< Save Mom >
My hands, which had shrunk to the size of a fernbrake, trembled.
He is mentally sound, but his small limbs do not move as he should.
It’s something I’ve experienced before.
‘Coal gas poisoning!’
Carbon monoxide is heavier than air, so it sinks, and when absorbed into the body, it reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, causing suffocation.
“Mom, wake up!”
Snoring is a symptom of severe carbon monoxide poisoning.
I shook my mother with all my might.
“Mom, open your eyes! You’re going to die sleeping like this, oblivious to the world!”
No matter how much I shook my mother, she didn’t come to her senses.
At that moment, a dark shadow rippled behind the crouching mother.
It was the grim reaper who took me away.
[One hour left until the underworld.]
“no!”
It was literally a death sentence from the grim reaper.
“I can’t lose my mom like this!”
When I was only seven years old.
In the past, I didn’t know what to do, so I cried and cried for a long time.
Not knowing that I was wasting my mother’s time.
But now it’s different.
‘Ventilate first!’
I jumped up and opened the door.
Knock knock!
All the doors were open.
Whew.
Late December, cold wind and snow.
The biting wind was mixed with sleet.
‘This isn’t enough! I’m also turning on the fan!’
Instead, I wrapped the blanket tightly around myself to prevent my body temperature from dropping.
I took out all the thick coats from the wardrobe and placed them over my mother.
‘I’ve never seen this before.’
A jewelry box tightly hidden in a closet.
This was an item that was not on my mother’s list of belongings and seemed too precious for our family’s financial situation.
‘Now is not the time to be distracted by such things. We have to get Mom out of the room somehow.’
But this body doesn’t even have a chin.
‘I need to get help.’
I ran out of the house.
I didn’t even have the energy to put on socks or shoes.
A midwinter night with sleet falling.
The dirt floor was sloppy, and my bare feet stung with every step I took.
“Help me! It’s coal gas! People are dying here!”
Whew.
The voice that had stopped moving kept getting scattered by the cold wind.
So I picked up the coal tongs I had placed nearby and started hitting the sash door.
Knock knock knock knock!
When the neighborhood dogs started barking in unison at the sound, lights in the dark shantytown began to turn on one by one.
I cursed and cursed.
“Please save me! Save me!”
Knock knock!
“Is it Jeonghyeok?”
The owner’s window opened and the landlady leaned out the window.
Oh my, isn’t this old lady the type who can’t wake up even if you carry her once she falls asleep?
“Oh my god! Why are you out in your underwear in this cold weather? Your mother?”
“Coal gas······!”
“Coal gas? Oh my, what is this all about?”
The landlady came running and shook my mother.
“Jeonghyeok’s mom, come to your senses! What are you doing!”
The landlady struggles to get her arm under her mother’s armpit and pull her out.
“I woke up startled by a Grim Reaper appearing in my dream, and it seemed like he had come to take Jeong-hyeok’s mother away!”
The grim reaper appeared like a ghost behind the landlady and gave her a thumbs up.
[57 minutes.]
Grandmother dragged mother out.
I came out of the half-room apartment.
That was the best Grandma could do.
Panting, the grandmother cried out loud.
“People of the town! Save the people! Come out!”
It was a loud voice that could not be compared to the screams of a child.
My grandmother was the loudest and most vocal person in the neighborhood.
“Changshik’s father! Minho’s father! Yongkwon’s father! Come quickly and help me!”
The neighbors, whose names were openly called by the landlady, opened the window and leaned out.
“Help me! It’s coal gas! We need to get him to the hospital quickly!”
This was a time when there were hardly any ambulances.
Until 1981, when the fire department launched the 119 Rescue Team to begin providing emergency services.
Only some large hospitals in Seoul and Busan transport emergency patients during curfew hours.
It would be faster to take a taxi and take him directly to the hospital.
[53 minutes.]
My heart sinks every time the Grim Reaper says a word.
“Grandma, I’ll call an ambulance from a pay phone! If that doesn’t work, a police car!”
This is the Kuro shantytown.
The shantytowns where people barely made a living from factory work had many poor families.
Since telephones were not widely available at the time, everyone used public phones.
I ran into the room and grabbed my mother’s bag.
I also stuffed a jewelry box into my bag in case I ran out of money.
“I’ll grab a taxi!”
“Jeonghyeok, it’s curfew now. There’s no way taxis can drive around.”
The landlady sighed as she massaged my mother’s arms and legs.
“On a day like today, why hasn’t our Cheol-gu come in yet!”
Mr. Cheol-gu was the only son of the landlady.
He looked like a bear and was always running around, busy catching spies.
I used to drive the most expensive jeep in town.
Going out at dawn and coming back at dawn, or often staying out overnight, was a common occurrence.
“Let’s see. There should be a truck at Jaeho’s house······.”
“I know where Jaeho’s house is! I’ll find out!”
“Okay, you go first. I’ll follow you as soon as the people arrive!”
It was solid.
I ran down the alley without looking back.
A place where coal briquette ash crumbs are strewn at the entrances of alleys half-covered with snow.
A few streetlights blinked in the alleys of the shantytown where people from the industrial complex lived together.
* * *
Because of the coal gas.
My body felt heavy, like water-soaked cotton.
I kept staggering and unsteadily.
But I had to run now.
Tadadadot!
In the past, when I ran along a road covered with coal briquette ash, I would trip and fall several times.
Today, I ran bravely without falling even once.
I was lucky.
When I looked back because the back of my neck felt creepy, the grim reaper followed me like a ghost and spoke with his mouth.
[47 minutes.]
“If you’re not going to help me, then shut up! If my mother dies like this, I’ll grab her by the throat and go to the afterlife to grab the King of Hell by the throat!”
It’s different from what was promised!
“Ask your mother! Then you shouldn’t do this to me!”
I glared at the grim reaper.
“I don’t see anything right now! This time, let’s start with the punishment from heaven and examine each and every one of them properly!”
If I have to do something, I’ll do it.
For some reason, the grim reaper’s expression became painful and he pretended to zip up his mouth.
‘The nearest Taesung Hospital is a 15-minute drive away.’
I gritted my teeth and ran.
‘Will I not be able to get a ride in Jaeho’s truck this time too?’
It used to be like that.
Jaeho’s father had ruthlessly refused my request.
He turned his back harshly, telling me to go find someone else.
‘Thanks to you, I learned that a request must be accompanied by sincerity.’
I glanced at the bag my mother had packed.
The only money in my wallet was 9,850 won at most.
It was an amount that would make one sigh.
“Fuck.”
It made me sigh in another sense.
It’s because I don’t trust Jaeho’s father’s character.
If he had been a person who would listen to my appeal for recognition, he would not have ignored my mother in the past.
“First, let’s look at the situation. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just cut off one of your fingers and throw it to you.”
Then, you will have no choice but to take him to the hospital.
You don’t want to be accused of being a vicious criminal who cut off a child’s finger.
“If I could save my mother’s life with just one finger, what would I do? I would cut it off.”
If I had known this would happen, I would have gone to the warehouse and grabbed an axe first.
“Even if there is a curfew, there are still no places to rent a car!”
Those were the times.
In South Korea, the MyCar craze didn’t start until the 1980s.
When it is a rule that even factory trucks must be returned at the time of departure and arrival at work, where can one rent a car?
‘It’s a public phone!’
I happened to find a public phone booth at the end of an alley.
How much did a public phone call cost at that time?
Didn’t you say that the price of alcohol went up to 10 won recently?
“Ugh!”
I lifted the coin slot to put the coin in.
It’s no use jumping.
It’s out of reach.
‘It’s short!’
I remembered the jewelry box I brought with me.
If you place it vertically and step on it, it looks like you could probably put in a few coins.
My hand slipped and the jewelry box opened with a bang.
‘Bankbook, notebook, and top-of-the-line luxury wristwatch for men.’
Under the yellow streetlights.
I took the treasure my mother had been hiding.
‘Ha, Vacheron Constantin Patrimony 1970 Special Edition.’
This is a top-of-the-line brand product from a Swiss watch company that was number one in the industry before Padeck Philippe emerged as the king of watch brands in the 1990s.
A luxury watch of a level that cannot be imitated by the skills of counterfeit craftsmen in Korea today.
Given our family’s circumstances, we can’t afford to live like this.
Being able to import this or buy it directly from overseas meant you had a lot of money.
‘It seems like my father was really the second generation of a conglomerate?’
Then why are our hats living like this?
‘I guess I can borrow Jaeho’s truck with this.’
Since you’ll want an expensive watch, Jae-ho’s father, who is greedy for money, will lend you a truck.
Boom bang!
I turned my head at the sound of the horn.
The jeep window rolled down and a man in his thirties popped his head out.
“Kid, what are you doing there now?”
It was the landlady’s son, Mr. Cheol-gu.
“mister!”
I was so happy that I cried.
Of course a jeep!
“Are you thinking of reporting a spy?”
“Mom collapsed because of the coal gas! We need to get to the hospital right away!”
“get on!”
Before he could finish speaking, the passenger door of the jeep flew open.
I quickly grabbed everything, including my jewelry box, and got into the car.
Vroom.
The jeep raced down the alley without stopping.
‘You’re lucky!’
Memories of stamping my feet trying to catch a taxi on the empty streets at night flashed through my mind.
Back then, no matter how loudly I shouted, not even a single ant, let alone a taxi, would pass by.
What the hell is that curfew all about?
I sat down on the street and cried, cursing the heavens.
‘This time it’ll be different. I can save my mother!’
The landlady came out to the front door and shouted loudly.
“Take him to the hospital quickly! He’s breathing normally and is conscious!”
It seemed that the villagers had been there all this time and were taking proper emergency measures.
He put his staggering mother in the jeep and headed to the hospital.
*
Taesung Hospital intensive care unit corridor.
I had to sit on a chair and wait with a hospital blanket wrapped around my body.
‘The Grim Reaper stopped the countdown and retreated. So you’ll be okay.’
I took a long breath.
It was a sigh of relief.
It was only then that my eyes turned to the jewelry box protruding from my mother’s bag.
‘Your taste in choosing watches seems quite luxurious and extravagant. Who on earth is my father?’
I became curious.
‘The surname Cha is not a common surname in Korea. Moreover, among the conglomerates, there is only one family that uses the surname Cha.’
I closed my eyes.
‘Is it Taesung Group?’
Taesung Group.
Electronics, chemicals, construction, automobiles, distribution, hotels, hospitals, food, fashion, etc.
It is a huge conglomerate ranked 5th in the financial world of South Korea.
< Save Mom> End
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