by Jack Bunker
“That was the general idea,” I said.
“You love me?” asked Yun.
“Yeah, I do. A lot.”
I touched the Band-Aid over my eye. “How’s the eye?”
Yun touched the side of my head. “Just a scratch under your eyebrow.”
“I feel like I’m using up my share of luck.”
Yun capped the peroxide. “This has gone far enough.”
“You’ve got a plan?”
“No. I’ve got something to say. Come with me.”
I put my shirt back on and followed Yun. She picked up the handcuff key from a peg on the wall and freed Shin. He stood up—you could almost hear his bones creak. He wouldn’t look me in the eye. If I didn’t know him better I’d think he was ashamed of having our house shot up. Any one of those bullets could have slammed into Mi-Cha or Tae-Yong.
Yun called out, “Soo Jin…”
Soo Jin came out of the spare bedroom.
Yun went into the living room, where the kids were sitting on the rug watching TV. She picked up the remote and thumbed it off.
“All of you, sit down,” said Yun.
I sat down on the sofa. Soo Jin sat next to me, and Shin took his customary seat in the easy chair.
I said to Yun, “What’s going on?”
Yun cocked a finger like it was a gun and pointed it at Shin. “This has gone on long enough.”
Shin stuck out his chin. “Do not talk to me that way.”
“Wes,” said Yun. “Do you really think you can hide in Koreatown with no one knowing?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “You tell me.”
“Maybe it could be done,” said Yun. “If you didn’t sing karaoke in the Saja Room every night, if you didn’t wash cars in a K-Town car wash, if you didn’t drive around with me.”
I didn’t like the sound of this. “What are you getting at?”
“The day you kidnapped Shin, the Doko family knew exactly where he was taken. They knew he would be safe. The day you moved in with me, they knew.”
Soo Jin was looking frightened.
I placed my hand on Soo Jin’s hand and asked, “Are you OK?”
“I had a feeling,” said Soo Jin. “But I wasn’t sure.”
“Wes, I told you I love you,” said Yun. “I’m not afraid to say it in front of anyone. I love you.”
I glanced at Shin and then back at Yun. “I love you, too.”
Shin spat out a bunch of Korean words at Yun.
Yun bristled, and I asked her, “What did Shin say?”
“He warned me not to bring dishonor to my family.”
“Who the fuck cares what he thinks?”
“I do,” said Yun. “I’m his granddaughter. I’m a Doko.”
FORTY-TWO
Hearing this bombshell, I got off the couch and said to Shin, “Get your ass in the kitchen.”
I handcuffed him to the pipe under the sink.
The house seemed small. Probably because I didn’t dare leave.
I looked at Yun, where she stood in the living room. My heart was heavy. I didn’t know what to think. Finally I said, “I’ve got a kid coming. I need to know what the fuck is going on.”
“I wanted to help.”
“Who? Me?”
“Yeah, you,” said Yun. “When you married Soo Jin, I got scared for you,” said Yun. “I thought if I kept you close I could keep them from hurting either one of you.”
“Was that bullet meant to kill me?”
“Of course they were trying to kill you,” said Yun. “But they didn’t tell me what they were going to try and do. I didn’t know anything about it. I kept telling my family, ‘Wait, wait—I know he’s going to leave Soo Jin.’ But they must have found out about Soo Jin being pregnant. I don’t know how—maybe the doctor told them. Once my family heard she was going to have a boy, I guess they decided they couldn’t wait any longer.”
It was making me crazy hearing Yun refer to the Dokos as her family.
My mind was filled with the kinds of thoughts a fourteen-year-old girl writes in her diary. Does she love me? Was it all a lie? One minute I’m running around with a sawed-off shotgun; the next I’m pondering the vagaries of true love.
“Soo Jin,” I said. “Please take care of the kids.” I pointed at Yun. “You. In the bedroom.”
I walked into the bedroom and threw the covers back on the bed and started unbuttoning my shirt. Yun saw what I was up to and closed the door behind her.
“I don’t know what to think,” I said. “So, for a half hour or so, I’m not going to.”
Yun toed off her shoes and then pulled her T-shirt over her head. Her bra straps cut into the soft flesh of her shoulders. Her belly was a sexy curve all its own.
She watched me pull off my jeans and pull down my underwear. Her watching me—looking at my cock—was always a turn-on, and I was already hard. She came over to me and laid her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her. Her skin was a lovely butterscotch color, smooth to the touch.
I kissed her neck, and she pulled me down onto the bed.
* * *
Fucking Yun wasn’t a magic carpet ride to the truth, but it cleared out some of the jimjams.
Lying back on the pillow next to her, I said, “Simple question. Are you with me, or the Dokos?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re with me. The problem is I don’t know what to do. If I go about my business, I’m a dead man. I could hide, but you’ve told me this whole hiding thing was bullshit—they always knew where to find me.”
“They won’t kill me,” said Yun. “They won’t kill you if you get a divorce. They won’t kill Soo Jin—she’s a woman. But they’ll kill her boy.”
I rubbed my temples with both hands, trying to ward off a headache. “My boy.”
Yun placed her hand on my arm. “I’ll help you fight.”
“Do you think they still have a shooter out there?”
“Probably not,” said Yun. “After those shots they’d be afraid the police would come. But I’m sure they’re watching the house.”
“Aren’t they afraid I’ll hurt Shin?”
“They’re praying you won’t hurt him.”
Yun reached for her jeans where they were draped on a chair by the side of the bed. She dug out her cell phone.
She held up a finger to keep me quiet as she got Sang-Yong on the phone. “He’s alive…The white ghost. Shin is unharmed. I’ll make sure Shin is OK. But you have to give me a night to calm things down…Everything is crazy here right now. If you come back tonight, I can’t promise I can protect Shin. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Yun placed the phone on the chair and leaned back on the pillow. I had a feeling I’d never get tired of looking at her face.
“So what are we going to do?” asked Yun.
“This stupid blood feud has rules,” I said. “These frozen fucks like to follow the rules. The rules are the rules are the rules. That’s the kind of stubborn attitude that had the Dokos honor-bound to settle the score, even if it took three hundred years.”
“That’s how we are,” said Yun.
“They kill as many guys as they can, but they don’t ever kill women, right?”
“Right.”
“And when a woman marries, she gives up her family name and takes her husband’s name.”
“Even more than that,” said Yun. “The wife loses all the family heritage she was born with. If I was to marry you, I wouldn’t be a Doko anymore.”
“Get dressed,” I said. “I’m letting Shin go.”
“But why?”
“I don’t need him anymore.”
FORTY-THREE
I handed Shin a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. “This should take the tape residue off your hands.”
Shin looked at me with suspicion.
Soo Jin came into the kitchen and said, “You’re letting him go?”
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s no sense in keeping him.
Not anymore.”
“What about Yun? She’s a Doko.”
“Everything is in a state of flux,” I said. “I’ll fill you in later.”
Soo Jin walked over to the kitchen counter, to a wooden block with four knives sticking out of slots. She withdrew the largest knife and pointed it at Shin.
“I ought to stab you in the heart,” said Soo Jin. “That way you can’t see us suffer. You’ll never know what happened to my baby.”
I didn’t know Soo Jin all that well, but I knew she didn’t have the heart to hurt a soul, let alone Shin.
“I wish this was over,” said Shin. “But it can’t be stopped. It has to be settled.”
I took the knife away from Soo Jin and put it back into the block. “I agree. We’re going to honor our ancestors. My ancestors were Vikings. We’re going to chew it up and spit it out, just like Sinatra.”
I took my phone out of my pocket and punched in a number. “LA City Cab? I need you to send a car over to pick up a friend of mine. No, I don’t know where he’s going. He’ll tell you. You need an address? Let’s just say he’s going to Koreatown.”
* * *
We took my Jeep Cherokee, but Yun drove; after all, she was the pro. The desert highway at night was a joy after the events of the day. Empty. No billboards. No lights. Just stars in the sky and a blurred-out landscape.
Soo Jin sat in the back with the kids. Jamjari lay down in the back compartment. Every once in a while he’d lift his head and then go back to sleep.
I fiddled with the radio dial and found a Mexican station. I was sick of Korea and sick of myself. Mexican music suited me just fine.
Soo Jin spoke up from the back seat. “Where are we going?”
I said, “You ever hear of Reno?”
“No,” answered Soo Jin. “Why are we going there?”
“Simple,” I said. “You and me are getting a divorce.”
* * *
It was almost dawn when we checked in to the Old 40 West Motel. I didn’t think the Dokos would find us here—at least not in the two or three days we’d need to seal the deal. We got a pet-friendly room with two queen-size beds. The kids slept with Soo Jin, and I curled up next to Yun. I’d set my phone to wake me up in two hours, and I think the short leash gave me weird dreams. Drowning dreams, with my foot jammed between sea rocks and the tide slowly rising. Ugly dreams.
When I got up I stumbled into the bathroom and unpeeled the paper from the tiny bar of soap, and washed my face in a sink that was a hair away from falling off the wall. Yun came in and said, “I’m going with you.”
We drove down Lincoln Highway. Reno was an abomination; but I never liked casino towns. One short visit to Las Vegas three years ago had cured me of any fascination I might have for the gambling life. When you started counting up the sour faces on busted gamblers trudging through the casinos, the ratio of losers to winners was a hundred to one. Odds like those were a loser’s game.
The visit at Wilson Attys. was quick. Discretion and cash were a great combination. I now had an imaginary six-week residency in Reno, enough to push through a divorce in the next twenty-four hours.
* * *
Mi-Cha pushed the chicken croquette around her plate. I think she was more accustomed to Chicken McNuggets.
I said, “Try a little ketchup.”
“I taste pepper,” said Mi-Cha.
“Don’t be so fussy,” said Yun. “It’s food.”
Mi-Cha took a second bite and decided she liked it.
The Reno diner wasn’t fancy, but it would serve its purpose—getting us filled with cheap food before the six-hour drive back to LA.
The quickie divorce had gone through like grease through a goose. Maybe because of this, I noticed Soo Jin looking glum, ignoring her bacon cheeseburger.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” answered Soo Jin.
“We’re still a family,” I said.
“But I’m pregnant,” said Soo Jin. “You’re not my husband anymore.”
“We’re going to fix that, don’t worry,” I said.
Yun reached out and laid a hand on Soo Jin’s forearm. “It’s going to be all right, really.”
Soo Jin didn’t seem convinced.
“I love our son already,” I said. “No one’s going to mess with him, and no one’s going to mess with you, or Yun.” I pointed at Mi-Cha and Tae-Yong. “Or those kids.”
Mi-Cha said, “What about Jamjari?”
I looked out of the window, at Jamjari sitting in the front seat of my Jeep Cherokee.
“Jamjari, too,” I said. “We’re a family. We’re going to stick together.”
FORTY-FOUR
It was three in the morning when we got back to LA. We didn’t dare go to Yun’s house. I took a flier and called Jules.
He answered on the fifth ring. “Who is this? Do you know what time it is?”
“Jules, it’s me—Wes.”
His voice softened. “You all right?”
“Mostly very good. I think I have the Koreans by the balls. But they don’t know that and they’re gunning for me.”
“You in trouble right now?”
“No, we’re OK.”
“What’s the ‘we’ stuff?”
“I got a question for you. Are you or your wife allergic to dogs?”
* * *
A half hour later we were pulling up to Jules’s house in Redondo Beach. Jules opened the door, dressed in a burgundy velour bathrobe, looking like a gangster in a Mafia movie.
I’d told Jules how many of us there were, but seeing us troop from the car up the steps made his jaw drop. Jamjari brought up the rear.
Jules asked, “Is that dog house trained?”
I said, “Yeah, he’s good that way.”
Once we were inside and the door was closed, I was face-to-face with Jules’s wife for the first time.
“This is Mary,” said Jules. “The rest of you, give her your name on your own time. Introductions are too much for me to deal with this time of night.”
Mary was frail—she couldn’t have been more than ninety pounds. Her gray hair was wispy, and she was dressed in a robe that matched the one Jules was wearing.
“Hi, Mary,” I said. “It’s good to finally meet you. Thanks for opening up your home on such short notice.”
“Jules has told me about you—some of the awful things you’re dealing with.” Mary took my arm. “Come on into the living room.”
Soo Jin and Yun sat on either side of me. The kids immediately sacked out on the carpet, using Jamjari as a pillow.
Jules said, “So, which one of you is the wife?”
I jumped in. “That’s a good question. You see, we just got back from Reno.” I pointed at Soo Jin. “We just got a quickie divorce.”
“Excellent,” said Jules. “You should have done that a long time ago. Now you can shake hands and go your separate ways. Problem solved.”
“It’s not that simple,” I said. “You see, Soo Jin is pregnant.”
Mary grimaced, as though she was having second thoughts about letting me in the door.
“You’re confusing me,” said Jules.
“I admit, it’s confusing,” I said. “But it’ll all make sense pretty soon. Especially after tomorrow’s wedding.”
Yun pointed at her chest. “You’re gonna marry me?”
“Let me explain,” I said.
* * *
Around five, Yun, Soo Jin, and the kids moved into the spare bedroom to catch a few hours of sleep. Jules—dressed now—said, “C’mon. It’s been years since I saw the sun come up on the beach.”
On the drive over we grabbed coffee from a Dunkin’ Donuts. The sky was starting to lighten at the edges when we made it to the sand. The tide was low, and gentle breakers were foaming white fifty feet from shore.
“I used to come out here a couple times a week to catch the sunrise,” said Jules. “It always set me up real good for a day’s work.”
; “I can feel it,” I said.
“So I get the Soo Jin connection,” said Jules. “But what’s with the other one, Yun?”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“And Soo Jin is good with that?”
“Soo Jin was never my wife wife, if you know what I mean.”
“Right,” said Jules. “You married her and knocked her up, but why call her a wife?”
“We had sex once, that’s all,” I said. “I wasn’t looking to be a father, but now that I have a son on the way, I kind of like the idea.”
“You’re lucky you made the deal for Warsaw Wash before all this rigmarole,” said Jules. “If I knew you were this convoluted with broads, I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it.”
The sand was going from dark-gray to brown as the horizon took on a glow.
“How’s Mary feeling?” I said. “I didn’t expect to meet her.”
“She has her good days and bad days. Your group bursting in livened the place up. She’s going to talk my ear off after you’re gone. Especially about this gambit you have planned.”
“Think it’ll work?”
“I tried to poke holes in it and it held up,” said Jules, as he stepped away from a breaking wave. “You really think you can put it together so fast?”
“Cash worked magic in Reno, pushing through a divorce,” I said. “I figure it can work the same kind of magic arranging a quick wedding.”
A curve of bright sun showed on the horizon. Jules stopped and stared.
“Hallelujah,” said Jules. “Here comes another day.”
FORTY-FIVE
The first call I made was to the Wilshire Christian Church. Yun had told me that most of the Dokos were Christian, and that was their preferred place of worship. I’d been by the building a hundred times. While I wasn’t a churchgoer, it was an impressive piece of architecture: a mash-up between Mexican and medieval.
It took three phone calls until I connected with the congregation president. I got his attention when I told him I wanted to book a wedding in one of their chapels. His ears really pricked up when I told him I also wanted to make a generous cash donation to the church, no strings attached. He hemmed and hawed about propriety and protocol, but we both knew the deal was good as done. When I told him exactly what I wanted there was a pause on the line, and then a quick, “That won’t be a problem.”