15 #2
“There’s no need for anything to change,” he said. “I promise not to ask too much of you. I am a man, and you are a woman. Yong-gil is not my son, but he is my dead brother’s child. You and your sons will have everything I have one day.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he shook his head. The conversation was over.
When they returned home in the evening, Yong-gil was out. The household staff had left for the day. There was a voicemail from her brother-in-law.
“Sister, I am so sorry to leave this message—” John’s voice was broken and strange.
Sonya glanced at the Chairman, and he remained with her.
“My wife is very ill. She didn’t want you to know. But.” He hesitated. “I think you should come to California and see her. I don’t think there’s much time. If you could call me—”
Sonya phoned Helen’s house, and John picked up. Helen couldn’t get on the phone because of the morphine. “On the next flight,” Sonya promised.
During the call, the Chairman had been sitting beside her.
“Let me call my secretary. He’ll put you on the next flight.”
“This is my fault. I’m being punished. Every day I was happy, I worried that something terrible would happen to the boys, and for them, I prayed for mercy. If something bad happened to me, then I’d deserve it.” Sonya clasped her hands. “But Helen—”
“I don’t think the Lord works that way.”
“I’m being punished. I should be punished.”
“Then shouldn’t Yong-gil have been punished for all of his affairs?” he asked.
“He was, though. I no longer love him. His affairs never gave me the right to dishonor my vows, though.”
The Chairman grew serious.
“Hwang, an old friend of mine who is living mostly in New Jersey, wants to buy a building in Seoul for his son. I’ve made arrangements for you.”
“What?” Sonya looked at him.
“That business visa you wanted, to buy a business. If I buy Hwang his building in won, he can get you the dollars right away. He’s already in the States, so the cash transfer will be easier.
You can buy that business and whatever else you need.
I’ve already spoken to the lawyers. I thought I’d get you that money when you went to California, but this trip came up sooner than planned. ”
Sonya understood. He would not allow a divorce with Yong-gil for the scandal it would spark, but he’d give her the money she needed.
“I know you’re worried about them. Take good care of your sister, but after—” He stopped himself from saying what was inevitable.
“I will be waiting for you here.”
Sonya headed to her room to pack.
When Sonya arrived in Cypress, she didn’t allow herself a visible reaction to Helen’s jaundiced and gaunt frame. Her sister’s face was all bone and angles, her eyes yellow and their sockets hollow; gray skin stretched across a sharp jawline.
The morning after she arrived, Sonya rented a collapsible wheelchair and a large hospital bed, which she placed in the living room alongside a twin bed for herself. She hired hospice nurses to administer pain medication and to care for Helen around the clock.
Sonya took charge of the kitchen and cooked meals for Helen and the family.
When she wasn’t with Helen, she was on the phone with medical experts in her extraordinary network.
Now and then she would leave the house to meet business sellers, immigration and estate lawyers, and real estate brokers.
The household seemed to shift, and it hummed along as if a competent general had arrived with reserves for a devastated squad of soldiers.
Even when it was eighty degrees outside, Helen was often cold.
Most days, she lay on the living room sofa beneath a comforter and a fleece throw, writing in one of her three notebooks whenever she had any energy.
She slept a great deal, and when she was awake, she didn’t talk much.
The house was crowded with people, but it was mostly quiet.
As before, John went to work six days a week.
On Sunday mornings, everyone went to church while a nurse stayed with Helen, and they returned home unless they were working.
Now and then, Helen would wake and be clear and talkative. She worried about debts.
“How will we pay for all this?” Helen asked John, pointing to the rented hospital things and the team of hospice nurses.
“No more talk about money,” Sonya said. “I have plenty.”
John showed her the envelope from the deacons’ fund, which he had been meaning to deposit.
“Shin Taehun came by.”
Sonya looked surprised. “What?”
“It’s from the church,” he said. “The bills will get paid.”
“How much is it?” Helen asked, clenching her brow. The stony gray-brown skin stretched across her forehead.
“It’ll take care of the bills,” John said, avoiding her question. $5,000 wouldn’t come close to covering the growing pile of bills, but Helen didn’t need to know that. “Shin Taehun said this is from the deacons at the church, and if we have more needs, we can ask for help.”
Sonya looked stern. “No more talk of bills. You focus on getting well.” She turned to Helen. “My little girl, haven’t we solved every money problem we’ve ever had? Every single one. We were no better than paupers, and somehow, you and I paid college tuitions and didn’t starve. You rest.”
“I don’t want to have these debts between your husband’s family and us.”
“And I don’t want to talk about money anymore.
What can I do if I don’t have you?” Sonya turned her face away and took a deep breath.
“You have to trust me. I can be trusted, right?” she said calmly, stroking Helen’s warm head.
Sonya brushed away the wisps of baby hair that continued to grow. “I will protect you.”
In the morning, her head and body heavy and dull from morphine, Helen shook her head no when Sonya tried to feed her porridge.
“I want to eat grapes,” Helen said as if she were in a dream. “Isn’t that the oddest thing? All day yesterday, I was thinking of those purple grapes from Mr. Jo’s market.”
“You mean the mart near the bakery behind the elementary school?”
“Yes, that’s the one,” Helen said. “I always wanted to eat those grapes again. Buy a box of them and eat the whole thing.”
“We got caught, didn’t we?” Sonya laughed, recalling the time she stole a bunch when Mr. Jo wasn’t looking. Kenny had begged and begged, and finally, Sonya took some and walked away. “Mr. Jo was so angry.”
“Mother caned you with that back scratcher, but you didn’t cry once,” Helen said.
Sonya had brought her sister and brother the purple grapes wrapped in white paper. They had never tasted grapes before. In an alley, the three children had eaten the fruit, seeds, skins, and all, their fingers and faces stained a deep purple.
“I can get Bo to drive me to the store.”
“No, no. Don’t bother him. He’s writing a final paper.”
“Our children are better than we are,” Sonya said. On her last call home, her elder son, Seungman, had told her to take as much time as she needed in California. “I don’t deserve my sons.”
“What a thing to say.” Helen patted her sister’s hand. “My sister deserves all the good things in this world.”