Chapter 30
It’s nothing,” I said. The splinter had darkened and the skin around it was red and hot to the touch. Harabeoji and I had returned to the Yuns’ house and tried to keep from giving up hope.
“It’s a small court, we’re a small town,” Mr. Yun said. “I have a lawyer—he’s not Korean but he’s good. We can ask him to help.”
Harabeoji held his hand gingerly beneath mine, studying the splinter. “Come over to the sink. Let’s clean it and get it out.”
The Yuns’ kitchen drawers had tweezers, tiny scissors, nail clippers, rubbing alcohol.
Harabeoji employed a combination of all four to extract the splinter from my hand in one piece while Mr. Yun aimed his phone’s flashlight at my palm.
There was some blood, but a Band-Aid produced by Mrs. Yun staunched it.
“How is that? Okay?” Harabeoji asked. I told him it was better now.
We’d settled around the kitchen table for an apple crumb cake Mrs. Yun had bought from Mrs. Ku’s bakery.
“How much is Kent’s watch going to cost?” I asked. I only took a tiny bite, imagining Channing in jail alone. What were they giving her to eat?
“I mean, it’s a small dispute, but it’s expensive,” Mr. Yun said. He’d cut himself a large slice. “And impressive. Have you ever seen one of those watches?” he said to my grandfather.
“He added assault,” Harabeoji said.
“We should tell my parents; they can help with costs. Have you heard from them?” I said to Harabeoji. I had phoned them the previous night, but they hadn’t answered.
“Yes, we need them,” Harabeoji said. “Good idea, Dahee.”
Mrs. Yun was putting back all the things her husband and my grandfather had pulled out of the drawers. “It has to be a misunderstanding,” she said.
“It’ll all be straightened out tomorrow. East End has a court, and Channing will be free. This is America. You can’t just put someone in jail,” Mr. Yun said, and clapped my grandfather on the shoulder. “Eat up for energy, and we’ll be ready for whatever comes.”
The next morning, Harabeoji, Mr. Yun, and I stood outside the police station on the sidewalk. Harabeoji’s hair was out of place, squashed on one side as if he’d laid down on it and forgotten to comb it. It was missing the sheen of the hair oil he used.
Mr. Yun looked around and said he’d called the lawyer he’d mentioned last night. As we waited, Kent appeared with an entourage. They huddled around him, and then they dispersed in various directions. He didn’t greet Mr. Yun or acknowledge us.
“This is not good, not good,” Mr. Yun mumbled to us.
“Where’s this lawyer?” I asked.
Mr. Yun glanced around, and then a grim smile appeared on his face. One I had not seen before. A white man with a thin mustache walked up to us. He was introduced as Jack Wire.
He shook hands with us, and Harabeoji thanked him for coming on such short notice, and the man said he was happy to help.
When I began to ask him questions, he quickly evaded them by telling us to meet him at his office in a few minutes.
He said he’d join us after he got some answers.
He pointed behind him. “You’ll be more comfortable in my office, believe me, and I’ll be in and out of the courthouse and station more quickly that way.
There’s coffee in the reception area. Make yourselves comfortable. ”
Mr. Yun nodded and said he knew Wire’s office because he’d been there many times. Then he thanked him profusely and headed in the direction the attorney had pointed. I held back and watched as he left us. I was worried. He didn’t seem to know where the entrance to the police station was located.
As I walked to Wire’s office with Harabeoji and Mr. Yun, I checked my phone.
My parents had not called, and there was no word from Minjae.
Mr. Yun led us to the store where I’d bought books for Edison and Austin only a few days ago, though everything before the storm felt like months earlier.
I recalled how I’d run into Kent at the library opening and felt disgusted at how sympathetic I’d been to him.
Now I followed Mr. Yun through a doorway in the building next to the bookstore and up two flights of stairs.
A legal assistant, who looked as if he could be Wire’s son, greeted us from behind a desk in a sunny room.
Mr. Yun asked him about his family, and he mentioned that his aunt was doing well in her Asian market in Little Brookton.
It sounded like the place where Minjae had taken Channing that day she had cramps.
I was suspicious when Wire walked in, not long after we did.
How did he have time to see Channing and get the legal stuff done?
He kept sighing as he invited us into a room beyond the waiting area.
His assistant brought in another chair so the three of us could sit across from the attorney, who collapsed rather emphatically into his large leather swivel chair as if he were exhausted.
“Let me begin,” he said, sitting up straight and yanking his chair closer to his desk. “I’m sorry to say we’ve run into an unusual issue.”
Here we go, I thought. How much did Kent bribe him? How would we get another lawyer that Kent could not influence?
“What do you mean?” Harabeoji asked.
Wire tapped the surface of his wooden desk like a piano. “The bail commissioner is unavailable.”
“For how long?” Mr. Yun asked.
I looked at Harabeoji to see if he was as suspicious of this lawyer as I was. He was shaking his head at the floor. Then he got up and asked to use the restroom.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I hear,” Wire replied.
The palms of my hands began to tingle as I started to panic. “Do you know Kent Cho?” I asked.
“The mayor’s chief of staff? Yes, I’ve met him,” Wire replied.
“Did he ask you to lie to us?” I said.
The attorney leaned back. He looked nervous. Mr. Yun waved my words away and gave me a stern look. “Tell me, Jack, what about the judge?”
He sighed. “You’re right. In East End, a judge would be our next option. His clerk told me he’s away at a charity golf tournament. They expect him to be back tomorrow, so it’s really just one more day and then he’ll set the bail and Channing should be released.”
“And that’ll lead to another day and then another. What kind of justice system is this?” I shouted. I was on my feet.
Harabeoji returned just then and put his hand on my shoulder. “We can wait however long it takes,” he said to the room.
“My concern, quite frankly, is how high the bail will be set and if she would be allowed out since she doesn’t have a permanent address here in East End nor any family,” Wire replied.
“She has us,” Mr. Yun exclaimed, and patted my grandfather’s arm.
“Oh, I’m mistaken then. Are you family?” the lawyer asked, sitting back in his chair.
“We’re from the same town in Korea. That’s as good as family,” Mr. Yun said emphatically.
Wire shook his head back and forth in slow motion.
“That won’t work for the judge,” he said.
He removed a thick black-and-gold pen from his suit pocket, shook his arm, and scribbled something on a form on his desk.
That pen made him look like a real lawyer all of a sudden.
Mr. Yun turned to Harabeoji and said in Korean, “This man doesn’t understand how close we are.
You’re like a brother to me, anyone in Korea would know that. ”
“It’s fine,” Harabeoji told his best friend. “We’ll pay.”
For Harabeoji’s sake I tried to keep my mouth shut and be patient, which felt like an impossibility.
His message here was to endure, have faith.
It would all be okay. Gwaenchanh-eulgeoya.
Everything in me wanted to run to the police station, to the courthouse, to scream at everyone that my cousin was being held unjustly by a corrupt man in East End’s government.
I wanted to tell everyone what he had done.
Instead, I followed Harabeoji and Mr. Yun downstairs and out to the sidewalk.
We had to walk back to Middle Street where Mr. Yun had parked his car since he’d driven us there that morning.
“He’s a good lawyer,” Mr. Yun repeated several times to my grandfather.
Harabeoji nodded, but he seemed preoccupied with something else.
He said he needed to use the restroom again.
His stomach, he said, was upset. We were closest to Bike and Basket, so we stopped there.
Paul and Ames weren’t around. Harabeoji said he couldn’t make it as far as Mrs. Ku’s bakery.
“No worry. We’ll buy tea. That’ll settle your stomach,” Mr. Yun said.
He insisted on opening the heavy glass door, then held it for him to walk through.
My grandfather didn’t argue as he would have normally.
Mr. Yun and I ordered, and I wanted to be polite and offer to pay but didn’t know if he’d be insulted.
How much of a fight should I put up? The Korean custom had always been confusing to me.
My grandfather wasn’t around to guide me at that moment.
He had headed rather hastily to the restroom.
When our tea was ready and Harabeoji had yet to emerge, Mr. Yun said we should wait outside as the café was beginning to fill up with people.
He handed me my cup of mint tea and set his and Harabeoji’s on the small table.
We didn’t sit. He was busy greeting people who were passing by.
When there was a lull, Mr. Yun turned to me. “Whatever, whatever it is, we have to do everything Kent says to do. Jack is a good lawyer, but Kent knows the people who decide what happens in town. You have to convince your cousin to return the watch. Kent is willing to forgive her.”
“Have you heard anything I’ve said?” I heard my voice wobble in frustration.
He sighed and rubbed his chin. “You listen to me, Dahee. I hoped this would be simple, but you and Channing are stubborn. Now, your grandfather is my best friend, so I don’t mind if he stays with me in my house, do you understand?
Because if it goes to trial, it will be many months.
Mrs. Yun won’t be happy, especially if Channing’s father comes, and this town won’t be happy.
Channing’s father caused a lot of trouble a long time ago.
We Koreans don’t want this kind of bad attention. Do you understand?”
Understand? He could not have been clearer. “We can stay in a hotel; we will not bother you and Mrs. Yun any longer,” I said.
“No, you are not understanding me,” he said, and there was a sternness in his voice I recognized.
Even though I was thirty years old, he was talking to me as if I were one of the eight-year-olds in my classroom.
Looking down at my rumpled shirt, skirt, and scuffed sandals, I knew I looked a mess.
Still, he was being unbearable. I looked for my grandfather to emerge through the glass door of the café. Why was he taking so long?
“This is a very complex situation. I don’t know why Channing took Kent’s watch. That was a stupid error. And then to run away when she knew the police wanted to question her,” Mr. Yun said.
Listening to him again focus on the watch brought some clarity to me. He was stuck on that one thing. Return the watch and all would return to normal. For my grandfather’s sake, I tried one more time, because otherwise I really wouldn’t be able to stand to be anywhere near this man.
“The watch makes it a crime, right? Kent knew Channing was going to tell everyone that he assaulted her; that’s why he made up a lie about her stealing his watch.
He didn’t want her to accuse him of attacking her.
And if he said she had hit him, people might not take it as seriously as a crime involving property.
The watch is worth a lot of money. So he lied about it,” I told him.
He seemed to consider my words. I became hopeful that I’d gotten through. Then he shook his head. “Chief Harper is a witness.”
When I was silent, Mr. Yun sighed and continued, “I don’t understand this generation. Channing with no college education, no consistent job. My grandchildren jump around from job to job, too. It’s your whole generation.”
“We’re not the only generation that’s had to deal with men like Kent,” I said quietly.
“That’s not what I’m saying. You… you shouldn’t frighten your grandfather. He can’t handle this kind of stress.”
My shoulders sagged. “I know. But you have to understand, this is not Channing’s fault.”
“We’re not young anymore, these things you kids do.” He looked up at the sky. “We just want you to be safe.”
“Then help us be safe,” I said.
He gave me a weak smile. “You and Paul and Amy, you think you’re funny,” he said.
My grandfather came outside just then and said, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.
” He looked embarrassed. I should have hugged him then, told him not to worry.
I would take care of everything and everyone and make him believe me.
I regretted my outburst in the lawyer’s office.
Mr. Yun was true about that one thing: I could have minded my temper.
All I did was upset my grandfather and risk alienating people who had offered to help us.
I didn’t get a chance to reassure him in that moment. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. Did I ever really look after my grandfather? Why didn’t I ask how he was feeling?
Mr. Yun made a joke about how Harabeoji was beating his record for the greatest number of restroom visits in a day as they headed to the car to return to the Yuns’ house.
I didn’t go back to the house with them and make sure Harabeoji was taken care of.
Instead, I said I’d stay on Middle Street a while longer.
I didn’t want to be around Mr. Yun another minute.