Whispers of Refuge Box Set

CHAPTER 35-6

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Mee-Kyong copied the characters and let her eyes linger on the page before she went to the next verse. Who had looked over her in her distress? Who had cared about her while prison guards raised her behind barbed wire?

Nobody.

Even into her adulthood, who cared for her? Who delivered her from Pang and his unpredictable violence? Who rescued her from Mr. Lee’s attack in the Round Robin Inn? She took care of herself. Mee-Kyong had survived, but it wasn’t because the Sterns’ all-knowing deity had stepped down from heaven and condescended to come to her aid. It was because she was smart. Smart and determined. She didn’t let a life of slavery destroy her spirit. That’s why she was still alive. That’s why she was here and not in the Round Robin or the prison camp or some makeshift gutter grave.

She had just moved on to the next verse when Mrs. Stern came in, balancing two cups of tea on her dainty tray. Mrs. Stern set the arrangement on the table beside the Bible and notebook. “You’ve been working hard. Another few days, and you might complete all the epistles.”

Mee-Kyong responded with the expected smile and shook a cramp out of her wrist.

Mrs. Stern poured the tea. “I think it’s fair to say you’ve earned yourself a snack. What do you think?”

Mee-Kyong accepted the mug and muttered her appreciation. The temperature outside had been dropping steadily with the promise of a fast-approaching winter, and she was chilled from her break outside with Benjamin. She lowered her face into the steam from her cup.

“You’re awfully quiet.” Mrs. Stern stirred a spoonful of honey into her tea.

“I guess I was just absorbed in my work, that’s all.” Mee-Kyong knew she had responded appropriately when Mrs. Stern beamed at her.

“And what particular passage in James are you working on right now?”

Mee-Kyong turned her notebook around to show her benefactress. “Orphans and widows.”

Mrs. Stern adjusted her glasses and read the passage out loud. “So true,” she breathed afterward.

“I thought you said it was all true.”

“It is. You’re absolutely right. Which, in a roundabout way, is why I’ve come to talk to you.”

Mee-Kyong felt her eyebrows furrow before she had the chance to stop them. Something in Mrs. Stern’s face reminded her of a cat preparing to pounce on its prey. “Talk about what?” She turned her head to the side and watched Mrs. Stern from the corner of her eye.

“Well, let’s see.” Mrs. Stern wiped her glasses, which had fogged over with her last sip of tea. “You’ve been here for a while now. You’ve been an excellent pupil, and I couldn’t be happier with your studies.” Why did it feel like Mee-Kyong was back in one of her nightly self-criticism sessions at Camp 22? Mrs. Stern kept her glasses in her hand and opened and shut one of its hinges methodically. “But there comes a point in your life when you need to make the shift from book-learning to actual personal experience.”

Mee-Kyong kept her eyes on the desk. The cost of room and board had just increased.

“I certainly don’t want to rush you.” Mrs. Stern waved one hand as if she could flick away the very thought. “But I wanted to know where you stand right now. In your heart, I mean. What do you think about all this we’ve been studying, deep, deep down in your soul?”

Some moments in Mee-Kyong’s life were determined in a flash, a single moment with no hesitation. When Pang told her he could help her escape Camp 22, she didn’t lay awake for nights on end pondering her next course of action. She didn’t waste time deliberating before stabbing Mr. Lee back at the Round Robin. Mee-Kyong forced her posture to match the conviction in her tone. “I believe.” She watched Mrs. Stern’s face wrinkle, frown, and eventually melt into a cautious smile.

“You’re sure? I mean, you don’t need more time to think about this?”

“I’ve already thought about it.” What else does she think I’d be doing while I’m cooped up here copying Scripture for hours every afternoon?

Mrs. Stern put her glasses back on. “You know what you’re saying? You’re saying you agree that Jesus is everything he said he is, that he died for your sins and came back to life.”

Mee-Kyong wanted to rush her answers and end the interrogation, but she forced herself to respond with stately calm. “I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit, and yes, I believe.”

Mrs. Stern’s smile found its way all the way up to her eyes. “That’s wonderful news.” She turned her face away for a moment and nudged her glasses a little higher on her nose. “Very, very wonderful.”

Mee-Kyong tried to look duly pensive. “I guess I just don’t know what’s supposed to happen next.”

“Happen?” Mrs. Stern poured another round of tea. “You get baptized, of course.”