So I’m back in balmy Mississippi (today’s high was 70!!! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE). It’s so nice to be home. And Soonie so 순해! (calm, sweet?)
I slept a lot… it was nice to sleep uninterrupted.
Before I start into whatever I’m going to write underneath, today was a nice, low key day. (yes, I am low key.) Eumin and did laundry, washed dishes, and sort of tidied things up. I did end up going to sleep at 6am because a) I like to stay up, and b) I talked to Juyoung for more than two hours online last night. It was really good. I ended up not going to Kristen’s Christmas party (even though I meant to go late) because I fell asleep. Good job.
On Wednesday, I went with Umah and Appa to the Emergency Room. Umah’s been having weird chest pains for a very long time, and finally my dad was like, “we gotta go.”
This will be an exercise in writing. Plus, I like writing about myself in the third person. I’m narcissistic like that.
[clears throat] Ahem.
…
“Sumin, eat some persimmons.”
Sumin was still rubbing sleep from her face (not just her eyes–she was that tired.) even though it was well past noon. “No, Umah, I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.” She was glad no one questioned her statement. Surely someone outside of her family would have said, “that’s ridiculous!” (imagine that in a very white, mature male announcer’s voice) but her mom just replied, “Okay, you’re right.” Sumin yawned and returned to her room, proceeding to waste valuable minutes doing absolutely nothing on her new laptop. Absolutely nothing. After doing absolutely nothing (and I–the author–mean, absolutely nothing) she walked out into the living room after being called by her father.
“Hurry up, we’re going to go to the hospital.”
Sumin was taken aback. “What?”
“We’re going to take Umah. She’s not feeling well.”
Alarmed, Sumin along with her younger sister Eumin hurried to their parents’ room. They found their mom sitting in the bathroom. “Is everything okay?”
“Just having weird chest paints.. and the left cheek, right under the eye, it keeps… what’s the word, twitching. For a long time.”
Eumin murmured something, but Sumin wasn’t paying attention. She was trying to keep from panicking like she did last time her mom had to go to the hospital. Left side of face? Chest? Oh God, please let it not be a heart attack. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. She steadied her voice and said, “It’s probably just a tick. Don’t worry, it’ll go away soon. I better go wash up, and I’ll be right out.” Sumin walked slowly out of the bathroom, but as soon as she was out of sight, she rushed to brush her teeth. Stupid stupid stupid, of all days to be lazy and not be ready to go.
When she was ready, she joined her family at the dinner table, standing next to her mom. Strangely enough, no one seemed rushed or hurried. Even Umah didn’t seem concerned. Appa was pacing back and forth on his Bluetooth headset, doggedly calling people. At first, Sumin thought he was still trying to get in touch with Umah’s doctor, but it turned out he was calling contractors for the new store. What? Why weren’t they hurrying to the hospital?
Umah smiled to ease her daughters’ anxieties. “Eumin, be sure to study for your test tomorrow… Study hard, okay? We’ll be back soon.” Eumin dejectedly replied in affirmative. She definitely didn’t want to study for calculus, and she definitely didn’t want to have to go to school. But school was almost over, and she had fought with Umah yesterday about her psychology test, so she just nodded meekly.
“Okay, let’s go.” Appa finished talking on the phone–he was still enamored with his headset–and Appa, Umah, and Sumin all got into the Pilot. They waved at Eumin in the garage, and proceeded to drive off. Lighthearted conversation ensued because Sumin didn’t know what else to do. She told her mom the very corny Korean jokes she had learned at school. At least all that time she spent hanging out with people at school paid off.
While they were in the car, Sumin got a phone call from Julia. Julia made small talk, talking about JPs, visiting Andrew and how wonderful his mom was, and then finally she came around to the point of her call. “Well, to be honest, I had an ulterior motive for calling.” Only when Julia called could she make “ulterior motive” sound innocent. “I got Blake’s email… are you okay?”
At first, Sumin was confused, and then remembered that Blake had sent an email out about Paco, her assistant RCA who had done quite a number on campus. Fabricating death threats, sending out a few of his own, beating himself up and giving himself a concussion in order to “prove” his story… She had been on an emotional roller coaster when she found out in stages about Paco. “Oh, no. I’m fine.”
“I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want to stress you out. Besides, I didn’t want to talk about it with anybody on Monday. I found out about it right before my Korean test, which was why I didn’t want you to leave.”
“I thought you were acting strange.”
“Yea, well, it was awesome. I actually found out because Carrie called me. I was very calm on the phone, but as soon as I hung up, I threw my napkin and screamed, ‘Oh my God!’ and stalked off to the bathroom. Rich and Carlos were there.. I felt sorry for them. I mean, what were they supposed to do? I think I surprised them. Haha. I mean, I threw my napkin. But I’m fine. Seriously, don’t worry about me.” (More description of what went on, but the author doesn’t want to bother with it.)
“Oh… I remember you telling me that he talked to you beforehand about the threats he got. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Once again, the same feelings of gratitude and affection flooded Sumin, just as when she got a simple phone call the day she found out from a friend who had no idea but was concerned. Just the simple act of caring was enough for Sumin.
“Thanks so much for calling… Seriously, I’m fine, but thanks so much for calling.”
“Heehee, no problem. So what are you doing?”
“I’m in the car.”
“Oooo… are you driving?” Julia sounded really excited. Sumin laughed instead.
“No, my dad is. Is it that interesting, driving? You know you’re going to have to get your driver’s license sometime.” Sumin marveled that two of her best friends, Julia and Eunhae, both couldn’t drive. How could that be? Did she have some sort of quality that attracted non-drivers? What?
“Where are you going?”
Sumin paused. She didn’t really want to say anything in front of her parents. She knew that no matter how interesting to her parents which hospital they decided to go to, they were still listening to her phone call. “Um, the hospital.”
“What? Is everything alright?”
“Yea, everything’s fine. My mom needed to go.”
“Oh. I hope everything’s okay.”
“Yea, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I actually have to go, so I’ll talk to you later?”
Sumin hung up and began a lively and completely unrelated conversation with her parents. Ten minutes later, they pulled up to the guard booth to the emergency room parking lot.
Appa pointed to Umah as he rolled down the window. “She needs to go to the emergency room. Where can we park?”
The man calmly replied, “Turn to the left and keep left. Just park wherever.”
Appa drove up to the door, and said, “Go ahead inside.”
“Why don’t I park the car and you go in with Umah?” Sumin offered. She parked the car to the left (always to the left), and slowly locked the car. It was ridiculously warm, and she felt hot with her coat on. She had just left below 30 degree weather with crappy sleet and chills, and arrived in a cool, pleasantly Mississippi winter. As she was walking to the door, she tripped with all the glory a trip could possibly have, but caught herself in time. However, she couldn’t prevent a very old ladyish, “Aigoo!” and laughed embarrassingly as she looked at a man walk by in the corner of her eye.
To her relief, it wasn’t the same hospital as the last time she came to the emergency room. She couldn’t remember where that was, but it didn’t matter. The waiting room was still a bit dreary, but had a strange layout. Everybody seemed so nonchalant. Wasn’t the emergency room supposed to be hectic and scary? She sat down with Umah and Appa to wait, and while talking to them watched CNN’s “Election Exclusive.” CNN was a joke.
Soon they called out, “Anna Lee,” and they walked over to the desk. To her surprise, there was a small side room where there were a few nurses who did preliminary things. Sumin hesitated, and said that she would wait outside. Appa handed her a thick book (Bruce Cuming’s Korea’s Place in the Sun, but translated into Korean, much to her amusement), Umah’s purse, and she went and sat in a corner next to the water fountain. She tried to make a serious outline for her independent paper that she was dreading (or was just plain lazy and didn’t want to write), and got as far as the introduction and all the intricacies of Korean cinema and consumer culture. How boring.
Sumin instead decided to preoccupy her time by texting Julia profusely about why she was really at the hospital, and watching two young black girls and and a young woman. The youngest was in tears, and trying hard to not cry, while the older sister–they were wearing matching shirts–held her shoulder and comforted her, “it’s okay.” It didn’t seem like it was serious, but just that the young girl was confused and as a result, frightened. She soon grew out of her uneasiness, and came to the water fountain multiple times. She looked sideways at Sumin each time–Sumin laughed inwardly, guessing that the younger girl was curious about this Asian girl sitting by herself hunched over a notebook and awkwardly holding multiple large items. Probably more about the fact that she was Asian than anything else. Could she speak English?
After what seemed like an hour, Appa came out of the double doors (The author apologizes for not having described the waiting room or the emergency unit very well). He motioned for her to come over, and in a scramble, Sumin somehow managed to pick everything up. The security guard on the other side strained his head and said, “Miss. Miss.” He handed Sumin a name tag that said, “Visitor 26″ in red Sharpie, and gave her another one. “Your dad needs one too.”
Appa muttered to Sumin as he stuck it on. “Unnecessary… You don’t need it. I was already here without one. It’s obvious I don’t work here.” He directed Sumin to the side past nurses and all sorts of complicated computer systems and what seemed like gigantic vending machines of medical supplies. Across from Umah’s unit, a little boy screamed and screamed and screamed. It seemed like he was the only one in the world with pain, and the only one in the whole emergency room unit who seemed to be hurt. He kept screaming and crying. No one was moved, except inside. Sumin’s face didn’t change, but her heart twisted.
“He’s screaming like the world is ending,” Appa commented not unkindly, but detached. Umah lay weakly in the patient’s chair-bed-apparatus, hooked up to a machine that read her vital signs. She smiled at Sumin, and Sumin tried not to worry.
“What did they say?”
“Nothing, as usual. The doctor is taking forever to come.”
…
OKAY so I’m tired of writing and it’s 5:31am in the morning and I need to wake up in a few hours. I’m absolutely stupid. Anyway, I’ll finish later, but no one will care that I not or will finish. Don’t worry, everything’s okay. Umah is fine, and Sumin is fine and the little boy ended up being fine, and Appa is fine and Eumin took her tests and whatnot. Oops, there goes the ending. :)
