Korean Short Stories
Park Sung-Woo The Streamer 찜통 Translated by An Seonjae
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
The Streamer Mother's a cleaner in the college where I'm a TA; she had an accident while working and snapped the Achilles tendon in her right foot. The old woman from next door comes carrying a brimming chamber pot. She says there's nothing better to reduce inflammation than soaking the part in boiled urine for a few days. Mother's plaster cast was removed the previous day. She gives the old woman a can of barley tea. Mother has no chamberpot, so she hobbles out beneath the pumpkin vine, lifts her pleated skirt and pees into the nickel steamer pan. The brief stream of piss soon stops, seeming anxious for her arms pressing down on the steamer. She boils urine using a portable gas range. The heat from the steamer mixes with the late summer heat. The stench filling the yard will get sworn at if it leaves the house so the wind does its best not to blow. After waiting for the urine to cool, Mother soaks her foot in the steamer. The stars, detesting the smell, rise as far away as they can go. I wonder when this steamy heatwave will end. My widowed mother keeps glancing at me as I piss into the steamer. She makes it her pastime to keep drinking water. My youngest, would you like a glass of beer?
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If I can't get back to cleaning in school by next week, they say I'll be fired. (end)
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