Flower Swallow

CHAPTER 1-2

So things were pretty good for a while. Well, except for the crops. Those weren’t doing too good. We needed rain, all the old folks were saying so, not just my parents. But Papa still brought home fish just about every day, and I got my snacks at night when Mama made them for the ghost. Sometimes I thought maybe I should wake up Min-Jung and share some with her, but she was still in her nasty moods most of the time, so I didn’t really want to bother. Anyway, with food being scarce, Mama said it was most important for me to get it since I was a growing boy, and Min-Jung was just a girl. Sometimes I even wondered if Mama knew I was stealing the food and that’s why she kept making it. Seems like something she would do, with everyone being so hungry, and her being most concerned about me since I was the boy and a growing one on top of that.

The real trouble started the night I forgot to wake myself up, and so there weren’t nobody to eat the snack Mama made for the baby ghost. It was a nice fish stew, too. There were onions in it and a carrot, which probably doesn’t impress you that much, but it was a lot back then. Well, I waked up after Mama that morning, and at first I was just sad because I had been looking forward to that stew and the carrot in particular. Then I seen her just there sitting at the table, staring at the full bowl. I tried to talk to her, but it seemed like she didn’t hear me. I went outside to hunt down some flowers or something yummy that could cheer her up and maybe get her thinking about breakfast. Then I saw Papa coming down the way with the old witch lady. I wondered why he wasn’t at his boat, what with us being so hungry and Mama using up most of the food in her treats for the baby. “Is your mother home?” he asked me. ’Course she was, and he musta knowed it because where else would Mama be? The old witch lady was looking at me sly-like, kinda like she was a doctor and wanted to see if my insides was sick, and so I didn’t say anything, but I followed her and Papa into the house to figure out what the fuss was.

Well this lady — they call her type a mudang back home — she was an ugly thing, with lots of teeth missing and a big wart on her chin, or maybe I’m just making that part up. It’s harder to remember than you might think. Anyway, she looked at the bowl of soup, sniffed around, poked it a little, sniffed it again, then picked it up and stared at it from the bottom side like someone mighta written her a message underneath. The mudang talked to Mama, but Mama hardly said anything so Papa was the one doing most of the answering now, and I was just kinda biting my lip, hoping the witch wouldn’t ask me anything because I was ok lying to my family, but I’d never done it to strangers yet, and I wasn’t so sure how good I’d do, especially with her eyes looking like they could see your guts and bones. Min-Jung was at school, or else I probably woulda thrown a fit until Mama made her take me outside.

The grown-ups talked a while, mostly about the baby, and Mrs. Nosy’s name came up a time or two ’cause Mama was certain that the neighbor next door had something to do with the family’s troubles, so finally the old witch, she closed her eyes and kinda swayed herself back and forth like she was a tree with nothing better to do than float with the wind, and she started this little song that sounded so pretty I wondered if maybe she’d teach it to Mama. The music got me thinking about things like heaping plates of food and Papa’s net so full of fish we have plenty for us to sell at market for rice and noodles, maybe even candy. And the song was so nice that I thought maybe I’d just lie down and take a little nap when the old lady’s eyes shot open, all wicked-like and near glowing, and she looked right at me and I was so startled I was sure I’d scream, only she did it for me. She stood up and shrieked, and it was worst than something you’d hear on a scary movie or whatnot on account of it being real life. She started swinging her arms all around and clattered the soup to the floor, then this witch — she was really old, too, old enough to be your mama, I bet — she got down on her hands and knees and shoveled all the food into her mouth like she was so hungry she hadn’t eaten in a week. And then she slurped up the broth as noisy as a dog. Me and Mama and Papa just stood and watched because what else to do when an old lady screams like a demon’s poked her and then starts slurping old fish stew off your floor?

So when every last crumb was gone, the witch said all faint-like, “The child is no longer hungry.”

She tried to stand, and Papa had to help her to her chair. For a minute, she just sat there rocking herself, and I wondered if she’d burst her stomach or something eating so much so fast, when finally she said something about the spirits being appeased. I didn’t know nothing about spirits those days, and of course this was before I met Pastor who says there’s no such thing except for the Holy Spirit anyway, but I remember it sounded kinda silly to hear her talking so serious-like, but mostly I remember feeling sad that there weren’t a single drop of that stew left for me.

CHAPTER 2

In science class last week, we talked about a storm having a bit of quiet right in the middle of it, and I hafta admit, Teacher, at first it sounded like you’d never been in a flood like ours or maybe you wouldn’t talk about stuff and nonsense like that. But then again, I got to thinking maybe you was right, ’cause before the floods came, in between the visit from the mudang and the day the river crashed through our house, our family got to a place where things stayed calm. ’Least for a short time.

After the witch woman ate that soup, Mama didn’t lie around staring at the wall no more, Papa went to work and even catched enough fish for us to trade for some noodles, and me and Min-Jung stayed out of too many fights. Mama stopped cooking for ghosts, so ’course I waked up hungrier than usual, but it’s almost like the cold. Your body can feel the difference between ice-packing cold and snot-freezing cold, so it’s not like all cold is the same. But on the other hand, you’re kinda miserable either way, so it don’t really matter. That’s what it was like for me when Mama stopped her ghost cooking.

One thing I don’t know if you’ve ever had is a hunger dream. I miss those, truth be told. The way it works, see, is your body’s so hungry it just decides to pretend you’re eating all night long. You get these dreams of pork and juices, all salty and covered in onions. Or steamed ribs and carrots with sauce so greasy I could never eat a meal of it in real life without Mama taking down the spanking spoon on account of the mess I made, except ’course in my dreams Mama’s too busy cooking to worry about pounding me. And there’s thin cuts of beef smothered with soy sauce and sesame oil and whatnot. It’s getting my mouth all watery even writing it all out, and I had a whole plate full of peanut butter cookies just a little bit ago.

Well, the famine was getting on so that the only good food there was to be had come from my dreams. I guess I shoulda known then I was one of the lucky ones on account of Papa being a fisherman and all, but when you’re that little and your tummy’s always growling, you don’t know enough to be grateful you have plain old fish every day.

So we were in this calm spell after the witch run off the spirit that had been hanging around our house. Even though it meant no more snacks at night, it was all right with me that the ghost up and left ’cause for once Mama weren’t so upset-like, and if you knowed Mama, you’d know she didn’t go for the spanking spoon nearly as often if she was in a good mood.

Anyway, I had this dream one night after the mudang left where I was eating piles and piles of food. Mama was in the kitchen, and Min-Jung was helping her, and as soon as I emptied my plate, my sister would fill it with something so hot it was still sizzling, except I didn’t get my tongue burnt none. So I was shoveling it in, and then all of a sudden I heard this crying, and my appetite just sorta slunk away ’cause it was the same crying that set Mama off before, only this time I could actually see the baby that was causing all the fuss, and that made me pretty uncomfortable. She got rosy cheeks and a head of thick hair, and she was just wailing away. In come Mama and told me, “Woong, you hafta share that with your baby sister,” so I explained that I don’t got no baby sister and that besides, I’m a growing boy so I need it more than a sissy cry-baby does anyway. And Mama went to reach for the spanking spoon, but before she could get to me, the baby grabbed my plate, and all that food fell to the floor. I was gearing up to whine about it to Mama, but that fat baby got on her hands and knees and started gobbling it up so noisy she sounded like a pig, and that’s when I looked down and realized she really was a pig, not a little girl at all, and so I tried to kinda kick her away except she bit my leg and wouldn’t let go no matter how hard I worked to shake her off. So I waked up from my dream screaming and thrashing my leg, still hungry by the way, and Min-Jung sorta reached over and punched me in the back to see if that’d get me to stop, except it didn’t, so Mama had to come over and shake me. I’m a tough kid, but if you’d had a dream like that when you was hungry and a little baby was trying to steal your food and then all of a sudden-like it turned into a pig and bit your leg so hard, you’d be hollering too. So it took Mama a while to figure out what my dream was about, but when she heard me say the baby hurt me, she sorta plunked into her chair and started wobbling back and forth like the old mudang done, which got me worried that maybe Mama’d start shrieking too, and my ears weren’t ready for that, not after a nightmare like I’d just waked up from.

Papa waked up all serious-like, and Mama kept saying things like, “See, I told you we were being haunted,” and, “We should have paid that old mudang the extra money for those amulets.” And if I had my guess, I figure Mama started in on cursing old Mrs. Nosy again too, but by that point Min-Jung musta felt sorry for whaling on me, ’cause she let me snuggle up with her for the rest of the night. Pretty soon I was back to sleep, but there weren’t no more pigs in my dreams or stuff and nonsense like that.