by Terry Toler
24
The motel room cost the equivalent of two American dollars. After looking at it, we both agreed we paid too much.
“What are you doing, Alex?” Bae asked me.
“I’m looking for bugs,” I said.
“You mean, spy bugs. Like listening devices?” she asked. “Why would there be bugs in our hotel room? No one knows we’re here.”
“No. I mean real bugs, as in creepy crawly things.”
I pulled the bedspread back and looked under the sheets. We asked for two beds but were given one Queen-sized bed. The sheets looked clean. The bedspread looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in several years. I pulled it off the bed completely.
“I don’t like bugs,” I said, shivering my shoulders.
Bae let out a laugh that could only be interpreted as mocking me. “You can stare a gun in the face, but you’re afraid of a little ol’ bug!”
“No way I’m sleeping on this floor,” I said. “My shoes make a crunching sound every time I take a step.”
“I’ll sleep on the floor. I’m not afraid of a few cockroaches.”
“Have you seen any cockroaches?” I asked, looking around the room nervously.
“There’s one right behind you!” Bae said in a serious tone. My feet did a little dance as I looked where she was pointing. I didn’t see anything. Bae rolled her eyes and walked into the bathroom.
“It has a shower,” she said from inside the room, shouting back out to me. “There’s a bar of soap in here, but there’s not much of it left.”
She walked out of the room holding the stub of a bar of yellow soap.
“Don’t touch that!” I said. “No telling what’s growing on that thing.”
She lobbed it at me like she expected me to catch it. I let it fall to the ground. “What are you doing?” I asked. “You’re going to have to pick that thing up and throw it away cause I’m not touching it.”
“Something is seriously wrong with you,” Bae said facetiously.
“I’m a bit of a germaphobe,” I admitted.
“What’s a germaphobe?” She rummaged through our grocery bags, leaving the soap laying on the floor like a dead mouse staring up at me.
“Somebody who’s afraid of germs,” I answered. “I’m not really afraid. I just don’t like them.”
“There’s also a toothbrush in the bathroom you can use,” she said with a wide grin on her face.
“You’re making fun of me now!” I countered.
“I’m just kidding,” she said, pulling some items out of the bag. “I got toothpaste and two toothbrushes. Shampoo and soap.”
I walked over and looked in the bag. “I’m beginning to like you,” I said as I grabbed them roughly out of her hand, “I’m taking a shower. At least the water will be clean.”
I inspected the bathroom before taking off any of my clothes. The shower was relatively clean, considering. The towels were tattered and worn, but usable. They had the smell of lye or some kind of bleach which meant they’d been cleaned recently. The shower curtain had seen better days but was functional. The shower head showed signs of rust, but at least it wasn’t broken, and water would run through it.
If the motel had running water. I put the odds at fifty-fifty.
I turned on the faucet. The pipes creaked and moaned like a bear being awakened from a winter hibernation. The water did come out but in a weak but steady stream. It took several minutes, but it eventually turned from ice cold to lukewarm. It felt good to get under the faucet and let the remnants of the last few days get washed down the drain.
Occasionally, the water pulsed out, like the fancy massage shower heads in a five-star hotel. I closed my eyes and pretended. I had the uncanny ability to let my imagination put me into more pleasant places and override whatever difficult situation I was in.
I let out a scream. Something ran across my foot. I’d just lathered my hair, and the suds were in my eyes so I couldn’t see it.
Bae knocked on the door. “Are you okay?” she asked sincerely.
“I’m not alone in here,” I said nervously, trying to brush the soap out of my eyes.
She cracked the door open and said, “What do you mean you’re not alone?”
“I think one of those cockroaches is in the shower with me,” I said.
Bae laughed mockingly again. “I don’t know how your girlfriend puts up with you.”
I threw some water over the top of the shower curtain and got a direct hit because she let out a little scream and slammed the door shut.
Truthfully, I was thankful for the shower. I stayed in longer than I should have. When the lukewarm water started turning colder, I thought I’d better get out and save some for Bae.
Still, I took my time before surrendering the room. Brushing my teeth felt as good as it ever had, although the water tasted like it had sulfur in it. My guess was that it came from a well. I was careful not to swallow any of it.
Hanging on the back of the door of the bathroom were two bathrobes. They looked at least twenty years old, signifying that maybe in its heyday the motel had some respectability. Mostly, I was thankful for the robe because it meant I didn’t have to put my dirty and smelly clothes back on.
I took the soap and washed my clothes off in the sink and finally surrendered the bathroom, carrying my wet clothes to hang on the long dresser in the bedroom to dry.
“That took long enough,” Bae heckled me.
“Shut up! I haven’t had a shower in several days.”
“I know. I’ve spent the last few hours with you.” She crinkled her nose into a funny face.
I threw my towel at her getting a direct hit. “There’s another robe in there,” I said as she closed the door behind her. “And a towel.”
“Hey Alex,” Bae shouted out to me a few minutes later.
I walked over to the door and could hear the shower running.
“Yeah. Do you need something?” I asked.
“Can you hand me the soap that’s on the floor?”
“I left the soap in there. And the shampoo.”
“I’d rather use the old soap than the soap you used.”
“You’re not funny!”
She was funny. That sounded like something my girlfriend Jamie would say. The more time passed the more I genuinely liked her.
***
Before we went to bed, I went through my nighttime preparations for whenever I’m inside enemy territory. I propped a chair under the doorknob so no one could enter through the door without me knowing it.
I put my gun on the nightstand and practiced reaching for it from my position on the bed. I couldn’t let Bae sleep on the floor, so I decided that I would sleep above the sheets and she could sleep below them. It wasn’t necessary as far as she was concerned. She trusted me, but I insisted.
Bae mocked me again because of all my preparations. She said I didn’t have anything to worry about. That all the concern was unnecessary.
“I haven’t stayed alive this long by being careless. I’m not going to start now.”
“We’re in the mountain areas. No one will bother us here,” Bae said, settling into her side of the bed. Once she was in bed under the sheets, she let out a slight moan of satisfaction.
I agreed with her. As bad as the room was, I was happy to have it. Better than sleeping in the car or out in the open on the ground somewhere.
“I didn’t see any phone lines going to the office,” I said, laying on my back with my hands behind my head staring up at the ceiling. “So, nobody can make any phone calls to report us.”
“The police don’t patrol in the mountains. They stay down in the flatlands where there are more people and more industry. The people in the mountains are really poor. Nothing to steal up here.”
“Why is that? I mean . . . I know most people in North Korea are poor. Why is it worse in the mountains?” I thought I knew but thought Bae might have even more insight.
“The land in the mountains is not fit for grow
ing crops. Most of the food is grown in the eastern flatlands by the coast. Also, the winters are so harsh that you can only grow food six months out of the year, which means they can only harvest one crop per year. The Rust Belt is even worse.”
“What’s the Rust Belt?” I asked. I knew of the Rust Belt in the United States but had never heard of it in North Korea.
“It’s up north. The very top regions of North Korea. Those are the poorest of all. Their winters are even harsher. What little industry they have practically shuts down in the wintertime. When the koananui haenggun hit, those people barely survived.”
I sat up in the bed and propped up on one arm facing her. “What’s the koananui haenggun?” I asked.
“It’s also known as the Arduous March,” she said solemnly.
“I think I’ve heard of that.”
Bae shifted so she was propped up on one arm, and we were facing each other.
“The Arduous March was the great famine. Although people aren’t allowed to talk about it. It’s not taught in schools.”
“Why not?’
“The regime denies it even happened. It makes them look bad. The words famine and hunger are banned in our society. It implies that the government has failed in some way.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I said, somewhat shocked that Bae was this honest with me. If the authorities heard her talking like this, she’d be arrested.
“Almost two million people died!” she said, raising her voice for emphasis.
I could feel my mouth fly open. “Two million people? That’s ten percent of your population. How do you even know about it if it’s not taught in schools?”
“My parents told me. Even they had a hard time and they were better off than most.”
“That must’ve been horrible.”
“The food was rationed,” Bae said, shifting positions.
“I’m sure the Yang family had plenty to eat,” I said in disgust, wondering if she would be offended by my obvious dig at the Divine Leader. There was nothing divine about him as far as I was concerned. It seemed like she might feel the same way.
“They did, of course,” she said, not giving any of her political views away by her tone. “That’s why a lot of people in the mountains resent the regime. The way they were treated was inhumane.”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she talked about it. I could tell at that point that she was more concerned about the people than defending the regime.
“The Yang’s had plenty of food. Then the military. They were fed before my parents even.”
“That’s how these dictators stay in power,” I explained. “I’ve seen it all over the world. They take care of the military, so they’ll stay loyal to them. That makes it harder for people to overthrow cruel despots.” I wondered if Bae knew that term, despots.
“Right,” she said, either agreeing or just keeping the conversation moving. “The elite were fed next after the military. People like my family. Between the Yang family, the military, and the elite, there wasn’t much left over for anyone else.”
“How did they divide the rest of the food?” I asked soberly. “Could the mountain people keep what they grew?”
“Everything was seized by the government. Some people hid some, I’m sure. But there were laws made that had to be followed or they were subject to imprisonment.”
“I would think the last place a person would want to be was in prison during a famine. Prisoners were probably the last to get fed.”
“Actually, children were.”
“Children?” I sat up further in bed, hardly believing what Bae was telling me.
“Here was the order. This was an actual decree from the Leader Centre.”
I knew that was the name given to the divine leader who was now Min Yang.
“The military was fed first. Then the elites. Then men.”
“Men?”
“Yes. Then women.”
“I had no idea women were that low in the pecking order.”
“Then children. Unless they were under two. The Party Centre decreed that children under two weren’t to be given solid food. Of course, people defied the order. But unless the mother could breastfeed the child, he or she would likely die.”
“That must’ve been awful. The mother was starving herself. How could she breastfeed a baby?” I didn’t know Bae well enough to know if she was embellishing. It certainly sounded like something the Yang family would do, but I didn’t know for sure. I could hardly believe that anyone could be that cold-hearted as to let children die.
“The mountain people suffered the most,” Bae explained. “They were left to fend for themselves. That’s why there is so much resentment among them.”
“Can they grow livestock in the mountains? You know. Cows. Pigs. Animals for food.”
“For the most part, we’re only allowed to eat meat on public holidays,” she said.
“What is considered a public holiday?” I asked, wondering if they celebrated things like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.
“Min Yang II and Min Yang-il’s birthdays are the two main holidays. People can only eat meat on those days. Twice a year. That ham you ate earlier was rare. I’m surprised I found it on the shelf.”
I was actually hungry again and had thought about having another snack. The ham with cheese and crackers. I suddenly felt guilty About eating meat twice in one day, when no one in North Korea had meat more than twice in one year.
25
A loud bang on the door woke me from a deep sleep. A split second after my eyes were opened, I grabbed the gun from the nightstand and was out of bed and bounded toward the door. Bae bolted upright in the bed. I motioned her to be quiet.
“Cheongso,” a lady said in a heavy Korean accent.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said as I lowered my weapon.
“Cleaning,” the woman said again in Korean, banging on the door harder.
“Ajig!” Bae said. She told the lady, “Not yet!”
I took in two deep breaths and tried to slow my heart from the adrenaline that pumped through my veins.
“The mountain people start to work early,” Bae said.
“Apparently. What time is it?” There were no clocks anywhere in the room. That must be a luxury for hotels that had at least one star. The thought brought a smile to my face. Surprisingly, I felt well rested and in a good mood.
Bae scooted over to the edge of the bed and reached for her watch. “It’s almost nine o’clock,” she said. “I can’t believe I slept so late.”
“You had an eventful day yesterday.”
That’s why I was so well rested. We slept for nearly ten hours. It was common for spies and soldiers to crash after their bodies were subjected to huge rushes of adrenaline the day before. Sometimes it was hard to get to sleep. Once you did, it was hard to wake up.
I checked my clothes, and they were dry, so I went into the bathroom and put them on. I splashed some nasty water on my face just to shake the cobwebs out of my head, brushed my teeth, and tried the best I could to comb my mussed hair with my hands and fingers.
When I was done, Bae took over the bathroom, and I helped myself to more ham, crackers, cheese, and two of the Korean Sweet Cakes that tasted like donuts. I washed them down with two cans of Omija Berry tea. The morning breakfast also washed the taste of the sink water out of my mouth, hopefully for the last time.
Bae took longer in the bathroom than I expected which gave me time to think of a plan. Today, I had to go to the cyber lab. The problem was figuring out how to infiltrate it a second time. I didn’t think there was any way I would ever see the inside of the building again. Word had probably gotten back to them that I escaped from the prison cell, so security would be a lot tighter than before.
The only option was to secure a computer and hack into their network within the range of their wi-fi. The lab itself didn’t have wireless for that reason. But I noticed that Pok accessed the system from his phone, wirelessly. There
was a possibility I could get in the system through his phone connection if I could get close enough to the building without being spotted.
The problem was that I didn’t have a computer. I also had Bae which was another complication. No way I was going to put her in harm’s way again. The only thing I could think to do was go back to South Korea, drop off Bae at the American embassy, secure my laptop and cell phone, and sneak back into North Korea.
That would cost me valuable time. However, there were no other options. Computers were illegal in North Korea except for those that were government issued, and I had no idea how to find one of those. A computer store was on every corner in South Korea. The two Koreas were so different.
This whole trip enlightened me to how bad things were in North Korea, and I felt extreme pity for the people who had to live under such horrible conditions. All of which was preventable if one man didn’t selfishly control an entire country with such idiocy. Also, hard to believe that some in our country actually wanted America to become communist. They should see what I had seen on this trip.
I couldn’t fathom why Min Yang wouldn’t let his people come into the twenty-first century. He could still be the dictator. Just let his people enjoy some modern conveniences. The Chinese government was as ruthless and heavy handed as Min. Maybe even more so in some ways. Yet, everyone had a cell phone and computer and could move freely around the country, even fly around the world through their many international airports.
My idea to go back to South Korea wasn’t ideal, but it was the best I could come up with under the circumstances, and I was anxious to get moving.
“You said you’d show me some self-defense moves,” Bae said excitedly as she came out of the bathroom. “Can we do that now?”
I hadn’t told her my plan. I wasn’t even sure she’d want to leave North Korea. When I hesitated, a look of disappointment crossed her face and her eyes drooped slightly, as she lost some of the excitement she had come out of the bathroom with. She didn’t know it, but this might be my last opportunity, and I promised her.