The tall boy and his white dog loped away.
* * *
“Wake up, big sister!” A high voice pierced Junja’s ears; small hands shook her shoulders.
Junja opened her eyes.
A little face was staring at her, so close that the eyes seemed to have merged in the center, above the nose. Junja took the small gourd that the child was offering.
“Mama says you must drink this while you are sitting down. Little sips, or else you will throw up.” The child opened her eyes dramatically, revealing a flutter of long, thin eyelashes and eyes as bright as a bird’s.
Junja took a sip. “Who are you?”
“Everyone calls me Peanut. I’m seven, but people say I look younger. I don’t think that’s true at all.” She cupped her chubby cheeks with her grimy fists and thrust out her lower lip. A fringe of black hair fell straight above her eyes while the rest of the little girl’s hair fit like a cap that reached below her earlobes.
The girl was indeed unusually small for her age, but Junja didn’t say so. “You look exactly as you should look, I think.”
“Big Brother said that you carried that huge pack up here all by yourself! He said you were a mermaid too. Is that true?” She wasn’t a pretty child, but her eyes were bright with curiosity. Her resemblance to her brother was unmistakable.
Junja sat up when the girl mentioned the pack. “Were the abalone still alive?”
Peanut made a face. “Mama poured water on them, and they moved. She was gonna make me hang the seaweed to dry, but I said I wanted to find you instead. No one is faster than I am because I know all the secret trails the rabbits use.”
The little girl peered down at Junja’s legs. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you really a mermaid like Suwol said? Does that mean you can swim like a fish? And are you really stronger than he is?”
Junja smiled before taking another sip of tea.
Peanut hung her head and sighed. “Mama said I was s’posed to be quiet until you finished drinking the tea. And then we’re s’posed to start walking home.”
Junja rose, holding onto a tree for support. Her legs were trembling and her feet ached, but the dizziness had subsided enough for her to start moving again.
Peanut took her by the hand to lead her up the path. The sky was bright, and the small spring leaves shook in a slight breeze. The mountain stood massive and still, unlike the shifting sea.
The two girls walked in silence until Peanut tugged wordlessly at Junja’s arm. The little girl’s hand was clamped over her mouth, cheeks ballooned out on either side.
“Why are you covering your mouth like that?”
Peanut let out her breath in a loud gasp. “Mama said I’m only s’posed to answer questions.”
“Do you still want to know if I can swim like a fish?”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” Peanut hopped from one foot to the next.
“Well, when I’m in the water—”
The child interrupted. “When you’re in the water, your legs turn into a fish tail, right? That’s how come you can swim as deep as a fish, right? Can you breathe water like fish too? Have you seen the sea king?”
Junja laughed. “You’re just like a rabbit, hopping from one thought to another. When I’m in the water, I use my legs like a fish uses its tail. And, no, I don’t breathe water like a fish. I hold my breath. For a long time. And, yes, I’ve seen the sea king. His ladies in waiting too.”
Peanut’s expression flickered from disappointment to awe. “What did he look like?”
“Big and fat like a manatee, with a long bristly mustache. He wore robes of green and purple seaweed, held together by a belt of shiny pearls.”
The little girl’s mouth dropped open. “He must be very rich!”
“He is. The sea king owns everything under the sea, even the treasure from sunken pirate ships.”
Peanut balled her fists, quivering with excitement. “I wanna be a haenyeo like you! I’ll find the sea king’s treasure and become rich enough to eat rice candy and drink honey water whenever I want. And my piglets will sleep on new straw every night.”
“If you keep shouting like that, you won’t have enough breath to walk home!” The little girl’s brother was standing at the bend of the path above them.
The white dog scampered down to the two girls, panting.
Peanut ran toward her older brother. “Carry me, Ohrabang! Please!”
When Suwol pretended to refuse, Peanut began to pummel her brother with her small fists. “Carry me! Carry me!”
The boy handed his walking stick to Junja. The little girl climbed onto his back. Suwol clasped his hands under his sister’s bottom, holding her up. Peanut grinned, and the dog leapt ahead.
Four
Junja had expected the pig farm to resemble her own home, a stone hut with a thatched roof, kitchen garden, and muddy pigsty, surrounded by black doldam walls. She blinked, confused, at the forbidding stone walls guarding the entrance, rearing up high as if they enclosed a military fortress. Once she passed through the front gate, she understood. Cloud House Farm was a nobleman’s compound. The curved tile roof of the main building jutted out proudly, shading the smaller structures next to it.
The expansive courtyard bustled with people. A slight man staggered by with an earthenware urn roped to his back, followed by a stout woman barking directions. Two men balanced astride wobbly stick ladders while replacing the thatch on a tidy hut near the main house. A clutch of young children chased chickens while two older boys pulled squealing piglets on ropes. A group of squatting women were pulling out handfuls of freshly decanted dwenjang, placing the dripping soybean ferment into straw baskets to drain. Under the shade of a red maple, a tiny boy played with a pile of pebbles and sticks.
“So many people live here!” Junja looked around in fascination as Peanut slipped off Suwol’s back.
Suwol shooed away several small children who had toddled over to stare at Junja. They were naked from the waist down, too young for a chamber pot or outhouse.
“I have seven little uncles and dozens of cousins. What about you?”
Junja considered for a moment. “There’s only five of us: Grandmother, Mother, little brother, little sister, and me.”
Peanut interrupted. “What about your father? Wouldn’t he make six?”
“My father … isn’t with us anymore.” Junja didn’t want to admit the shameful truth, that he had moved away to the mainland, abandoning his family.
“That’s so sad. I would miss my daddy so much if he died.” The little girl’s face turned tragic for a moment, before brightening as a cat streaked across the courtyard. “What about animals? Do you keep chickens? A dog or cat?”
“We have chickens, but no dogs. There’s a village cat, though.”
Suwol threw a stick. When the white dog bounded away, Peanut followed. Both dog and child scampered away in response to a woman’s call.
Junja laughed. “Your dog seems to think he’s human.”
“Boshi is the smartest dog on Hallasan. Which means he’s the smartest dog in all of Jeju. Maybe even all of Korea.”
“Boshi?” Junja stifled a giggle. “Like boshintang, the soup?”