“Please tell us about your family, Reverend,” said Soprano, her voice still soft. Reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket, Yosŏp handed over the list of names he’d written down. Fatty the Supervisor took it.
“Why, you’ve come all prepared. If you had given this to us right away, you could have met your family this morning.”
Looking at the list together with the supervisor, Yosŏp tried to explain.
“This is my sister-in-law, and this here is my uncle, on my mother’s side. I’ve no idea whether or not he’s still alive. And this, this is my nephew. He’d be around fifty years old by now.”
“Ryu Tanyŏl? I believe he’s already been located and confirmed. ”
The supervisor turned to Soprano, who took a notebook from her handbag and checked inside.
“Yes, that’s right. We’ve already contacted the city authority of Sariwŏn about Ryu Tanyŏl.”
“And who did you say these female names belonged to?”
Yosŏp pointed at the names one by one, explaining, “Those are all my nieces. Every one of them would be over fifty years old by now. Those names right there, underneath — those are my older sisters.”
“Both of them?”
“Yes. They were already married back then.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve identified your nephew, so we should have all the other information, in detail, by sometime this afternoon.”
Fatty handed the piece of paper to Soprano, giving her a look that she acknowledged with a nod. Bowing, she disappeared behind the compartment. When the two men were left alone, the supervisor closed his eyes gently for a moment, seemingly deep in thought.
“During the war, over the short month and a half the American Imperialist invaders occupied the northern districts of our Republic, they committed the most horrible atrocities. It wasn’t just the foreign powers; landowners whose holdings had been impounded, Japanese collaborators, racketeers, and deserters all did their part, becoming the paws of America, acting as their accomplices. Throughout the course of the war, however, our Great Leader instructed us to leave the family members of the criminals and reactionaries in peace — we were not even to question them — as long as they had no prior criminal records and had not been active participants in the issue at hand. The principles we are adhering to during the promotion of this ‘Homeland Visit’ project are similar — Koreans from abroad who are visiting the Motherland, if repentant, are not to be asked about their pasts.”
Recalling his own experiences with Yohan, especially over the past few years, Yosŏp couldn’t help but interject, “But. the wound, it must still be there. It always was with our family.”
The supervisor nodded.
“It will heal eventually. At least, between us, it will heal. It is the foreign powers that are ultimately to blame for all of this — let’s just leave it at that.”
Around three o’clock that afternoon, the Homeland Visitors were in the middle of touring the Students’ and Children’s Palace. As the group quietly made its way through a room in which an accordion practice session was in full swing, All Back approached Reverend Ryu and pulled him gently by the sleeve.
“You need to come with us. Your nephew has arrived.”
Yosŏp followed him outside to find a sedan waiting. They got in the car.
“Reverend, you should know that the Party is giving your case a great deal of special consideration. Look how quickly we were able to locate him.”
Yosŏp felt more bewildered than excited.
“Thank you,” he replied.
Back at the hotel, Yosŏp was led to a small banquet room on the second floor. All Back opened the door and Yosŏp entered the room, looking about unsteadily. Fatty the Supervisor was sitting in the room, his back to the window, and a man wearing a flaccid orange suit with a red necktie sat sandwiched between two other men in gray, short-sleeved people’s uniforms. Right away, Yosŏp could tell that the one in the orange suit was his man. The supervisor introduced them, pointing at the suit.
“This is Comrade Ryu Tanyŏl. This gentleman here is Mr. Ryu Yosŏp.”
Yosŏp walked over to the banquet table and took one of the empty seats across from his nephew.
“Your father’s name — is it Ryu Yohan?”
“Yes, that’s right. You’re my uncle, aren’t you?”
Before he even realized what he was doing, Yosŏp found himself halfway up out of his chair, reaching out for his nephew. His nephew, in turn, did the same and grabbed his hands. Luckily, the table between them made a full embrace impossible. Wanting to control himself, Yosŏp did his best to stifle the burning sensation he felt behind his eyes. His nephew’s face crumbled, and the younger man let go of his uncle’s hands, covering his eyes with his arm. He began to sob. Waiting for an end to this outburst from a nephew whose face he would never have recognized, Yosŏp dabbed at his eyes.
“Stop, please stop. ”
Yosŏp was the first to sit back down — Daniel went on crying a little longer before he finally took a deep breath, inhaling through his nose, and sat down facing his uncle. Brushing his already graying hair to the side a few times, the younger man made a visible effort to control his emotions. Yosŏp asked after his sister-in-law first.
“Your mother, is she. still alive?”
“Yes, she lives with me in Sariwŏn.”
“And she’s in good health?”
“She was doing quite well up until last year, but this year she hasn’t been so good.”
Yosŏp made his way through the rest of his family members, one by one. Tanyŏl’s two sisters, Yosŏp’s nieces, were both dead. They had died young, during the hard years that followed the end of the war. Yosŏp’s own sisters, who had been married and raising their own families, were also gone. They had passed away even earlier, around the beginning of the war.
Daniel added, “Ah, you didn’t know. Only one uncle-in-law survived. He said it was the American Imperialist scum that killed both aunts.”
“What about Uncle Some? Is he still alive?”
“Yes, Grandfather Some is doing fine. Even now he comes every so often to visit Mother.”
The supervisor, who’d been watching them all along, cut into their conversation. “It seems to me that you’ve covered most of the things you were curious about. Come now, let’s take a moment to all say hello to one another. These two comrades have come from the Sariwŏn City Authority. They are responsible for bringing Comrade Ryu to us.”
The two men in people’s uniforms stood up and took turns shaking Reverend Ryu’s hand. One of them spoke.
“Comrade Ryu Tanyŏl is a very devoted Party member.”
“Yes, I must say I was quite surprised myself. We are told that he is in charge of the Cooperative Farm,” added Fatty the Supervisor, nodding.
Yosŏp felt unable, as yet, to break the news about Yohan to his nephew. Yohan had simply taken it for granted that his wife and children had all died long ago, and now it turned out that they were not only alive, but Party members, too! For the first time, Yosŏp was feeling rather shocked. It was Fatty who got up first.
“Well now, we should let you two have some time alone, shouldn’t we? You probably will not be allowed to spend the night together tonight, but we are arranging something quite special for you, Reverend.”
Falling in beside Yosŏp as they all walked out of the room, All Back said, “Why don’t the two of you go up to your room? Tomorrow there will be another family reunion — for now, you two can have dinner together before you call it a day.”
Yosŏp led the way back up to his room. Offering a seat to his nephew, who looked rather lost, he went over to his bag and took out some photographs. After first showing him a picture of Yohan alone, Yosŏp handed his nephew a photograph of Yohan with his second wife, as well as a family picture that included Samyŏl and Pillip.