Young-hee and the Pullocho (13 page)

First thing after the market, she should take Bum to meet the jangseung and ask about Bassam. Surely, they would know such a longtime resident. But then, they said they hadn't seen another person in a long time. Strange.

Across the aisle, a very old, witch-looking woman was polishing metal disks and spheres etched with stars and planets. In the next stall, a dokkaebi sat sleeping behind a wall of cheap clothing.

Young-hee looked for Bum to make sure he hadn't got into trouble, but didn't see him. All at once a familiar panic overtook her.
No, no, no, no
, she thought.
He was just here!
“Bum!” she half-yelled, startling Bassam and several people around her. Then, her voice rising: “Bum, come back
right now!
”

“Is there a problem, Young-hee?” asked Bassam.

“My little brother. He was just here, but I don't see him now.”

“I'm sure he is close. I just noticed him a few moments ago myself.”

“He always does this,” she said to Bassam, her eyes darting over the market. She shouted again, louder. “
Bum!
Get back
right now.
” Young-hee looked down a row of stalls, then, moving faster, walked to the other side of Bassam's stall to check another aisle. She could feel her pulse quicken and that familiar stabbing in her chest.
No, no, no
,
this is bad
.

People looked at her with a mix of concern and annoyance.
There are too many big creatures
, she thought,
they make it too hard to see any distance
. She stuck her head behind stall after stall, panic quickening her pace. She kept telling herself that he had to be nearby, like always, just a little out of sight. Her head ached, but she couldn't tell if it was because she was breathing too heavily or not enough. “
Bum!
” she shouted. “Where are you!
Bum!
” She remembered how fragile her mother looked that day they moved to their new apartment, how fear that Bum was lost made her weak and helpless; Young-hee was certain she looked the same now.

Young-hee doubled back and down another aisle. She passed Grandma Dol, now wearing Boonae, and the four little women in green playing their stone game. Her chest hurt and her eyes stung. She looked behind vats of
anju
side dishes, spilling some, causing the shop owner to yell at her, but Young-hee barely noticed. Bum would turn up, like always. If only Gyeongbi Shin were there, he would have found Bum and had him laughing with one of his stories. But there were no guards here to care for him, and Young-hee felt very alone.

And, just like that, there he was. A couple of tall, thin creatures in billowing robes moved to one side, opening a clear path down the aisle. About five stalls away at an intersection, Bum stood, oblivious. “
Bum!
” she shouted and ran to him. He was smiling, holding a big
yakgwa
honey cake in one hand and crumbs all around his mouth, but Young-hee didn't care about his perpetual messiness and swooped to hug him. “Bum, I told you not to run off,” she said. “Let's get out of here.”

“Okay,” he said.

Young-hee took him by his small, dirty hand and turned to go—but he didn't move. She was relieved, but in no mood for his obstinacy. “Bum, I said let's go,” she said, but he stayed at the stall threshold, eating his biscuit. Young-hee pulled his hand, gently, then harder, but it was like tugging on a thousand-pound rock.

“I can't,” he said in a plaintive voice. Catching a faint glimmer from Bum's ankle, she bent and made out a silver thread, wispy as spider's silk. It snaked around Bum's ankle and into the shop.

Confused, Young-hee looked around. The food shop, piled high with fragrant cakes and breads, was made of faded old wood in desperate need of repair. Young-hee realized she had seen the shop before, as well as the biscuit Bum was eating, on her last trip to the goblin market.

“Can I help you?” said a voice, full of malevolence. Young-hee looked up to find a dokkaebi grinning evilly at her. She glimpsed the tiniest flicker of light, a gossamer thread of ghostly silver, in the goblin's hand.

Which is how Young-hee lost her brother. After striking the deal with the dokkaebi—a pullocho
in exchange for Bum—she went charging through the market, looking for a familiar, chalky white face. “Grandma Dol, I need your help,” she said, voice breaking with sadness and rage.

“What's wrong, child?” the old woman soothed. She wasn't wearing any mask now, her real face was covered only by concern. Young-hee's words tumbled out, a mess of grief and anger, but Grandma Dol quickly understood. The old stone grew angry and threatened to put on Mokjung, or maybe even Yeongno—Young-hee didn't know that mask, but it sounded scary. Young-hee had hoped that her friend had the power or the connections to tear Bum from the goblin's clutches. But when Grandma Dol learned that Woo had followed the rules of the goblin market, she confirmed that the only way to save him was for Young-hee to fulfill the agreement.

At some point
,
Bassam joined them. He brought tea and talked to her while Grandma Dol went to Woo's shop to confront the goblin, only to return, shaking her head. Bassam and Grandma Dol promised to keep an eye on Bum as best they could from their part of the market, and see what they could learn about Woo. Bassam asked her to recount all that had happened several times, in all the detail she could recall. “This is a goblin market, and I have known many of those creatures in my many years in this land. They are a mischievous race, untrustworthy, to be sure. But I have not known them to be this evil before. Nor to eat human children.”

“Well, this one is that bad,” said Grandma Dol. She took charge of getting Young-hee properly equipped for a long trip, rounding up roots and rice cakes that would last as long as possible. She traded Young-hee's remaining hairbands for all the jungbo she could afford. “It's not a lot, but it should be enough,” she said. She also gave Young-hee a small, wooden lamp with a candle inside. “It is a special type of soybean wax that burns very slowly,” she said, “and the lamp is bright and light, so it won't weigh you down. It is one of my best.”

Bassam, too, gave her items from his shop, a sturdy canvas bag, a sleeping roll, and a heavy linen cloak. She thanked them, but when she asked them to come with her, they shook their heads and said that it was not possible.

“I have my place in this market, and obligations of my own,” said Bassam.

“Besides, Young-hee, this is your promise, your journey,” said Grandma Dol. “I do not know why the great spirits of heaven allowed something so terrible to happen to you, but there are often reasons we do not understand, at least at first.”

“But I need you,” pleaded Young-hee.

“I am needed here, by those more in need than even you and your brother. Should I forget my other obligations just for you?”

Young-hee wanted to scream “yes,” but gave a slight, reluctant nod instead.

“If it is your destiny to travel across our world and find a pullocho, you must embrace that, even if it is very difficult,” said Grandma Dol.

Neither Bassam nor Grandma Dol knew much about pullochos or the Sacred City, but they said the jangseung could at least get her started in the right direction. Bassam thought Lake Mey was a couple of days' walk, then the Cheongyong mountains, and past them the Great Forest.

“But I believe the Sacred City was the great kingdom I sought, hundreds of years ago, when I first lost my way and ended up here,” said Bassam. “If I may offer some advice—once the jangseung show you your path, stay on it as long as you can. Paths are ephemeral and strange, at once obvious and frustrating. This world is wild and dangerous, but the path is usually a safer place to be.”

“And,” added Grandma Dol, “as you have learned from your brother and Woo, refuse all gifts unless from someone who, like us, first grants you hospitality and calls you ‘friend.' And whoever or whatever you meet, always be respectful. You have a fiery heart, and that is good, but it can get you into trouble.”

“Thanks,” Young-hee said. “I heard something similar not too long ago. I wish I had listened.”

“One more thing,” said Granny. “There are many dangers and dishonest creatures. But it is still good to make friends. Betrayal is a risk, but a good friend can help and comfort you on a long journey.”

It had been a long day, so Granny Dol suggested that Young-hee sleep with them in the market. But knowing Woo would not let her stay with Bum, and that she couldn't bear to be so close, she decided to start right away, the sooner to return. So, with that, there was nothing to do but say good-bye.

As full and busy as the market was, it dropped away quickly. The sun was still the same rich, evening orange, as during the other visit to Strange Land. The beauty of the light and the rolling hills clashed painfully with her sadness and almost made her angry.

At the clearing, she saw the jangseung. “Who approaches the guardians of the Jureum Forest and the surrounding villages?” asked Cheonha gruffly.

“It's me, Young-hee,” she replied in a flat voice. “Hi, Cheonha, Jiha.”

“Oh, the human girl,” said Jiha, always the friendlier jangseung.

“What's wrong, bear daughter?” asked Cheonha. When Young-hee repeated her story, both guardians showed great concern. “Such an evil goblin,” said Cheonha, shaking his head—but they, too, could do little.

“There have been many rumors of bad things gathering, even war, unlike anything since the last divide,” said Jiha. “You've chosen a dangerous time to travel our land.”

“Great,” said Young-hee, unable to hold in her sarcasm. “Do you know anything about the dokkaebi's instructions: The Sacred City and the sandalwood tree? Or the Cheongyong Mountains and Lake Mey? The animal spirits? Anything?”

“Well, the sandalwood tree is one of the most sacred sites in all our land. So sacred, in fact, that few can find it.” Cheonha gazed into the distance. “Just a moment, I'll see what I can see.” His eyes clouded over as he murmured odd noises, and then seemed to shine and pulse.

“Cheonha is just ‘looking' for you,” explained Jiha. “Guardians like us live in doorways and in-between places. We can see a great many things, very far away.”

A minute later Cheonha's eyes returned to normal. “No signs of pullochos, sorry to say. But that is not surprising—strong magicks like pullochos can wreak havoc on far-seeing, discovery spells, and the like. However, I can say that your instructions, meager as they are, seem correct. If you keep walking past Haechi Horn, through the forest, you should come to Lake Mey in a day or two. On the far side lie the Cheongyong Mountains. And past them, somewhere, the Sacred City.”

“
Aish
,” said Young-hee. “And the—what were they called?—the ‘animal women spirits?'”

“Yes, Bear, Snake, and Fox,” said Jiha. “Three of the most ancient animals.”

“But aren't foxes evil?”

“All three sisters are very powerful and dangerous, in their way. They live past the mountains, or so I've heard tell. If anyone knows about pullochos, they might.”

“Somewhere past the mountains,” repeated Young-hee. “I'm not some great explorer. I have no idea how I'll find my way through the forest to the lake, let alone around the lake or over the mountains.”

“Well, at least for now you just need to follow your path.”

“
My
path?”

“Yes, you're on it already.”

Young-hee looked down and was startled to see she was standing on a dark stone path—almost two meters wide wide, that extended from underneath her feet toward Haechi Horn. “Wait, I never saw this path before.”

“Yes, but you were never on a journey before,” said Jiha.

Young-hee's thoughts swirled. This was weird. “So this stone path just … appeared? Just for me?”

“Indeed.”

“And it just … knows where I'm supposed to go?”