Page 44 of Perfect Happiness
There was about 20 ml left, which must have meant this had been opened and prepared before.But how long ago had that been?Was it still good?Jane didn’t know if this was safe to give Jiyoo, but she took the bottle to the room anyway.She opened Jiyoo’s mouth and poured half the bottle’s contents into her mouth.She then pulled back the blanket, took off Jiyoo’s pajamas, and placed a wet towel on her forehead.
But after that, there was nothing else for her to do except watch Jiyoo until her eyes hurt.Thirty minutes passed, but it felt like three hours.The change was slow, but the signs were clear.Her fever subsided leaving cool beads of sweat on her forehead.Her breathing returned to normal, and her facial expression looked peaceful.Before long, she was fast asleep.
Jane waited for another thirty minutes.She didn’t move from Jiyoo’s side.She was afraid that the moment she left the room, Jiyoo’s temperature would blaze up again, afraid that the medicine had lulled her into a false sense of security, that Jiyoo really needed to go to the emergency room.
Jane finally understood why her mom always stayed up whenever Jiyoo was sick.But every time this happened, Jane’s mom would burst into Jane’s room in the middle of the night like a bolt of lightning.“Your child is dying.How can you sleep at a time like this?”These words were really meant for Yuna, not Jane.
Jane couldn’t sleep, not tonight, not when she was the only person around to look after Jiyoo.Jane lay sideways next to her.She watched her eyelashes, which were trembling ever so slightly.Even though they’d lived together for the last three years, this was the first time Jane had ever looked after Jiyoo this closely before.It was also the first time she had felt so frustrated while watching Jiyoo.
Jane had intentionally kept her distance from Jiyoo for the last three years.She made special efforts not to become attached to Jiyoo and show her indifference.Sometimes, Jane’s mom would ask her, “Do you hate Yuna’s daughter or something?”She didn’t hate her.Nor did she keep her distance just because it was Yuna’s daughter.Actually, Jane didn’t know exactly why she was so cold to Jiyoo.Perhaps it was because she was Joon-young’s daughter.Indeed, she was just like him, in both appearance and personality.She even had the same dislike for ice cream.
Dad.
Jiyoo’s voice hovered around Jane’s ears.Had Jiyoo ever talked about her biological father before?Not that Jane could remember.In fact, she wondered if Jiyoo even had memories of him.If what Min-young told her earlier that day was true, the last time she would have seen him was when she was three.
Jane took Jiyoo’s sleep-talk and translated it into full sentences.
Beneath the attic a loon is howling.From the Half Moon Marsh, Dad is calling.
Jane had no idea what this meant.Even if she changed the order of the sentences, it still didn’t make sense.Was there even an attic at their grandma’s cabin?Did loons trust humans enough to come that close to the cabin?Were loons active during the day or night?Jane had no answers.But as she searched her mind, she did stumble upon a memory related to the loons.
Jane didn’t remember the exact day, but it had to be one of the many times she went with her father to Woohyeri.What she did remember clearly was that it was a summer evening when the red sun was setting behind an overcast sky of ashen gray.Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner.And then, across the road from the wetlands there came a sound so eerie that it made the hairs on Jane’s neck stand up.It sounded at once like the howl of a wolf and cry of a widow.Jane was so startled that she dropped the black bean between her chopsticks.
“Are there wolves in the marsh?”Jane asked.
Yuna started laughing hysterically.From the back of her rice-filled mouth came the sound of nails on glass.Watching this, Jane worried Yuna might choke.Sure enough, the rice went down the wrong pipe, and Grandma had to answer as she patted Yuna on the back.
“It’s the call of loons from the Half Moon Marsh.”
Jane turned over and lay flat on Jiyoo’s bed.Her laptop was downstairs, so she used the ceiling to mentally type out her notes:
Tuesday afternoon, Yuna picks up Jiyoo from preschool.
2 p.m., Joon-young talks with Min-young on the phone.
Says he’s in Kyochon.Hasn’t been seen since.
One week later, Yuna drops Jiyoo off at daycare in grubby clothes.
I find Jiyoo with Yuna’s finger puppet.
Jiyoo sleep-talks about looking for Dad.
“Beneath the attic a loon is howling.From the Half Moon Marsh, Dad is calling.”
Based on this, Jane created a plausible explanation: Last Tuesday, Jiyoo went with Yuna to their grandma’s old cabin in the country.There, she met her father.
Based on this hypothesis, she imagined Joon-young’s movements: At around 11 a.m.on Tuesday morning, Joon-young received a call from Yuna.She told him he could see Jiyoo, and he ran to her without hesitation.If they had planned it in advance, he wouldn’t have gone with Jane to Chungju.Joon-young has never been to Woohyeri because Yuna inherited the house after their divorce.That meant that they had to have met up in the middle somewhere and gone together.There was a good chance that “somewhere” was Kyochon.The three of them would have stayed in the cabin together.Jiyoo and Joon-young must have gone to the Half Moon Marsh together, where they saw loons.Jiyoo and Yuna must have come back to Cheongyeon after Jane and Eun-ho met on Saturday morning.
Joon-young hadn’t returned.
So, where was Joon-young?
*
Early the next morning, Jiyoo turned into a fireball again.This time, her fever came with coughing and vomiting.Jane lifted Jiyoo onto her back.There was a large children’s hospital just five minutes away, and taking Jiyoo to the ER herself would be faster than calling an ambulance.
The doctor said Jiyoo had the flu and pneumonia.She was immediately hospitalized and put in a single-patient quarantine room.Her fever began to go down once they gave her an antipyretic IV.And by the time the doctors made their morning rounds, Jiyoo was peacefully asleep.
