What Happened to Enos'

Little Girl?

by KayCee1951

Part One

Chapter Eight

Auntie Dae and the Red String of Fate

Still August 5, 2022, Mount Jiri

Esme, backpack in hand, was supposed to meet François at the rendezvous point he'd preset. Typical military mindset. When he rigged the device to the market phone to block any tracking for her, he had put his number into her cell phone as well, under 'Frank,' but she couldn't reach him to tell him she was running late and to wait for her…no matter what. She didn't think he'd just leave her there. Min-jun would have his head on a platter. Then, she worried something might have happened to him.

It had rained at the lower elevation the night before and there were mud puddles in the dirt roads. When some yahoo on a cross-country motorbike passed her going the speed of sprite lightning, she ended up covered in Jirisan mud…head to toe. Fortunately, there was a park ranger's car giving chase. At least he wouldn't get away Scot-Free. She didn't know it at the time, but Auntie Dae's 'actual' niece was the ranger behind the wheel. It only took five minutes before Auntie Dae appeared.

The woman who owned the market brought Esme a towel but it did little more than rub the mud around. She had gone back into the shop to find something more substantial when Auntie Dae showed up.

"You poor child. We have to get you somewhere you can clean up."

"I hope Kang Bong-cha catches that hooligan," said the market owner. "He rides by here making noise and mischief at least once a week.

Esme shuddered.

"I'll let you take over from here, Dae, I need to get back to my shop."

"Thank you for looking after my friend, Hee-jin. I'll take her to the church where she can get warm."

"I'm not cold Auntie, just humiliated and ding-dang mad." (Carbon copy…just sayin'.) "And now I'm gonna be later than I was before meeting…uh, my ride back to where I'm staying."

"Clean up and dry clothes first, then we'll talk."

Before she knew it, she was in a small room of the parish church with several boxes of jumbled clothes that were in the process of being distributed to needy families.

"I have a change of clothes in my backpack, Auntie," she said as she unzipped the flap and sighed, "So much for being waterproof."

She looked at her wet clothes and then at the dry ones in the boxes and decided, "Whatever. I need to find François."

"How about this one?" Auntie Dae asked and held up a shift with a flower design that looked as if it had been hanging in someone's closet since the late sixties. But it looked and smelled clean and it was dry.

"Where are you staying?" Auntie Dae asked while Esme shed her wet, mud-soaked clothes and washed herself with the pan of warm water Auntie Dae had conjured seemingly from nowhere. Maybe on top of having the gift of invisibility and mind reading, she was also a magician.

"Up the mountain aways."

"And that's where you disappeared to…with the bike thief?"

Esme didn't answer.

"I see it's not something you want to share with anyone. Does your family know where you are?"

Esme shook her head guiltily.

"It's alright. You don't have to tell me where you've been or who you've been with. Just tell me you feel safe there."

"I do, Auntie." Esme's nose began to run and her eyes glistened. "I feel safer with him than with anyone I've ever known, outside of my parents. I…I think I could easily fall in love with him. Maybe I have already. Does that sound crazy to you? It sounds crazy to me, especially when I say it out loud."

"It doesn't sound crazy at all. It happens that way sometimes. That invisible red string on your finger attaches itself to the one you are destined to be with and there's nothing you can do about it. Not that you would want to."

"I never believed in destiny before, but I may have to change my mind," Esme sniffed and gave out a feeble laugh. She felt better after admitting it to someone other than herself. Because she was not ready to confess it to Min-jun…

"Well, you're all clean now, let's see about getting you back to wherever it is you need to be."

Once back at the rendezvous point and she bid Auntie Dae goodbye, she found François waiting for her. As they drove back to the temple he asked, "Where were you? I looked for you for an hour until the market owner said you'd gone with that friend."

"It's a long story. I might ask you the same question. You weren't at the place we agreed on at the time we set."

"I had to take care of something, and it took longer than I expected. I was only fifteen or so minutes late. I couldn't call because you wanted me to block all the incoming calls to your cellphone."

Esme laughed. "By that time, I was soaked with mud and whisked off to the Catholic church to find some dry clothes in the parish donation box."

He looked down at her muddy backpack.

"Don't ask," she said and laying her head back on the seat, closed her eyes and tried to calm down. Her anxiety had nothing to do with the crazy hooligan on the motorbike.

She had defied and disappointed her parents and would continue to do so. That was a big deal.