14
Friend
I was very sorry to hear about your wife,” Mary said, holding the warm paper cup of milky instant coffee.
Not an hour went by when John didn’t think of Helen.
Everything made him miss her. A tree budding leaves.
Mido’s messages asking him if he’d eaten dinner.
Bo’s tapered hands. An unexpected parking spot.
Every good thing to be had and hoped for reminded him of her.
She was gone, but somehow she was with him.
He wouldn’t have understood this idea until he lost her—that she was alive in him.
His parents and older brother had died before John finished college.
They were the kind of poor people few noticed.
Until he died, his father had worked in a factory and was paid only when his boss had money.
Be early for work. Do your job so well that you are missed when absent.
Never spend more than you have. John lived by his father’s teachings.
In the middle of the day, Mary and John were sitting in the Rose Salon employees’ room behind a mirrored wall.
This was where the workers ate their meals and took breaks.
On the north wall were a two-door refrigerator, two microwaves, three hot water kettles, and an old television that was almost never turned on.
Nari stocked a porcelain mixing bowl with chewing gum and mints so the nail technicians never had bad breath.
All twenty-four of the gray metal employee lockers were in use, each one secured with a colored combination lock—blue, black, or red—a cube of privacy in a woman’s working life.
From inside, anyone could see what was going on in the shop through the large two-way mirror that divided the back room from the front.
Recently Nari had changed the ceiling light fixtures to three small crystal chandeliers, and twice a week she arranged a red rose and baby’s breath in the silver bud vase on every workstation, refusing to use fake flowers.
Mary caught John glancing at the digital clock in the old microwave.
“You must have been surprised to hear from me,” she said.
John smiled at Shin’s wife, feeling sorry for her. This could not have been her idea.
“Thank you for meeting me. I won’t take long,” she said, checking the mirrored wall. Neat rows of women labored, heads bowed over their customers’ hands.
Mary knew women who worked at nail salons in Bergen County, and she felt grateful to have her job at the florist’s, where she didn’t have to touch strangers.
A friend from church had told her that she liked the work except for having to make conversation because she was embarrassed about having an accent.
John picked up his coffee. Shin’s wife was nervous, and he didn’t want to rush her.
“I was glad to hear that Joey and Luke are now lawyers.” He could remember the birth of each one.
Mary waved away the implied compliment. The boys had worked hard. She believed in God’s provision but felt uncomfortable mentioning it for fear of sounding pious.
“How hard you must have worked to raise them.”
“I can’t take any credit.” Mary hesitated. “Elder Koh.”
John looked up.
“You’re a person of faith, so I should say this. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to raise my sons here without God.”
“I understand.”
Mary bit her short thumbnail.
“May I ask what brought you here?”
“My husband asked me to ask you to speak with him.”
“Ah—” John was unsure how to respond.
“Would that be possible? I imagine you must have many good reasons not to.”
“DH said that it was a criminal matter, so I should be careful. I didn’t want to hurt the church.”
“So you won’t speak with him.”
“What does he want?”
“I don’t know,” she said gravely.
“What will he do now?” John asked. “I imagine he has a lawyer.”
“Joey and Luke got him someone. He wasn’t arrested,” she said. “But he’s being investigated.”
“For what?” John had heard from the minister and elders that George Hong had confessed to everything. Danbi had corroborated that Shin knew nothing.
“Something about conspiracy, premium diversion, and embezzlement. They’re saying my husband must have known that she was taking money from the premium accounts.”
John shook his head, considering.
“He says he had no idea. She had done this by herself. I guess for her real estate investments. I don’t understand it very well.”
“I read that she was buying houses and selling them for a profit. When buyers stopped making offers, I think she was stuck with an investment property with big loan payments.”
“Yes, I read that, too, but I didn’t understand why she was doing this. They seemed to be living so well.”
John shrugged. He’d heard talk that Shin had debts for their house, business, and cars.
“Apparently it’s also my husband’s fault because as the CEO of the agency, he should have known.”
Hearing the store doorbell chime, John turned reflexively to the mirrored glass. More customers came in and Nari greeted them. He turned back to Mary. “I don’t understand how I can help.”
John folded his hands and stared at the bottom of his coffee cup. He didn’t remember finishing his drink, but it was all gone, and only a thin brown ring remained.
“Do you think that she’ll go to prison?” Mary asked. Joey and Luke had explained that she could.
“DH thinks so. I don’t know for how long exactly.” John squirmed a bit in his chair. DH had said it was a special taking, and the penalties could be much higher than for a grand theft charge.
“It depends on the prosecutor and the judge,” DH had told him. “And the deputy at the airport got hurt. So no bail, go straight to jail.”
“I don’t understand all of this. It’s a terrible thing for our community,” John said.
“I am sorry to bother you. My husband didn’t think you would speak with him. Unless I asked you as a favor.” She added, “I think he’s ashamed.”
John crossed his arms and looked down, unable to face her before saying, “But he wasn’t ashamed to call you. I cannot imagine what you have had to endure. Your husband was my closest friend. He was like an older brother to me.”
Mary was certain that Shin still believed that he and John would always be like brothers.
“I benefited from our relationship, but now, after all these years, I realize that I helped him, too. I did a great deal of work for him. In a way, it was fair when he took credit for my work, because he was in charge and took risks I didn’t want to take, and after he got promoted, I’d usually get promoted, too.
He let me travel overseas so my children could be educated abroad.
I could never make enough money in Korea for the kind of life we had, and being an expatriate allowed us that.
He took care of me, and I did the work. Then after that…
that thing that happened with Jung Danbi in Korea, I started to understand more about who he really was.
I shouldn’t have fired her. It was unfair to fire her. I should have said no.”
“My husband is a selfish man.”
“He is weak, but so was I.”
Mary shook her head, not understanding how he could blame himself.
“I’ve learned that weakness can be a dangerous thing,” he said.
Mary splayed her fingers on the table. Her nails were cut short, and her knuckles had thickened. When she woke up in the mornings, her hands were often swollen.
“I asked my husband for a divorce. He had asked a number of times, but I’d always said no. I’m Catholic.” Mary swallowed. “But Joey is getting married. I haven’t even told my husband.”
John’s initial happiness at hearing her son’s good news vanished as he appreciated how this mess could hurt him, too.
“The boys told me I had to cut ties right away. The newspapers.” Anguished, Mary looked away. “And I can’t be exposed to his liabilities, they said. I came to California so he would sign the divorce agreement.” She pointed to her bag.
“I remember when Joey was born,” John said. Mary had gone into labor unexpectedly when Shin and he were at a work dinner, and they had both left the restaurant and gone straight to the hospital.
“Joey asked me not to tell his father until the wedding is over. He’s marrying another lawyer from a nice family.
She’s Korean but born here. Her mother works in Manhattan as an architect, and her father is a famous knee surgeon.
Gracie goes to church and volunteers in the nursery every week.
Joey is so blessed.” Mary’s face brightened, and for a moment, she looked beautiful again, like a woman without troubles, and John thought she deserved something good to happen to her.
“Congratulations,” John said. “Please tell him congratulations for me. I wish him and Gracie happiness.”
“Your children? How are they?”
“Bo is getting a PhD at UCLA, DH is working at a law firm in Seoul, and Mido is in Seoul opening a branch of a hagwon from California.”
“A hagwon from America. In Seoul?”
John smiled and checked the mirrored wall to see if everything was okay at the store. The place was mostly full, with only a few empty chairs.
“No one is married yet,” he said.
The kids being single didn’t bother him the way it bothered others. Losing Helen had taught him that. His children were healthy and decent young people.
“I don’t want anyone in the bride’s family to know. But I know they have to be told. We’ll tell Gracie and her parents, of course.” Mary looked anguished. “If I could get the divorce right away, then maybe it won’t hurt the boys as much. My husband said he’d sign the agreement if you—”
John didn’t understand.
“I know Gracie will understand. She’s such a dear girl.
And my Joey. They don’t deserve this awful thing.
” Mary folded her hands as if in prayer.
“My husband said he’d sign if you would speak to him.
If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have come all this way and brought this shameful thing to your doorstep.
Elder Koh, I am trying to get away from him and asking you to help. I am disgraced.”
John shook his head. “It’s he who is disgraced, not you.”