As she waited for the family to arrive, your mom would be visibly animated, her words and her gestures revealing her pride when she talked to neighbors or acquaintances. She pressed sesame oil and roasted and ground sesame and perilla seeds, so she could present her children with a jar of each as they left. A few days before everyone came down, she would make fresh kimchi, go to the market to buy beef, and stock up on extra toothpaste and toothbrushes. Mom liked it when all of her children and grandchildren gathered and bustled about the house. All together, there were twenty-two people in the immediate family. You and your siblings always went to your parents' house in Chongup for birthdays and other celebrations. But you obediently cross out "36" and write "38," wondering if July 24 is even Mom's real birthday.Ī few years ago, your mom said, "We don't have to celebrate my birthday separately." Father's birthday is one month before Mom's. You don't think you need to be so precise when you're only making homemade flyers and it isn't like you're at a government office. When you're about to rewrite "38" as "36," Hyong-chol says you have to write 1938, because that's the official date.
Because many children didn't survive their first three months, people raised them for a few years before making it official. Your father says everyone did that, back in the day. This is the first time you've heard this. Official records show that she was born in 1938, but apparently she was born in 1936. When you write July 24, 1938, as Mom's birth date, your father corrects you, saying that she was born in 1936. You aren't sure how helpful your words will be in finding Mom. You blush, as if you were caught doing something you shouldn't. Hyong-chol designates you to write up the flyer, since you write for a living. You want to go look for her in places where you think she might be, but you know how she is: she can't go anywhere by herself in this city.
Your younger brother, who owns an online clothing store, says he posted something about your mother's disappearance, describing where she went missing he uploaded her picture and asked people to contact the family if they'd seen her. All you can do is file a missing-person report, search the area, ask passersby if they have seen anyone who looks like her. But there are few things a missing person's family can do, and the missing person is none other than your mom. Of course, a flyer is an old-fashioned response to a crisis like this. The first thing to do, everyone agrees, is to draft a flyer. You decide to make flyers and hand them out where Mom was last seen. The family is gathered at your eldest brother Hyong-chol's house, bouncing ideas off each other. It's been one week since Mom went missing.
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