A Walk with an Angel

A Walk with an Angel

The morning after working all night on the research paper, I find myself ignoring my alarm clocks, rolling in the blanket not wanting to wake up. When I finally open my eyes and gaze at the clock, I see it pointing at 7: 50. The school bus must have left five minutes ago. This means walking 5 blocks to school in the deadly chill of South Dakotan winter. Ever since I came to America as an exchange student, I have been spending each night trying to translate textbook materials and assignments into Korean so it was not an unusual event for me to miss a school bus. But today is different. I see snow piling up outside, and trees dancing to the wind. If I could, I want to skip the school. Then I give up. I remind myself that I came here to study English and learn different culture, so be strong; you’ve got to go to the school.

I grew up in a metropolitan city – Seoul – where too many people were crammed into a small land. Just like any big cities are, everyone was busy doing their work, walking by crimes and injustices happening on the streets in indifference. Around dinner time was when many teenagers were out in the darkness of narrow streets, usually soaked in cigarette smoke, searching for a prey. Six in the afternoon, the usual dinner time for city families with fathers in stable companies, was when my younger sister was dismissed from the kindergarten.

The town of Seoul I lived was an educational district where many prestigious high schools were located. Naturally parents were eager to send their kids to after school academies until very late at night and yes, business was well for my parents who owned an after school academy. It was long after mine and my sister’s bed time when my parents came home. Not surprisingly, I was the one who picked her up. The longest ten minutes walking through the pitch darkness of narrow streets into the warmth of a small apartment happened everyday with an angel right under my arm. It was my duty as a big sister to protect my sister from all the badness of the dark streets, and to this day I try to protect my sister from all the badness of the world outside.

As usual, I went to the kindergarten when it was still bright outside. Teachers greeted me, “Hey, the greatest sister in the world just came to our kindergarten again! I still can’t believe how 1st grader could be such a good sister” and all the kids turned their head towards me “Look!! JinHee unnie ’s here!” I sat quietly at the back of the classroom, helping the teacher to sort out scattered toys while waiting for my sister’s class to finish.

It was a good day to walk. The Sun has given its baton to the next runner, the moon, so the heat of the hottest days of the summer was getting cooler by every minute. The full moon was up so the dark streets were little brighter than usual. My sister was not too sleepy that she followed me without dragging on. When we reached the ice cream shop on the midway between kindergarten and home, I decided to treat my sister with her favorite ice cream. My allowance was just enough to have an everyday snack during the recess hour but well, I could tell my friends that I am too full to eat the next day. It was when I was helping her to rip off the cover of an ice cream cone that I saw four black figures behind the smoke by the wisteria bench.

A girl among them was leaning on the motorbike parking right beside them. Mini skirt, black leather jacket, red hair and high heel. Cigarette burning its body between the fingers. Guys were wearing sun glasses, in that darkness. Again, leather jacket, leather pants and red hair. My mind starts going though all the news I have watched recently about a child being kidnapped and getting killed with no mercy. The dead body was found in the mountain behind the kid’s house. Parents were screaming and crying on the screen. There is a small mountain right