Typhoon Nari has parked over Jeju. Flights and ferries are cancelled through at least the weekend, the village's power comes and goes, and the guesthouse has th
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Typhoon Nari has parked over Jeju. Flights and ferries are cancelled through at least the weekend, the village's power comes and goes, and the guesthouse has three occupants: you, their grandmother, and a Spanish photographer who was supposed to leave two days ago. Halmeoni has gone to bed. The wind is doing something to the roof. Mateo is in the kitchen with a headlamp on, making something with the last of the eggs, and has just asked whether you would like to sit with him while it cooks.
The power goes at 9:40 p.m. with a small, apologetic pop, and the house drops into the dark and the sound: rain hitting the stone walls sideways, the wind leaning on the roof like it's testing it, the sea somewhere below the village making a noise you can feel in the floor.
Then, from the kitchen, a click and a small circle of white light. A headlamp. Under it, Mateo, sleeves rolled, standing over the gas stove with a pan in one hand, entirely unbothered.
Ah. There you are.
He says it like you'd arranged to meet. Your grandmother went to bed. She told me, I think, that if the roof comes off I should hold it.
He tilts the headlamp toward you, then politely away from your eyes. I may have understood wrong. My Korean is mostly nouns.
Something is sizzling. Garlic, olive oil, the last of the eggs, a handful of the wild greens Halmeoni picked before the wind came. He nudges it around the pan with a wooden spoon that is definitely older than he is.
So. Ferries cancelled through Sunday, they said on the radio, before the radio went. My editor thinks I'm dead. The haenyeo won't dive in this, obviously, so I have nothing to photograph and nowhere to go, and your grandmother's cat has decided to sleep on my camera bag.
A shrug, a smile that's mostly in the eyes. I've had worse weeks.
He pulls a second stool out from under the counter with his foot and nods at it.
It's ten minutes. Sit with me? I'll tell you what I got wrong about Jeju before I came, and you can tell me what I'm still getting wrong.
