The Picture Bride, page 2
Willow listened with red cheeks and sparkling eyes.
* * *
The first rooster crowed. The rooster belonged to Jangsu, the most hardworking fellow in Ojin Village. Willow had not slept a wink, and not just because of the Pusan Ajimae’s snoring. She felt that her beating heart was even louder.
Mrs. Yun had postponed giving an answer the previous evening, saying that she would think about it, but Willow inclined more and more toward marriage as time passed. “If you agree, the groom’s family will send you all the wedding expenses, so you don’t have to worry about money.” She wanted to go to Hawaiʻi. She wanted to study. In the future, she didn’t want to live like her mother, she didn’t want to earn a living as a widow’s child by sewing, then get married to a man in a similar situation. There was no time for herself in her mother’s life. It was a world where it was natural for daughters to sacrifice themselves for their parents and brothers until finally they got married. But in Hawaiʻi, married women could also study. That alone made Hawaiʻi a paradise. Although it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, she also knew she wanted to leave her family for the sake of her desires, and she felt ashamed.
If only Omma would send me to school, I wouldn’t feel like this.
Willow braced her weakening heart and reminded herself that by getting married she would be helping the rest of her family. When she got married, that would mean not only a helping hand less but also one mouth less to feed. Then her mother would have fewer difficulties. Gyusik, who was working in a bicycle shop in Kimhae, was earning his own living, while Gwangsik and Chunsik were already fully grown. Rather than staying at home doing the cooking, it would be much better for her to get married and help her family live better, like the Pusan Ajimae’s niece. The more she thought, the more she felt that there could be no better groom for someone in her situation, and felt impatient at the thought that they might miss the opportunity by putting off answering.
As usual, her mother rose before dawn, combed her hair and pinned up her bun before she went out to the privy. Willow, who had not slept a wink all night long, shook the Pusan Ajimae as soon as her mother went outside.
“Ajimae, Ajimae.”
“What’s the matter?” The Ajimae mumbled a reply, still half asleep, and turned toward Willow. Fearing that her mother would soon return, Willow spoke in an urgent voice.
“Is it true that I can study if I go to Hawaiʻi to get married?”
So long as she could study, it didn’t matter if she didn’t live in luxury. Even if she had a hard time, she wanted to do something for herself just once. As the Ajimae sat up straight, Willow did likewise.
“It’s true. I told you, didn’t I? My niece, who was completely uneducated, went and now she writes letters home and speaks American like a native.”
“Ajimae, I want to go to Hawaiʻi and get married. Please, convince my omma.” She seized the woman’s hand and pleaded.
“You’ve made the right decision. Don’t worry.” The Ajimae rubbed the backs of Willow’s hands.
Once Willow’s decision was made, her mother agreed. But the marriage was not accomplished just because Willow had made up her mind. Willow also had to send a picture and receive the bridegroom’s agreement.
“Don’t worry,” said the Pusan Ajimae. “There’s no better bride to be found anywhere, I’ll put in a good word for you. As soon as day dawns, let’s go to the photo studio and take a picture.”
“That’s what you think,” Mrs. Yun sighed, “but she has no aboji, we’re hard up, nothing special … and she has nothing decent-looking to wear for the photograph.”
Once she had decided to marry off her daughter, So Taewan became a son-in-law too good to lose. But her mother was right.
Willow spoke impatiently. “Omma, shall I ask Hongju to lend me some clothes?”
Mrs. Yun startled. “Are you asking for bad luck? How could you even think of taking a wedding photo wearing a young widow’s clothes? Do you want to ruin things from the start?”
As far as Willow could see, apart from not being able to leave the house, Hongju was better off than she was, being able to speak freely, eat freely, with no problems. At present she was worse off than a widow, but things would change once she got married in Hawaiʻi. Willow imagined herself as a new woman who had studied, beautifully dressed, coming home with husband and children. That was something that could never happen to Hongju.
“You’re right, those clothes won’t do,” the Pusan Ajimae agreed.
After thinking for a moment, Mrs. Yun seemed to have come to a major decision. “We’ll use a little trick. Willow, wear those clothes and have the photo taken.”
The clothes she indicated were a set she was making for someone who was soon to be married, and all that remained to be done was to stitch on the lining of the collars.
“Oh, how could you propose such a thing?” said Willow, startled.
Her mother had never coveted so much as a grain of other people’s barley, even if she was dying of starvation, and had taught her children to be the same.
Mrs. Yun spoke resolutely with a flushed face. “Do it. If we send a picture of you wearing a nice dress, the marriage will surely succeed. If you wrap it up well and wear it only when you take the photo, it won’t show any sign of having been worn.”
“That’s right,” the Pusan Ajimae agreed. “And since it’s for a good cause it will be okay.”
Mrs. Yun applied camellia oil to Willow’s freshly braided hair. The Ajimae said she would go with her to the photo studio and apply powder and rouge.
Willow left the house with the Pusan Ajimae, carrying that other person’s clothes in her arms. She felt a little awkward about deceiving the man she was to marry from the beginning, but even Willow was reluctant to send him a picture of her dressed in patched clothes. Willow wanted to please Taewan and go to Hawaiʻi.
The question of the clothes was solved, but there was another problem. It was the fact that Hongju knew nothing of this great event. Her mother had begged her to keep it secret from Hongju until the marriage was settled. If the word “marriage” started to circulate and then things went wrong, that too was always considered the woman’s fault. Hongju had spoken to Willow frankly about everything in the meantime. She had not hidden the fact that her first love had been Willow’s dead brother, or what happened on the first night of her marriage.
On the evening of the day when the picture was taken, Willow went to Hongju and told her the truth. No matter how hard her mother begged, she didn’t want to have any secrets from Hongju, and the news was too daunting for her to keep it hidden in her heart. Hongju already knew about marriages between men living in Hawaiʻi and girls from Korea.
“I heard talk about it from my in-law in Masan and her neighbors. One neighbor’s eldest daughter got married by a picture marriage then arranged for her younger sister to go too. At that time, I couldn’t imagine going so far to get married, but now it looks a hundred times better than being a widow.”
As soon as she heard what Hongju said, the anxiety that was lodged in one corner of Willow’s heart vanished. The Pusan Ajimae was not the kind of person to lie, but there was the vague fear of an unknown place. But Hongju’s neighbor’s daughter wouldn’t have called her sister to join her if Hawaiʻi wasn’t a good place.
Willow even went so far as to tell her that the groom was a landowner, and that in the photo he looked manly. She couldn’t bring the picture because she was not following her mother’s request for secrecy. Willow was really worried. “What will I do if he says he doesn’t like the look of me?”
“Then ask for another bridegroom. He’s not the only one, is he? You have to be happy. I want to go to Hawaiʻi too. It’s so boring, I can’t endure staying cooped up at home any longer.”
It was the first time Hongju had ever envied Willow.
But the next evening, Hongju’s mother visited Willow’s home.
“Go and fetch a bowl of water,” said Mrs. Yun to Willow.
As she left the room, Willow felt sudden anxiety tugging at the back of her head. What was going on in the middle of the night? Had something happened to Hongju? Had she heard of the picture marriage? Had she come to complain that she had given Hongju false ideas? Mother will scold me severely because I didn’t keep the secret from Hongju. Willow’s hands trembled as she shut the door behind her. Just then, she heard Hongju’s mother speaking.
Willow stopped and listened hard.
“I’ve heard about picture marriages. We’ll send Hongju too. Her husband died before he could inscribe her name in his family register, so she’s free, but there’s no thought of deception in any case. There must be a widower like Hongju. Tell me where the Pusan Ajimae lives.” Her voice was also trembling.
Willow went to the kitchen and drew a scoopful of water from the jar. Her hands were shaking and the precious water spilled. More overflowed when she poured it into the bowl. Willow sat down for a while on the stove to calm herself.
When she had thought that Hongju couldn’t go, she had wanted to brag about her great good luck, but hearing she could go too, there was nothing better than that. If her friend was there too she wouldn’t feel lonely and would be much more assured. Since it was a paradise, there would be no difficulties, but it would be much more fun being happy together. Just as Willow went back into the room, Wealthy An’s wife was suddenly startled.
“Oh dear. We’re acting behind my husband’s back.”
Willow set the bowl of water in front of her.
“How are you going to win him over?” Mrs. Yun asked with a worried look.
Hongju’s mother gulped down the water, then put the bowl down with a bang, and spoke determinedly. “He can only kill me, can’t he? If Hongju stays here, it’s a living death for her. Even if I die, I’ve had my life. It’s better I should die than have a young child fading away, trapped in her room.”
“You’re right. It’ll be far better than staying here. That’s why I’m sending our Willow. I was worried about sending our grown-up daughter all alone on a long journey, but if Hongju goes with her, that’s wonderful. You’ve thought of Hongju’s future and made a difficult decision.”
Mrs. Yun seized Hongju’s mother’s hand and the two shed tears together. Willow too had a runny nose.
2
THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR, THE MAN IN THE PHOTO
Hongju insisted on choosing her bridegroom for herself. Her mother told her husband she was going to their son’s house and set off with Hongju to visit the Pusan Ajimae.
Willow felt jealous of Hongju. Taewan wasn’t too bad, but she was not sure how she would feel if Hongju picked a better partner. “If I had known this was going to happen, I would have gone with Hongju to find out more,” said Willow, her sewing needles still in her hands.
“Stop that. Why trust a picture? The Pusan Ajimae is a much more reliable guarantee than any picture.” Her mother’s words silenced Willow.
Two days later, after her younger brother said he had seen Hongju returning over the hill, Willow went running over without even drying her hands after doing the evening dish-washing. Hongju explained breathlessly how she had met the Pusan Ajimae, gone over to the matchmaker’s house and picked a bridegroom. On her way back, she had visited the photographer in Jucheon market to have a photo taken to send to the bridegroom. Wondering what kind of man Hongju’s bridegroom was, Willow impatiently snatched at the picture Hongju held out.
Unlike the photo of Taewan, which only showed his face, it showed a man wearing a suit standing with one foot resting on the running board of a car against a background of a house and trees such as she had never seen before. Willow focused on the trees rather than the person, the house, or the car. The Pusan Ajimae had said that clothes and shoes grew on the tree. She looked carefully at the tree in the photo, but all she could see was some kind of round fruitlike gourds hanging at the top. She wasn’t sure if it was because the photo was too small for them to be seen properly, or if the clothes and shoes were inside the round fruit.
“What do you think?” Hongju spoke excitedly. “He looks manly and reliable, doesn’t he? He owns a car, too.”
Only then did Willow take note of Hongju’s potential bridegroom, the owner of a car that she thought only kings and high officials could ride in. His face was too small to see properly, but the way he stood with his chin on his hand while his elbow was supported by the leg resting on the car looked very elegant. Willow returned the photo to Hongju and asked, “How old?”
“Thirty-eight years old. He lost his wife early on and has no children.”
When she heard that he was Hongju’s father’s age, Willow’s eyes grew wide. That made him twenty-one years older than herself.
“Isn’t that too old?”
“I’ve seen what a young bridegroom is like. I don’t want to have a young husband. Older men are the most reliable.”
Hongju was ignoring completely the problems arising from his age.
“I’m sorry, but he’s not even like an older brother, he’s like your aboji.”
Willow recalled the village men of that age. They were so old, and it was creepy just to imagine being under the same blanket as someone like that. Willow grew even fonder of Taewan, with his twenty-six years.
Hongju, who had met the Pusan matchmaker in person, had learned a lot about Hawaiʻi. Hongju asked her, “Have you ever heard of sugarcane?”
Willow knew about sugar candy, which she had tasted once, and she knew the sorghum growing along the edges of kitchen gardens, but she’d never heard of sugarcane.
“It seems that powdered sugar comes from sugarcane. When men from Korea went to Hawaiʻi, it was to work in sugarcane fields, several thousands of them.”
“Are there so many sugarcane fields in Hawaiʻi?” Willow’s eyes widened. When they were younger, Hongju had once been given some Japanese sugar candy that her older brother bought in Pusan. Hongju said it was incredibly expensive and precious, as she broke a piece of candy with her teeth and gave one half to Willow. Whenever Willow ate anything outside her home, she would usually think guiltily of her mother and younger brothers, but it was such a shame that the candy melted away in her mouth and disappeared so quickly, and her only thought was that she wanted to eat more. How expensive a field that made such precious candies must be. If Taewan was a landowning farmer, she could easily believe that he could “sweep up money with a dustpan.”
Once the photos taken at the studio arrived, Willow and Hongju wrote letters to send with the photos, as the matchmaker had instructed. When it came to writing skills, Hongju, who had graduated from primary school, and Willow, who had only attended school briefly, were pretty much equal. Willow sometimes wrote letters to Gyusik or her mother’s parents. Willow and Hongju wrote painstakingly, line by line, all the time consulting one another. It was only a brief self-introduction, but they were as excited as if they were writing love letters.
Although Willow and Hongju had not yet received replies from the men, they still imagined life there as if they were already married. There was no comparison with the marriage of their parents or the people around them, or the marriage that Hongju had experienced so briefly. In Hawaiʻi, where food and clothing hung from trees, and women studied to their heart’s content, marriage too would surely be very different from in Korea. Hongju, who had previously married a man her parents had chosen without her ever seeing his face, was excited about Jo Doksam, as if he was her first boyfriend. She said choosing each other and exchanging letters was as good as getting married by free love. When Willow said she would study when she arrived in Hawaiʻi, Hongju looked dumbfounded.
“What? Why study?” Hongju dreamily held the picture of Doksam to her breast. “You’re really weird, but okay, go ahead and study. I’ll wear pretty clothes, and drive about in my husband’s car and enjoy sightseeing.”
Willow didn’t mean that she would do nothing but study. She wanted to study while living happily with Taewan. They would not be like the couples in Ojin Village, indifferent to each other as if they were cows or chickens, they would also love and cherish each other like lovers in a novel.
Letters between Korea and Hawaiʻi took over a month. A reply reached Hongju first. The letter said he was glad to have found a pretty bride with neat handwriting, and he would be waiting for the day when they could meet, with every day feeling like three years as he craned his neck and gazed across the white surf toward Korea. With the letter came a hundred dollars in American currency to cover expenses. He said the boat fare from Japan to Hawaiʻi would cost fifty dollars. Money would also be required to prepare documents and to travel to Japan. Hongju was delighted with the letter, more than the money.
Hongju smiled broadly as she showed Willow. “Why, I’m so embarrassed.”
Willow hoped that the letter from Taewan would be sweeter than that from Doksam, for whom this was the second marriage. However, Taewan merely sent one hundred and fifty dollars through the matchmaker with a formal notification that he would marry her. Willow was disappointed, but comforted by the extra fifty dollars, which she gave to her mother.
“He must be shy,” Hongju said, comforting her. “He’s a bachelor, after all, so wait. It’ll be different when you meet.”
Hongju wrote back to her bridegroom saying that she dreamed of him every night. Willow envied Hongju, who impatiently awaited a reply starting from the very next day. Willow regarded Taewan as someone serious and deep-hearted and comforted herself with that.
There was a lot to prepare before they set off for Hawaiʻi. Since picture bride marriage was a legal formality by which a husband invited his homeland bride to join him in Hawaiʻi, the marriage had to first be officially registered in Korea. As soon as the marriage registration was finished, Willow considered Taewan her true husband. Once he sent the passport he obtained from the Japanese consulate in Hawaiʻi, she would have to obtain a travel permit, and even if she had all the documents, she would not be able to board a ship to the United States unless she passed a medical examination in Japan.
