When Saigon Surrendered

by James Aura

  “Soo Jin, you’ve been a big help, but before you spend the night under this roof, I’ve got some questions.”

  She nodded nervously and we decided to go sit on the front porch. I picked up the .410 shotgun on the way and laid it on the floor next to my rocker. Maybe those bastards were lurking out there, in the dark of the moon waiting for another run at our wallets.

  “What can I tell you Russell? I would just like to say, I think you are very nice boy and I am glad to be helping out here.”

  Her English had improved since she first appeared in the kitchen that morning a few short weeks ago.

  “Soo Jin, are you serious about Uncle Wallace? Were you living with him at the trailer before he moved up here?”

  She blushed and tugged at her sleeve.

  “It is not exactly a relationship, Russell but I have stayed at his trailer since he came and got me from a very bad situation in Clarksville. I cannot pay rent as I have no money but he let me do the housework and help out with his still.”

  “Clarksville? You mean Clarksville down in Tennessee?”

  Clarksville was an army town, right outside a huge military base which sat on the Tennessee and Kentucky line.

  “Your uncle said we should keep it quiet because people would find my presence here strange and what was the word peculiar. So I keep quiet and I work.”

  “How did you wind up in Clarksville? Did you come back with a soldier from Korea?”

  “I met a G.I in Korea, Russell. He said he wanted me to be his wife and move to the states. My family was poor; we struggled to have food to eat. So I agreed. But when we got to America he sold me to some bad men and he disappeared.”

  I was thinking about what Tommy had said about Korean girls so I pressed on.

  “Soo Jin were you what they call, one of those hootchie mamas around the Army bases in Korea?”

  Her brown eyes blazed and she began crying.

  “You Americans, you see Korean girl and you think whore! I am Christian woman! I never sleep with my husband until we got married in Seoul! Those girls you speak of, they stay around the bars and they sleep with many G.I.’s, until one gets drunk and asks her to move in with him. I never did that!”

  Clearly I had crossed some kind of line.

  “Soo Jin, I am sorry, but I am ignorant of these things. I mean no offense and I want to be your friend. What happened in Clarksville?”

  She began tugging at her sleeve again, still crying. I felt bad for her but I was bound and determined to learn some things this night. I dashed into the front room and brought back a box of tissue. She took it and dabbed at her eyes. That seemed to calm her down, a little.

  “Russell they try to make me a whore. They wanted me to sleep with G.I.’s from Fort Campbell and other men, but I would not. I would not be a whore! So they beat the palms of my hands with sticks and when I still would not they knock out my teeth! They tied me down and beat me while the other women watched.”

  “Then they called someone, I don’t know who, and the next day your Uncle Wallace came and got me. They had me tied up, but when he put me in his car, he untied me and promised he would not hurt me. He spoke a little Korean, so I decided not to run away.”

  Soo Jin had seen some hard knocks all right. I wondered if all of that was true. I had never heard of soldiers selling people as if they were slaves. Not since civil war days, at least.

  “It seems to me this man who married you and then sold you there must be a record of the marriage with his name and I am sure the army could find him. He shouldn’t get away with that, Soo Jin.”

  She looked very frightened, even panicked.

  “Wallace said I should not tell anyone about this! I could still be in danger, he said. These men are like the Dragons, they steal and they kill, Russell.”

  “Who are the Dragons?”

  We have criminal gangs in South Korea, Russell, just like you have the mob here; the ones I know about are called the Dragons. Please do nothing about this, Russell until you talk some more with your uncle about it.”

  I told her I was so sorry those men had knocked her teeth out, and that maybe we ought to get her some dentures. She seemed to appreciate me saying that, and got up to go inside.

  “Let me know if you need anything, Soo Jin, blankets or pillows or anything.”

  I thought to myself she’d make a nice looking woman if she had some teeth.

  “Russell, I know where everything is I have been cleaning your house and washing the bedding for awhile now.”

  Of course she had. It really wasn’t such a big deal that she’d be spending the night here in Grandma’s house. After hearing her story I wondered if we shouldn’t just let her move in, and save that drive every day.

  I sat on the porch a few minutes sorting things out. Then a cold wind came through ahead of some black clouds, and it started to rain. I checked on Uncle Wallace who was snoring in the recliner, walked into my bedroom and turned on the radio.

  The announcer was just wrapping up the late news.

  “The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for low lying areas in western and central Kentucky. Heavy rain is forecast from Louisville east to Lexington and as far south as Nashville.”

  I flipped off the radio and got into bed. It had been dry a couple of weeks. A good soaking rain would do us some good.

  I awoke to thunder and lightning at daybreak. It occurred to me that somewhere back toward the machine shed, there was a dead dog. He would need to be buried but the rain was coming down in buckets.

  I smelled coffee brewing. Soo Jin must be up already and I could get a quick cup before dashing to the barn to milk the cows. Uncle Wallace was still snoring in the front room recliner.

  ‘You sleep OK Soo Jin?”

  “Yes Russell. But I am worried. I told you too much last night. Please talk to your uncle about it when he is better.”

  Uncle Wallace had been up earlier, she said, and had taken another pain pill and gone right back to sleep in the recliner. I was a little surprised. The storm was making enough racket to wake the dead. I saw a tree limb fly off the big Sycamore in the front yard.

  The clouds were clearing by the time I got back from the barn and the chicken house. Soo Jin had breakfast on the table and this time Uncle Wallace was seated in his usual spot, picking at his bacon and eggs with the fork in his right hand.

  “Everything seem OK outside, Russell? I saw the wind blew a tree limb down in the front yard.” I was afraid it might take down that tall dead oak tree too, but it is still standing."

  “I didn’t see any damage, but I didn’t really look at the machine shed.”

  “Hurley down the road called while you were outside. He sounded worried about the creek.”

  It had been awhile since I had seen a storm like this one on the farm. I hadn’t thought about the creek and our garden plot of vegetables and herbs. Burying the dog had mostly been on my mind, whilst milking the cows.

  “Well if it looks like the storm is really gone, I’ll head down there and check on it.”

  A day ago, I would have walked to the creek, accompanied by our big dog. I was really feeling bad about Wonju.

  Uncle Wallace looked like a sad sack there at the table. I couldn’t wait to check the creek. I put on some boots, picked up the .410 and headed out.

  As I searched the sky for signs of any more storm clouds, I spotted a red-tailed hawk drifting high on an up-draft. Suddenly he plummeted straight down towards the trash ditch. He disappeared and then seconds later shot straight back up into the sky with something in his claws. He flew directly overhead, and I cringed when I saw it was a snake, a copperhead.

  I recalled reading something about birds carrying serpents. An omen of some kind. I made a mental note to look that up at the library- if I ever had time to go to the library again.

  Blackwater creek was full of onrushing water from up north, nearly out of its banks, but so far it was not flooding our organic garden. I walked over t
o creek side, transfixed by the sight and sound of the foaming current. The bottom of the creek bed seemed especially dark, a blackish-gray. I thought to myself, “They don’t call it Blackwater for nothing.”

  Then I heard a moan, a watery sigh coming from the north, then a roar. A flash flood was coming down and rising above the banks, the full creek bed in front of me was like a trickle in comparison. I stood, frozen for seconds then realized I needed to get the hell out of there to higher ground. Then it took me. The water, blackish gray was up to my waist, then my shoulders. It knocked me off my feet and pulled me into a thick gray soup that tasted like gritty ashes and metal. The flood crest slammed me against a tree trunk next to the creek bed. I grabbed ahold of the trunk and tried to breathe, the wind knocked out of me.

  Then it passed. I clung to the tree trunk and watched the black muck settle over everything. It covered the creek bed, the shrubs, our organic garden—and me. The rain was gone but the wind was cold and raw.

  I limped back to the house, shivering, carrying the mud-covered .410, looking for Wonju’s body on the way. No sign of it. Grit burned my eyes. It was bitter on my tongue. I staggered to the garden hose to wash this black metallic slime off my body. I felt as if I had been rolled around in the wet ashes of a burned out slag heap from hell.

  Soo Jin and Uncle Wallace gawked at me from the back door as I tried to rinse off. What ever it was, it wasn’t coming off easy and my eyes began to burn even worse. It was in my nostrils, my ears and my mouth, grit under my tongue. A chill came over me and I shivered.

  “This stuff won’t come off; I think I need to get in some warm water in the bathtub.”

  Soo Jin ran and got my house slippers and one of Grandma’s bathrobes.

  “Put these on Russell, and come in. We will get soap and scrub you in the bath tub.”

  I kept my eyes nearly shut to avoid the scratchiness of the slime, made my way to the tub and Soo Jin promptly began stripping my clothes off. It was embarrassing but I didn’t protest. She plopped me into the tub which was filling with warm water and began scrubbing me with wash cloths and a brush. She handed me a wash cloth and a bottle of dish detergent and told me to scrub my eyes and face while she worked on my arms, hair and back.

  Uncle Wallace stood in the doorway, aghast at my fate.

  The detergent seemed to do the trick. My eyes stopped burning and I felt the grit coming out of my mouth and tongue. I hadn’t felt a woman’s hands on my body in awhile. They felt good. I began to warm up.

  Uncle Wallace said “Well the coal peckerwoods finally got us didn’t they Russell? Those bastards. That’s coal slag. Got to be from a mine or power plant upstream. Did it get the garden plot too?”

  “Sure did. I’d say the organic garden is now under about two feet of this stuff.”

  My wash water in the bathtub was black. We drained the tub, refilled it with warm water and began scrubbing again. By now I felt like I could handle the situation so I thanked Soo Jin and said “I can get the rest of me, OK now, I think.”

  She didn’t back off.

  “Your hair Russell, you still have it in your hair. You wash down below I will finish cleaning your hair.”

  And she set in to scrubbing again. I felt like a damn poodle being scrubbed up for a dog show.

  Finally, after another tub draining, scrubbing and rinsing, I felt like a human being again.

  I looked up and said “Say, Soo Jin, how’s YOUR day been going?”

  We both laughed out loud. Sometimes there is nothing to do but laugh or cry. Actually, that’s what Soo Jin did. She laughed then she cried, and left the bathroom, sobbing, to go wash up in the kitchen sink.

  Uncle Wallace looked grim.

  “I’ll get you some clothes, Russell.” And he limped off towards my bedroom.

  I returned to the kitchen table to finish the breakfast I’d left behind. A cup of coffee seemed to help get the coal taste out of my mouth. I still felt a little on my eyelids and my nose, but at least the grit was gone.

  Uncle Wallace sat at the table and stared admiringly at Soo Jin.

  “You did a heck of a good job with Russell, and I sure thank you for helping get him cleaned up.”

  She nodded and resumed scrubbing the sink. It had a hint of a black stain, like the bathtub. Soo Jin was a good looking woman, from behind. She just needed some teeth.

  He turned back to me.

  “Russell I don’t know what we’re going to do. I am tapped out. The money is gone. Maybe we can replant but those herbs were expensive. We’ve got to think about this real hard.”

  I agreed and we spent awhile in silence around the house; everyone with dark thoughts. The jeans and the shirt Uncle Wallace brought me were the clothes the nurse had given me the night Grandma passed. I hadn’t worn them since that night. I wondered if they were Dad’s clothes.

  All that garden work was down the drain. All of the plowing, planting, putting in the fence and the hoeing. The next thing would have been picking off the bugs. They had started in on the tomatoes and potato plants. With no pesticides the only way to keep them from being devoured would have been to crawl amongst them and pick the bugs off. Not something I was looking forward to.

  The waters receded within hours. There was not much left. The flood had washed away most of the garden. Gray sludge covered what was left. These vegetables were not fit for man nor beast. At least the fence held so there was no danger of the sheep getting into that mess.

  Our wheat fields were on the high ground, and it occurred to me there was a good reason for that, considering what Black Creek had done to the bottomland. The wheat would be ready for harvest once the fields dried out.

  The creek bed was coated in gray sludge. Dead fish, frogs and mussels littered the banks and the bottomland. It looked like something out of the ‘Twilight Zone’. I imagined hearing Rod Serling saying, “They wouldn’t sell to the coal company, so the coal demons covered them up in slag, from ‘The Twilight Zone’.”

  Uncle Wallace shook his walking stick at the north horizon.

  “Coal companies claim there’s no harm from the coal, that it’s just an ‘esthetic’ problem. They are lying bastards! Look at this!”

  He turned to me and he looked as forlorn as the day we buried Momma years ago.

  "Russell, I am a man without luck." He stared at the blackened earth.

  My uncle sank into a dark place. He had no interest in anything except napping. He began to hit the moonshine jar every evening, too. One night on the front porch he turned to me and said, “War never ends, Russell. It is just handed down through the generations.”

  I decided we were under a permanent curse, but then Grandma’s social security death check arrived. Two Hundred Fifty dollars. The following day brought a check from her life insurance policy. Five Hundred dollars. To me it was a bonanza. With that, and the wheat harvest, we’d at least have money to regroup. There would soon be a few dollars from the sheep shearing, too. Grandma was still looking after me, I reckoned. Sally Mae Teague or maybe God; might be giving us another chance.

  I decided it was time to pull together some people for a brainstorming. I sat at the kitchen table and made a list. Tommy was always good for a practical view. His sister Evelena was a money maker with her sales business, and smart. She’d set Tommy up with his garage and he’d been able to pay her back in less than a year. The Sheriff seemed to have a strong interest in our efforts, he should probably be there. Opal was in Louisville for the week, so she was out.

  I decided to ask my uncle for his thoughts.

  “Bad idea, Russell! Bad idea! We don’t need to bring the sheriff into this right now, and I can’t imagine how Tommy and Evelena could bring anything to the table. They’re not farmers!”

  At least the idea got a rise out of him. I decided to proceed anyway.

  “Uncle Wallace, it’s my farm. If you don’t like it, you can take the animals and sell them and go on back to the trailer with Soo Jin. I wish you wouldn’t but that’
s how I feel!”

  He was taken aback. I think he was hurt by my impertinence. Soo Jin came in from the henhouse with a basket of eggs and a curious expression. I ignored Uncle Wallace, and asked her to follow me to the front porch.

  “Soo Jin, I want to have a barbecue and invite some people to share ideas on what to do about the farm. Do you think we could get a meal together for maybe ten people?”

  “Russell, I can tell your uncle does not like that idea. But I will handle him and do the dinner If I can ask you one favor?”

  Somehow I knew what was coming. She wanted dentures. This would be a kind of coming out event for Soo Jin and I couldn’t blame her. When I said yes, she beamed. I felt like we were in cahoots.