Chapter 43


April 29, 1998 – Atlanta, Grady Memorial

Aaron had been dragged through the Chattahoochee Forest detritus so that the splinter fractures to his left arm required more than a few days of hospital stay due to the risk of infection.

He was quiet. Trying to process. Inez was pronounced dead in the helicopter on the way to the hospital. Turk, Thompson, and Elektra took turns staying at his side. One of them was always there to see that he was not badgered or harassed while he mourned. Although neither Aaron nor Inez were orthodox, a rabbi from an Atlanta synagogue assisted in whatever traditions were appropriate to observe under the circumstances.

Tommy sat with him most – when he wasn't sitting in on interrogations of the myriad of cronies hauled in along with Lazzaro. It took a lot for Gordon Thompson to ask for favors. But on the second day, he swallowed his pride once again and called Elektra's brother when issues developed with Aaron's arm. Since Richard Van Der Pelt was an orthopedic surgeon at Los Angeles County General, he consulted with the doctors at Grady and assured Tommy that Aaron was in good hands. And if the Detective was willing to reach out to him after the scene in Clarissa's bungalow, Richard could go the extra mile as well. Before Enos went into surgery the second time, Grady Memorial's opthalmologist had gone over the procedure with one of the top ophthalmic surgeons on the West Coast.

All Richard had asked in return was, "Just tell 'Elektra' it would be nice to hear from her now and then."

The ICU waiting room had thinned out in four days. The family took turns standing their watches, fielding questions from the concerned citizens of Hazzard and Southern California, and the press.

While Jay and Tommy were chasing down leads to Lance's whereabouts or working with the GBI, Daisy and Elektra made sure Soonie was taking care of herself and the baby. Daisy had tried to get her to let Turk take her back to the apartment she had rented, but Soonie refused to leave. Daisy couldn't very well argue with that – she respected her for it, loved her for it. By the time she had arrived, what happened in the Chattahoochee was all over the news. The hospital staff was aware of the circumstances and tried to make her as comfortable as possible.

Daisy and Elektra were returning from getting coffee when they spotted Soonie in the corridor staring out the window into the small garden on the rooftop below.

"You should be sitting down," Elektra scolded her.

"I am not made of glass, no matter what my husband tells you. I have been sitting for hours and needed to move around." She smoothed her hand over her stomach. "She needed me to move around."

"Have you heard anything yet? About when they plan to wake him up?" Daisy asked.

"I have not. One of his physicians is with him now. She could not commit to any timeframe until she consults with Doctor Jameson."

Elektra asked, "Have you eaten? Daisy and I could bring you something from the cafeteria."

"Gamsahabnida," she said, then stopped herself. She had been speaking Korean more than English for six months. "Thank you. The nurse brought me some toast and grits."

"You ate grits? I guess it's something you can't really mess up too bad." Daisy quipped.

"You would be surprised. Baek Sung-mi refuses to make them. Therefore, I have found several ways to 'mess them up.' I am thankful Enos is equally fond of Korean breakfast."

Startled by a reminder that she had more for which to be thankful, Soonie was struck with an involuntary palpitation she hoped only she noticed. She turned her wedding ring slowly with her thumb. As soon as was allowable, she had exchanged their bands so that Enos's was back on his left fourth finger and hers was back where it belonged.

"Soonie?"

"I am fine. However, I believe I will sit for a while."

When Jay and Tommy walked off the elevator, the three women, Daisy on one side, Elektra on the other, and Soonie in the middle, were together in the sitting area in front of the window holding hands.

The clock ticked off two more hours before the anesthesiologist reversed the process, and Enos slowly began to make his way back to her. Throughout his journey, she spoke to him in three languages. Spanish when no one else was in the room, which was only a few minutes now and then, and English or Korean when they were not alone. The anesthesiologist and a nurse were there to monitor his vital signs and brain activity. He answered her twice, both times in Spanish… Perhaps neither the doctor nor the nurse understood Spanish. Under other circumstances, she might have cared that someone else could be privy to such an intimate exchange.

In soft tones, she told him about everything from the new lamp she had bought for the house to how beautiful the day had become beyond the window.


The world in which Enos lived for four days had been a vivid series of the brightest day and the darkest night on a repeating cycle that only changed in the order which they came to him.

He went to work every day in Los Angeles and returned home to Soonie in Goyang-si in the evening. He walked under the cherry trees with Soonie at lunchtime and was leaving a courtroom at five. He stopped for gas on LaCienega, then boarded the train to Seoul.

Abruptly transported back in time, he sat on the front porch of the farm with his Dad. He hunted blackberries with Daisy, felt Soonie's warmth next to him, sat in the park, hiked through an endless forest of trees with Aaron…

Then nothing but snow, like the test pattern on TV.

He got into a punching match with Luke and rocked Gem to sleep… left Inez's house after Christmas Eve dinner and nearly drowned in the river…was buried under a mountain of sand so that he couldn't move, called out for his wife in Spanish, became a target on the firing range…

He walked under the cherry trees with Soonie at lunchtime and stopped for gas on LaCienega. He left Inez's house and sat in the park. He became a target on the firing range, then sat on the porch of the farm…

He was vaguely aware of activity outside his nonsensical sleep-world. He was in his body, yet not in his body.

The first thing Enos remembered that seemed real was the muffled sound of chopper blades, like munitions being propelled from a machine gun. Then, snippets of voices between the puh-puh-puh came through – calm, detached, professional. Why were they so calm?

Puh-puh-puh…..tiple…frac…..orth…puh-puh-puh-puh….sec…..tim…...immobil….puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh…rap…..ee….duction….airlife..kc…puh-puh-puh-puh-puh….vel one…evac two…eye pa…push…..eta…ady mem…..puh-puh-puh….

Unlike what she had imagined, when Enos opened his right eye, there were only silent, anguished tears falling from it.

May 6, 1998 – Atlanta, Grady Memorial

Enos wasn't fully aware right away. That took nearly a week, during which he had bouts of confusion and short term memory loss. Each time he asked to see Inez, Soonie had to be the one to tell him she hadn't made it.

He asked over and over where Aaron was. Soonie forbade anyone telling him Aaron didn't want to see him. When he was told it was not yet possible, Enos would become surly and argumentative, sentencing them both to a ride on the emotional rollercoaster that was the first week of his consciousness.

Occasionally, thinking he was back in Korea, he would ask Soonie if he'd been in an accident. Then, the nurse would say something in a Georgia twang, and they would be back on the merry-go-round.

Though weakened by the struggle to come back, he began to put the events together that would help him to reassemble his life.

On Wednesday afternoon, Soonie was resting on the arm of the lounge chair when she felt something stroking her hair.

"How long have you been here, mi vida?" he asked.

Soonie carefully positioned herself next to Enos on the bed so that his hand could rest on her stomach before she answered.

"Nine days. Since last Monday."

Esme' rolled a foot or elbow under his touch, and he smiled, briefly, for the first time.

"You look tired. You should go home and sleep."

She kissed him gently and leaned her forehead into his so that they touched and whispered, "I am home, mi amor."


Epilogue

Sunday, August 30, 1998

He sat on the porch of the farm with Soonie or Gem for days after he was released from rehab, still plagued with cognitive issues, voids in his memory bank, and emotional numbness that caused his family deep concern. Occasionally, Judy got him to help her fold the laundry, and Frank got him to help in the barn. Luke stayed away for the first few weeks until his burns healed and wouldn't be a constant, vivid, reminder. After that, Luke visited every day, then fishing two or three times a week. These were all automatic motions, performed without spirit or enthusiasm.

Whenever Judy voiced her concerns about Enos's woebegone state, Frank cautioned her, "Nephew's got a long row to hoe. The field he's plowin' ain't gonna git turned under overnight. So let 'im be so he can git it done in his own time."

Gem had difficulty understanding why Appa was so quiet and why he didn't smile like he used to. But she was five, with a short attention span and new surroundings to explore. She loved the farm with its piglets and rides with Uncle Frank on the big tractor. She and Emily made red mud pies after it rained and built pine straw forts, which ultimately led to Soonie's education on the treatment of chigger bites. Gem had also developed a fondness for everything Southern-fried, and corn fritters, quite similar to Bakwan Jajung, were her favorite, especially with Omma's Korean dipping sauce. One day in late July, while Soonie and Gem helped her prepare the batter for the delicacy, Judy's worry for her nephew got the better of her. She'd been on tenterhooks about his lingering melancholy.

"Soonie. Could you get another bag of that corn from the freezer? I think we better make a double batch so there's some left for the rest of us." She was watching Gem lick her lips. "This little one's bound to eat the first batch all by herself."

"Yes, Ma'am." Soonie had come to appreciate the full meaning of using the honorific term 'Ma'am' while living at the farm. It was like bowing in Korea, a show of respect.

On her way back from the pantry, Soonie stopped to watch Enos sitting in a metal lawn chair in the yard, idly studying a large green Luna Moth that had attached itself to a tree trunk. She must have stood there long enough that Aunt Judy noticed. When Soonie returned with the bag of corn and wordlessly went back to mixing batter. The pressure was building, and Judy couldn't keep a lid on the pot any longer.

"Don't make any sense him sittin' out there doin' nothin' but idlin' and you doin' nary to help him."

"He needs time."

"He needs prayer."

"He prays in his own way. I cannot interfere. I can only be patient. I believe that is a virtue, is it not?"

"Bible quotin's not seemly for those that don't believe. Somethin's got to be done to get him back to hisself. And prayer always works for me."

Soonie sent batter flying when she slammed the spatula down beside the bowl.

"Geuleohge swiwossdamyeon jigeum jjeum-imyeonhaess-eul geos gatji anhnayo?" she seethed.

There were angry tears on her flushed cheeks. The expression in her eyes dared Judy to respond. But the older woman was too shocked at the outburst from this woman whose manner had been quiet and reserved and whose forbearance had been something of a mystery to her.

"What in tarnation is goin' on in here?" Frank asked, coming in the back door. "And where is the girl?"

Judy put her hand to her heart. "Merciful Heavens. I forgot she was here…"

Soonie immediately looked around for Gem, but she was not sitting at the table, where she had been witness to the exchange – and had understood.


Gem pulled her small backpack suitcase from under the bed in the bedroom she'd been given in the house of Appa's uncle. Flipping the flap open, she rifled through pinafores and tights for the comic books she had packed when Baek Sung-mi wasn't looking. Choosing one, she ran back into the living room, past the three adults like greased lightning, and out of the house before any of them could react.

Suddenly fearful, Frank started after Gem because she was headed straight for Nephew. Soonie stopped him. "No, please, let her go. He would never do anything to hurt her, Uncle."

Standing in front of Enos, bespectacled Gem offered him the comic book and with the wisdom and insight that only a five-year-old possesses commanded, "Weed me the stowy, Daddy."

When Soonie went into labor, Enos was recovered enough to be with her and even managed to keep from fainting in the delivery room. It was a scary place for a first-timer. Two weeks after Esme' was born, they visited Pine Ridge Cemetery before heading to California.

Sunday, August 30, 1998

Pine Ridge was a peaceful place. The summer heat had begun to wane slightly, and there was a soft breeze that rustled drying leaves. Daisy had brought a metal tin, two bunches of flowers, and a garden trowel. Enos had brought with him a Korean funeral urn.

They stopped first at the Strate family plot. The thick carpet of grass over both his parents' graves had been mowed and the edges neatly manicured.

"Uncle Frank's been takin' good care of them," Enos said, looking at her with a cover over one eye and a puppy dog expression in the other that made Daisy's heart heavy in her chest. He still had a long road ahead. She was thankful that he had Soonie to walk it with him.

Removing the old flowers from the vase between the headstones, she replaced them with a generous fistful of freshly cut Blackeyed Susans. The bright yellow wildflowers that sprang up by the thousands in fields and on the roadsides in late Summer had been his mother's favorite. Aunt Lavinia's as well.

Uncle Jesse's and Aunt Lavinia's graves were closer to the cemetery's west perimeter, and Enos looked as if he was already tiring from the walk.

"Maybe we should go back," Daisy said.

"No, I'll be okay. I came here mostly for Uncle Jesse."

"Okay, but you'll tell me if it gets to be too much, won't you? Soonie made me promise."

He smiled weakly. "I will, Daisy."

Kneeling or bending was still tricky. He could get down. Getting back up was doable, but would be a challenge. When they reached the graves, he handed Daisy the urn. There was a bronze marker embedded in the grass next to Jesse's headstone. Daisy brushed a few early fallen oak leaves of the surface and read the inscription aloud:

PFC James Leroy Duke

United States Army

Born: May 20, 1929

Died: October 1952

A bronze Korean War Veteran medallion arose from the earth directly behind the plaque. It was similar to the World War II medallion noting Uncle Jesse's military service.

Daisy knelt in front of the marker and dug the ground deep enough for the urn, and placed it in the hole. In Enos's absence, and with the road clear of snow, Ji-Woon had been granted permission to get as close as safely feasible to Arrowhead Ridge. There he filled two identical funeral urns with soil and sent one back to Soonie in America.

"This is the best we could do for now, Uncle Jesse," Enos said. "I wish it coulda been more."

Daisy opened the biscuit tin and pulled out the medal Uncle Jesse always wore. He had left it to Luke. But before leaving for the cemetery, Luke, moved by Enos's gesture and that of Ji-woon who he didn't even know, gave it to Daisy to bury with Uncle Jamie's urn.

After filling in the hole and smoothing the soil around it, Daisy stood and faced Enos.

"I brought something else," she said.

Opening the tin again, she withdrew a ragged, stained Busy Bee order slip that had been folded and refolded many times and handed it over to him.

"Uncle Jesse left it to you because he thought you would keep it from falling into the wrong hands."

He carefully unfolded the paper because it looked fragile enough to fall apart at the slightest mishandling.

Written there on the back of the slip, in Jesse's hand, were two well-guarded, super-secret recipes. One was for his famous Smoked Pork, and the other for his infamous J.D. Special Sauce. (Emphasis on the 'sauce,' which had nothing to do with barbeque. It was for pure, premium 190 proof moonshine.)

While Enos stayed at the graveside a little longer, Daisy walked back to the car where Jay, Soonie, Gem, and baby Esme' were waiting.

***The End of the Beginning***


Translation Korean to English:

"Geuleohge swiwossdamyeon jigeum jjeum-imyeonhaess-eul geos gatji anhnayo ?" means "Do you not think I would have done it by now if it had been so easy?"

References:

(4) Along with the running them that Enos had become a 'chick magnet' out in California, there was a whole running theme in the DOH: Hazzard in Hollywood movie about Uncle Jesse's Barbeque sauce recipe. Cooter Davenport was trying to replicate it. He had the recipe, but one ingredients was simply listed as P S. He and thought of everything P S could stand for, even 'pond scum' (which made Luke spit out his sandwich). Cooter finally figured out that P S stood for 'Pickled Scuppernongs.' Enos's favorite snack was the missing ingredient.