Dada 82

Out above the river in the country, evening must have offered a moment of peace but today the unbroken sun blazing down upon the shimmering landscape made it depressing. We started walking. That was when I noticed that Kim Song was limping slightly. Gradually, the hearse picked up speed, and the old man started lagging behind. The hearse also passed one of the men who had been alongside it and he was now walking beside me. I was surprised at how quickly the sun had risen in the sky.

I also became conscious that for a long time the heat countryside and all its sound and smells seemed to be beating against my face. Since I had only my cap, I fanned myself with my piece of funeral cloth and a handkerchief. Then the man from the funeral home said something to me that I couldn’t hear. He wiped his head with a handkerchief he was holding in his left hand, and pushed up the brim of his hat with the other.

“What did you say?” I asked. “It`s terribly hot”, he repeated and angled his elbow at the sun.

“Yes”, I replied. A moment later, he asked: “Where is the rain? Is that your Grandfather in the coffin?” I said “Yes” again and wondered why the two should come together.

“Was he old?” he said. I replied “Very” because I didn’t know exactly how old he was, but he looked old, especially towards the last days he was with me.  Then he stopped talking.

I turned around and thought I saw my Dada walking though the shimmering countryside, his image appearing then disappearing like Kim Song’s in the ridges of the little hills.