, South Carolina, USA
Now Resides: Evanston, Illinois, USA
Bio: I am a poetry, fiction, and screen writer in Evanston, Illinois. Currently, I am working on a collection of short stories and my second novel, both literary-sci fi hybrids. I like the flash fiction genre because it is storytelling at its most refined, just as poetry is language at its most refined. In my spare time, I enjoy learning foreign languages, meeting odd people, culinary adventures, volunteering, and working with other writers through the MFA program at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Best, Maghan
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image by Genesis-Orbit.
