banana bread

Mamie and Halmeoni are over at the counter, ordering something, and they told Eomma to go sit down and that they’d be right there, which was not okay. Myung-soo wants to hang out with them too!

And now he’s sitting on a café table—which he never gets to do—and Eomma’s arms are wrapped around him, holding her own hand, and and she’s looking at him and there’s something sad in her eyes and Myung-soo might not know what’s going on, but he knows what Mimi told him—protect your eomma for me—and he takes his job very seriously. So he does what he’s seen Mama do so many times and he puts his hands on Eomma’s cheeks, holding her still as he looks at her.

“Eomma happy?” he asks, because he knows there’s something wrong and Eomma never lies to him—except maybe about bedtime, but that was one time, and he’s over that now.

“Always with you, my heart,” Eomma answers, but there’s a shake in how she’s talking and it scares Myung-soo.

He wishes Mama or Mimi were here. They always make Eomma feel better. But he’s gonna do what Mimi said to do. It’s his job.

The café is pretty quiet, but even with the sound of lots of people talking low around them, Myung-soo hears a new voice, low and sounding like the villains on his Saturday morning cartoons.

He hears a name he doesn’t recognize; one that sounds a lot like Eomma’s name, but it’s definitely not her name. Mama’s never called her that, and Mimi’s never said that. Neither have his grandmas.

Eomma hears it too, and something about her changes. Her shoulders go up towards her ears and her hands come apart—still holding him, but Myung-soo feels them shaking. Eomma isn’t looking at him anymore. She’s looking past him, down at the table, and she looks like she’s hurting. Hurting really badly, like the time he fell off his scooter and scraped his arm and that hurt really bad but Eomma didn’t get hurt, so what’s happening?

He tugs her head closer to him, scrunching up his face. “Eomma?” he says, and she doesn’t answer. She never does that.

“Though, I suppose you don’t go by that anymore, do you?” the same evil voice says, and Eomma gets even smaller.

Myung-soo wants his grandmas to be over here, but they’re standing still over by the counter. Waiting for their food, probably, but can’t they see that Eomma needs them?