Page 25 of Perfect Happiness
Eun-ho left the house fuming at the ears.He only started to calm down after he got onto the freeway.By the time he arrived outside Mother’s apartment, he had found enough composure to function like a normal human being.
“But why is her mother in the hospital?”Eun-ho’s mom asked.
“We haven’t gotten the results back yet.”
“What hospital is she at?”
“Why?Are you going to visit her or something?”
Eun-ho’s mom looked at him through the rearview mirror.Her eyes were telling him she knew he was lying.
“Why not?She’s not some stranger.She’s my daughter-in-law’s mother.”
A bicycle flashed across the street, just barely avoiding crashing into the hood of Eun-ho’s car.Eun-ho slammed on the breaks.The car lurched forward as his mom let out a scream.The car only stopped once it was halfway through the crosswalk.Eun-ho looked and saw that the crosswalk sign was green.People glared at him as they walked around the front of his car.
“Watch where you’re going!”Eun-ho’s mom said as she held Noah in her arms, her eyeballs bulging out of her eye sockets.Her tone was as shocked as it was scathing.
Eun-ho let out a long sigh as a wave of fatigue washed over his body.
“Where’s your head, Eun-ho?”
The answer was obvious.It was focusing on her nagging.But Eun-ho was unable to argue with her and just swallowed his words.
“You should slow down when you see a crosswalk.Don’t you know you have a child in the car?What if you had hit someone?Don’t you remember last time?You got distracted and almost hit that delivery bike.”
Eun-ho just took it in silence.He knew that his mom wouldn’t stop even if he told her to.Eun-ho had experienced this often as a child.The only difference was that it was Eun-ho’s dad who was driving and not him.His mom would make all sorts of nasty remarks, if something happened, she would blame his dad’s poor driving skills, and if his dad asked her to stop, she would bring up the past and continue to attack him until they got out of the car.
After his dad left the company, he “graduated from marriage,” as he put it, and left Eun-ho and his mom for Jeju Island.Eun-ho only saw him two times after that.Once was on his wedding day with Yoon-hee, and the second time was on his wedding day with Yuna.Eun-ho didn’t blame his dad for the way things turned out.In fact, he sympathized with him.Although, the same couldn’t be said for her.Even after all these years, Eun-ho’s mom still wouldn’t admit that she was the one who drove Dad away.
But unlike him, Eun-ho couldn’t run away.It would be a lie to say that he stayed out of some sense of duty to her.The truth was that he needed her to raise Noah.Eun-ho harbored no expectations that she would change.After sixty-five years on Earth, humans were more like mathematical constants than variables.
“Well, are we just going to sit here?Or are you going to go?”
Her shrill voice woke Eun-ho up from his deep thought.The light had turned green.Eun-ho stepped on the gas.Eun-ho listened to her nagging all the way to the house, by which time he was sure his eardrums had holes in them.“Slow down, you’re going to hit the car in front of you.”“Go faster, the person behind you is honking.”“What’s the rush?”“Stop passing everyone.”“Why are you following this truck so closely?”“Pass him already!”
Only when they parked in the driveway did his mom stop her backseat driving.Eun-ho looked for signs that Wife was home.The lights were on, and Wife’s car was parked in the garage.A thought was wiggling in the back of his mind, as tenacious and filthy as a cockroach.It was relief about Wife’s return, a willingness to forgive her for everything if things would just go back to normal.
Eun-ho looked back at his mom.
“Take Noah and go inside.I’ll get the bags.”
After they got out, Eun-ho drove the car into the garage.Parking next to Wife’s car, he took a second to steady his breathing.He had to go inside like it was just another day.He had to face Wife like nothing was wrong.He had to be a good enough actor to fool his mom.But could he do it?
Eun-ho got out of the car with the bags.He walked out to the driveway and headed to the front door.He opened the door feeling like he was going to the dentist.Wife was standing in the middle of the second doorway just beyond the place to remove shoes.Eun-ho looked at her with uncertainty as she beamed at him.
“Fewer bags than I expected,” she said as her eyes moved down to his hands.“I cleared out Jiyoo’s room.”
Eun-ho knew immediately what she meant by this.This was the second time that Mother had come to spend the night.The first time, she had slept with Noah in his room.Jiyoo had slept by herself in her room, and Eun-ho and Wife slept together in the master bedroom.Peaceful times.But things had changed.It was this change that Wife was informing Eun-ho of.She would be sleeping in the master bedroom with Jiyoo, Grandma would be sleeping in Jiyoo’s room, and Eun-ho would be sleeping with Noah.
“Put the bags upstairs and hurry back down.I’m making your favorite.”
Eun-ho’s lungs seized up.Her smile was as bright as a summer afternoon, and her voice was trickling gently into his ears like a mountain spring.But her eyes—Her eyes were cold, like a desolate gust of autumnal wind from the north.Eun-ho’s senses were spinning from the dissonance of fire and ice on her beautiful trim face.
“My favorite?”Eun-ho asked with his jaw unhinged.
He asked this question despite knowing the answer, which had been given to him by the smell of goulash filling the house.
Suddenly, a loud noise could be heard coming from the living room.Eun-ho guessed it was the sound of Noah’s soccer ball banging against the glass door to the balcony.Eun-ho took off his shoes and stepped inside.Wife turned sideways to let him pass, revealing a small shadowy figure behind her.
