Chapter 8
Chapter 8: In 92nd Street in New York (4)
Posted on May 5, 2016 by bsubak — 9 Comments ↓
On that night after dinner, Lucas told his story bitterly to Jo Minjoon. It was really honest to tell to someone he had just met, but maybe it was easier to do so as they were only related for a day.
Lucas said he was the CEO of a jelly factory. When you heard the word factory it was easy to imagine a low quality food, however Lucas was someone who tried his best to get away of that prejudice. And his efforts returned as a rather good sale.
The downfall of a factory that was doing well happened on a morning. An american program that seeked safety targeted Lucas’s factory. They went to the broadcast with a jelly that contained soil, something that could never happen in a refining process, and claimed that it was a jelly from Lucas’s factory. Also that made up broadcast got popular as it got more than 10% of rating.
Lucas immediately sued the broadcast, however, as the trial took really long the factory was already in a state of downfall. It was Lucas’s dream to manage a jelly factory since he was small. However they say that since then he has lost all of his will. That’s why he became a vagabond and roamed from here to there.
He spent almost three months as a vagabond. After those three months he came back to the 92nd street, but Lucas didn’t have the courage to get inside his house. At that time, it was Jo Minjoon who gave him those 5 dollars. When Jo Minjoon was holding the 5 dollar bill, there were many things Lucas was thinking in his head. The embarrassment of his shabby form to the point people treated him as a beggar, and a strange feeling he got when he was given the 5 dollars. It was a complicated feeling, but thanks to that Lucas could return to his house.
However.
“Jessie won’t forgive me.”
Lucas mumbled bitterly. Jane went upstairs to soothe Jessie, the results were the noises of Jessie crying and Jane’s pissed voice. Lucas sighed and said.
“I’m sorry. To bring a guest to this mess.”
“……A small child will be like that. When you stop feeling sorry, you will be able to go back to before.”
“I wonder…. Would I be able to do that? I left everything behind and left. I had a kid and a wife. I could only think of my sufferings. I’m a bad father.”
“No father in the world can be a perfect superman.”
Listening to that, Lucas replied while smiling.
How many fatherswith broad backs were on the world. Every father is afraid of his back not being big enough in front of his children, but it couldn’t be helped for that day to come. Except he got healthy enough for his age, the children will end up knowing that their father’s back is small. Jo Minjoon opened his mouth.
“I said that I won’t lecture you so instead I will ask you a question. Do you want to hug the small back of your dad or do you want to stop looking at it?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to look at it.”
“So it means that you want to hug him.”
Jo Minjoon smiled after saying that. Jessie turned her head with her eyes flushed. It was a good idea. At least, she was a kid that didn’t know how to hate her parents. It was precisely that she was that kind of kid, that after all that revolt she ended in her room which was in the 2nd floor. If she was a kid that wasn’t fond of her parents then she would have immediately ran away from her house. Jo Minjoon undisturbed, opened his mouth.
“I will cheer for you, do you want to do it?”
“……So how?”
Jo Minjoon replied.
“With the things your dad loves the most.”
For example jelly.