Page 42 of Perfect Happiness
The last puppet wasn’t a person nor was it free to move.It was a duck bound to the chair with rubber bands.One eye was missing, and there were dozens of holes puncturing its stomach.Even the duck’s webbed feet were tattered as though someone had brought a razor to them.Just like the other family members, this duck had a name tag.
Jane.
Jane remembered the wave of darkness and nausea that was pulled over her eyes.She remembered screaming and falling over.Jane had never been, and would never again, be so afraid of her own name.
With trembling hands, she untied the duck and removed it from the chair.As she did this, the foot of the puppet got caught on the pole, causing the chair to fall to the ground and break into several pieces.Jane quickly started picking these up.She was so flustered that she didn’t notice the bedroom door opening.Nor did she sense when someone came in.And then a hand reached out and snatched the puppet from her hand.
Jane turned around to see who it was.Immediately, her vision was blocked by the duck as it hit her in the face.Tears welled up in Jane’s eyes, blurring her vision.Through the tears, she could hear Yuna’s voice.
“Stealing bitch.”
Yuna’s voice felt like a large nail being driven through Jane’s ear.Jane grabbed her head and took a step back.With her shoulders hunched over, she blinked and tried to hold back her tears.
“What did you just say?”Jane asked as she tried to hide the fact that her voice was shaking.
“Stealing bitch.”
Yuna stuck her face up to Jane’s neck.
“Stealing bitch.”
A strange light, bright enough to fill her irises, was flickering in Yuna’s pupils.She whispered again through her lips, which were slightly cracked as though she were grinning:
“Stealing bitch.”
Jane couldn’t respond to this.All she could do was try to keep her shaking legs from buckling.She didn’t know at the time why she was tearing up and trembling in front of her younger sister like that.But now, she knew it was because she had sensed a hatred so deep and intense that it could destroy everything.
“You want this?”
Yuna went over to the desk drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors.She took the scissors and snipped off one of the duck’s legs.She then cut off the other leg and the duck’s remaining eye.In seconds, the duck became a lump of yellow fuzz scattered about Yuna’s feet.
“Then pick it up.”
Yuna took the duck’s head, which was the only body part left in her hand, and tossed it to the side.
“What’s wrong with you?”Jane asked.
“You stole everything from me,” Yuna said as she held the scissors like she was holding a knife.“Mom, Dad, our home.”
This wasn’t Jane’s fault.It was their parents’ decision.The only thing that she had taken from Yuna was Mom’s resentment.Jane wanted to argue with Yuna, but she couldn’t get the words out.It wasn’t easy defending herself in front of such intense hatred.She needed to be more courageous than Yuna was hateful, but she didn’t have such courage.She didn’t even have the guts to stand here and take this.
Jane retreated through the bedroom door, taking one step at a time backwards, all the while receiving Yuna’s hateful glare.Once Jane reached the doorframe and turned her body, Yuna shouted out a warning to the back of her head.
“Just try to tell Dad about it.You’ll end up just like that duck.”
Jane didn’t tell her dad.But it wasn’t because she was afraid of what Yuna might do, but rather because she didn’t want her dad to think she and Yuna were the same.Jane had to be the kind, mature, wise daughter.At least in the eyes of her father.
Because of this, the terror of that day was Jane’s to deal with, and Jane’s alone.She tried to forget about it.She would repeat to herself, “It didn’t happen.It didn’t happen.”But the memory never fully went away, sometimes appearing in her mind like a tsunami on the horizon.
But if Jane was the duck, then who was the baby?
Jane looked down at the puppet in her hand.Was this the same puppet she saw that day?According to the name tag on its chest, it was.Jane didn’t remember Yuna’s handwriting, but she knew Jiyoo’s.And the word “Dad” which was written in felt pen was not Jiyoo’s handwriting.The puppet had to have come from Yuna.She had probably held onto the thing for twenty-nine years before giving it to her daughter.
Jane tried to think about where Yuna had stored these puppets.She searched her memory and realized she had never seen the family of puppets again after that day.Nor did she see the tables or chairs.It seemed like Yuna hadn’t taken them with her from Grandma’s.Indeed, Yuna left all her stuff at Grandma’s that day.The only thing she took with her was her school bag, the same one she wore every weekend as she waited for Dad outside the front gate.Yuna was stubborn about not taking anything else.When Grandma asked her why, she said, “Grandma, don’t touch my room.I’ll come back to see you.”
Jane had no way of knowing if Grandma did as Yuna asked her.Despite visiting Woohyeri several times before Grandma died, Jane never stepped foot upstairs again.She was too afraid because it felt like the phantom of the previous inhabitant was still lingering inside its walls.And Jane was afraid that malignant spirit would attach itself to her chest—like a name tag.
Even after Grandpa died, Grandma continued to live in Woohyeri.After she passed away, Yuna inherited the house and the wetlands.That was what Grandma wanted for some reason.
