The Sigma Asset 🏳️‍🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022

44: Eomma

"It's his birthday tomorrow. I'm cooking dinner for our friends to celebrate."

"Wish him a happy birthday from me. How old will he be?"

"Thirty-three."

"Thirty-three? Why isn't he married?"

Eomma, seriously.

"Californians get married late. And he's gay."

"Gay?" Eomma's eyes widened. "Are you two..?"

I didn't blame her for thinking the worst. In high school I'd have seen Will as a mountain to conquer, just because he was there.

"No. We're close friends."

Maybe Eomma sensed something, some bright flash of pain streaking across my skin, because she moved on from Will.

"When is your passport coming?"

"I'll send my application forms to the Embassy today, so the passport should arrive in two weeks, then Nuna will get me a flight home."

"The house looks nice there."

"It's wonderful here, Eomma."

I plucked up my phone and gave Eomma a tour of the sunroom, the living room, the golden-brown sands beyond the porch doors.

"I teach piano for charity." I cast the phone camera over the grand piano. Eomma seemed delighted with it, so I mustered my courage. "Eomma, when I come home, I don't want to go to medical school. I like teaching piano."

Her face clouded in confusion. "Why did you think that you must go to medical school?"

"Because I was going to go. Before."

Eomma began to weep again, and I wished that she wasn't nine thousand kilometers away, but right there in my arms. "You were worried about that, all this time? A lot has happened to you, and to me, since we last spoke, Jun-su."

"Who bought Halmae's farm?"

"Choi Hyuk ssi. Do you remember him?"

"No."

"He rented some of our paddy fields for years. He was always keen to buy."

The fuzzy memory of Hyuk was somewhere in my mind; I recalled a red-faced dude who used to drink soju with Halbae on Friday nights, while we played in the garden until it was too dark to see.

"Did he keep the pond?"

"Yes, he did."

"Can I go see the salamanders?"

There it was.

Eomma's laugh, bright and clear, like a little temple bell. When was the last time I'd heard it? Maybe I'd been six years old. Before we lost Abba.

"You still like salamanders?" Eomma's laugh settled into a little purr of amusement. "Of course we can visit. We can do anything you like when you come home."

Home.

I found that I wasn't apprehensive about living with my new Eomma. In fact, I was so looking forward to finding out more about her, like I was meeting her for the first time.

Eomma had always kept her anguish secret underneath a placid face, like a swan gliding on a lake's surface, hidden legs churning the water in agony beneath. But her new face was clear, every emotion laid on the surface for me to see. And my new Eomma talked, about things that mattered.

"Eomma, are you better?"

"Yes. I'm better. But I want to stay at the commune longer. The work is good. Next week we're demolishing an old dam that was used for a processing factory that closed down. We're giving the land back to the wetland birds."