Hands That Cannot Rest
The next morning, Go Gi-jin woke at dawn out of habit and stepped out into the living room.
Veterinarian Go Panseok was already getting ready to leave.
"Dad, what're you up to?"
"What d'you think I'm up to! Gettin' ready to head out, that's what."
A farm-call must have come in. Go Gi-jin glanced at his father's hands, then spoke up.
"Which ranch is it? I'll go—you just stay home and rest."
"It ain't a farm-call. I'm headed to San Ranch."
He meant the ranch Lee Jun had asked about—whether it was a cattle sanctuary. The same ranch where Yom-yom-i and his friends were sleeping through the winter.
"Ah, that place?"
"That's right. Those kids've gotta eat too, don't they?"
The Go family ranch was fairly spacious. In the old days it had been home to just a handful of cattle, a few horses, and a few goats, and back then Go Panseok and the veterinarians working under him could manage it themselves. The pasture was so wide that the cattle, horses, and goats could live in plenty just grazing the grass that grew from the earth, so a stroll-through visit every two or three days was enough.
But that was a story that lasted only through autumn, when the grass was abundant. Come winter, they had to put out hay and other feed. Having the veterinarians who were already out on farm calls stop by the ranch every single day to put out feed was simply too much, so in winter they brought someone in to manage the place—part-time, since there weren't that many animals.
After the Hongseong wildfire, though, a considerable number of animals had been relocated to the ranch. Which meant a considerable number of sick and injured animals. The Go family ranch had grown too big for the staff of Ko Pan-seok Animal Hospital to handle alone.
Three resident employees. Those three looked after every animal living on the ranch with painstaking care. The hospital family, of course, and neighboring veterinarians as well, dropped by whenever they had time to treat the animals.
By now, quite some time had passed, and most of the injured and sick animals had more or less recovered. But there were still a fair number that needed care. So whenever there was no emergency in the early morning, Go Panseok would stop by the ranch on his way to work—to feed the staff and the animals, treat anyone who needed treating, and check their condition by reading the look on their faces.
When Go Panseok said, "Those kids've gotta eat too, don't they?"—that single sentence covered the exam, the feeding, and the condition check, all of it. Go Gi-jin, who understood this perfectly, answered.
"I'll go. You stay home, Dad. I just need to look in on 'em and make sure they're all right. I'll head to the hospital after. Where d'you think you're goin' with those hands?"
"What's wrong with these hands?"
"They're hurt, that's what. You said you were goin' to the hospital for 'em. And if you mess around with those hands and they get infected, then what're you gonna do?"
It was a fair point. Hands like Go Panseok's—skin torn clean off, the dermis laid bare—doing ranch work was a guaranteed invitation for a bacterial infection.
"I'll wear gloves. I'll be fine!"
"Dad! Talk sense. What if the gloves tear? And besides—what gloves? When you're in a hurry you just go in bare-handed anyway."
"So what am I supposed to do if it's urgent?"
Go Panseok wouldn't yield an inch. Neither would Go Gi-jin.
"What d'you mean, what? You'll end up quittin' being a vet, that's what. What's a veterinarian who can't even use his arm supposed to do?"
"Can't use my arm just 'cause this little hand got scraped up? Why wouldn't I be able to use it?"
"You won't, that's why. Bacteria get in there and you come down with sepsis—then what? They'll just have to cut it off, that's what."
At his son's harsh words, Go Panseok's face crumpled into a scowl. But the scowl smoothed out almost at once. He knew exactly what was in his son's heart when he said such things.
"Well! You're not wrong, I s'pose."
"That's right. It's not like you want to retire this minute, is it?"
"You little—why would I retire!"
What nonsense. How many cattle still need these hands to heal them? Even if I didn't sleep, didn't rest, and treated cows from this moment on, it still wouldn't be enough—and he talks about retiring!
Go Panseok bellowed, and Go Gi-jin bellowed right back.
"That's why I'm sayin' it. Until that hand heals, Dad, don't you even think about goin' out in the field."
What nonsense. Go Panseok wanted to hurl the same words back at his son all over again. He wanted to kick the front door open and walk out that instant. But strangely, his mouth wouldn't open. Every last thing his son had said was right.
Large-animal veterinarians who practiced in the field were constantly exposed to contaminants. Feces and urine were scattered all over the grounds. And then there was the examination they performed most often—rectal palpation. It was an exam in which you inserted a hand or fingers into the rectum and palpated the organs with your fingers or palm. A hand into the anus—no, correction. When Go Panseok examined cattle, it wasn't a hand. He pushed his entire forearm in up to the shoulder. There was no way not to get contaminated. The rectum was already packed with dung, and the cows would even fling it while being examined.
Of course, they wore long gloves, so the risk of the hands themselves getting filthy was low—but you never knew with people. Just as Go Gi-jin had said, a glove could tear during an exam. You could get kicked by a cow's hind hoof, go down, and tear a glove that way too. Infection was possible at any moment. And Go Panseok, who had lived through more than a few such experiences, had nothing to say.
"……"
He just smacked his lips.
Leaving his father behind, Go Gi-jin walked to the front door and said his goodbye.
"I'll be back, then. We'll go to the hospital after."
"All right."
For the first time in a long while, Go Gi-jin headed to the ranch at dawn. On any other day he would have gone humming a cheerful little tune. It wasn't an emergency farm-call; he was on his way to the Go family ranch, where everything was peaceful. And it had been a long time. He ought to have been happy, ought to have been full of anticipation. It was a place packed with animals he had missed.
But Go Gi-jin's heart was heavy with worry over his father.
"Dad's hand… it needs to heal up quick."
This was a man who had been practicing longer than Go Gi-jin had been alive. If a man like that couldn't practice, his spirits would surely plummet. There was plenty of work besides going out in the field—but for Go Panseok, who considered the field his exam room, sitting in an animal hospital would be torture.
"Mom already said he looked drained after sending those kids off, and now this."
Go Gi-jin was afraid his father, unable even to go out on farm calls, would sit in the animal hospital steeped in despair.
"I wish he'd just go on a trip like other folks."
His father had never properly enjoyed a vacation in his life. Even now, Go Gi-jin thought, it would do him good to go far away and clear his head.
"That'd be nice, it would."
He was still turning that over when he found himself in front of the ranch. Go Gi-jin went in and looked for the cattle.
Mooooo~~!
The cows, seeing Go Gi-jin for the first time in a long while, greeted him warmly. Ten of them in all. Seven were cows he was close with; the remaining three had arrived while he was at Mongmong Animal Hospital. Every last one of those ten had a story.
Go Gi-jin checked each cow, one by one, with genuine care, then looked over the other animals as well.
That was when it happened.
Wak! Wawakwawakwak!
A raucous crying rang out, and at the same time came a rapid drumming of hooves.
"Eotta, that's that one's voice, ain't it?"
Go Gi-jin turned his head, and sure enough, a water deer was racing toward him. The very water deer he had carried down off the burning mountain on his back.
"Eome, is your leg all healed up?"
Wakwakwakwakwarawakwakwak!
The water deer bellowed at the top of its lungs that it didn't hurt at all.
"Eotta, you're loud! All right, all right, you're fine? That's a relief."
Go Gi-jin understood him perfectly. He stepped right up and stroked the water deer's back, back and forth. The water deer seemed to like the touch of his hand, because it cried out even more happily.
Owak owak~.
That was when six or seven more water deer approached Go Gi-jin—the ones who had been rescued along with this one by Lee Jun and his party.
Owak owak owak ooowakwakwakwak~~!
A chorus of water deer. Merry voices, easy, unhurried bearing.
"So y'all've been well, then."
If they were, the other animals were probably doing well too. Go Gi-jin looked toward a densely wooded stretch in the distance. The squirrels would be sleeping soundly as well, he thought—in the nest that had been prepared for them among those trees.
"Come spring, I ought to bring Hyung-nim out here. They'd love it to pieces."
He meant Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree. They would love it, no question.
"And I ought to see Taesan too."
Until he had arrived at the ranch, he had been furious. His elderly father getting hauled into the police station was infuriating enough—and then the man who had caused it all was going to sue his father for assault, of all things.
"Uncle Gyeongsin said he did it 'cause he was afraid that bastard would get beaten even worse, but still. How's Dad supposed to be in a place like that!"
On top of that, the man had committed a grave crime. How dare he sneak into a place like that, of all places. So Go Gi-jin had been extremely angry. And so, the night before, he and Go Panseok had reached their conclusion. An eye for an eye. They would go with mutual lawsuits. They would go get a medical certificate the moment the hospital opened.
But thinking about it now, he was even angrier. Because the thought had occurred to him that, on account of some stranger whose face he didn't even know, the cattle at Sodeuljib Ranch could have been put in danger. And seeing the animals here roaming so peacefully made that thought hit even harder.
Ten o'clock. In the parking lot of a fairly large orthopedic hospital, Go Gi-jin and Go Panseok were arguing inside the car.
"Dad, let me go in alone first."
"What're you talkin' about? I've gotta go too. No—I should be the one goin'. Did that bastard hit you?"
"That's why I'm sayin' it. If you go in, nothin's gonna get resolved."
"What's there to resolve? I just need to say one thing and walk out."
"Say what?"
"That we're goin' mutual."
"Eotta, Dad, you only got two weeks. That guy's lookin' at six weeks minimum."
"I'm goin' anyway."
"Eotta, I oughta call Uncle Gyeongsin. Anyway, today's about tryin' to settle, so Dad, you don't say a word."
The situation had made him angry, but Go Gi-jin had come to settle because Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin had said it would be better to drop the charges.
"Anyway, today's about settlin' the lawsuit, so you understand that."
That, however, was only the matter of the mutual assault. Once this was over, the man would still have to answer separately to the owner of Sodeuljib Ranch for trespassing. That was how Go Gi-jin saw it.
But Go Panseok didn't even pretend to listen. He opened the car door and got out, and Go Gi-jin climbed out after him with a sigh. Then he called Section Chief Baek as he followed his father, who was already striding ahead.
A short while later, the two of them stood in front of the hospital room of the man Go Panseok had gone a round with. Go Gi-jin would have liked nothing better than to kick the door in, but he swallowed it down and knocked.
Knock, knock.
Then he opened the door and went in.
"Heelloo, is anyone in?"
In the kindest voice he could muster.
"Who is it?"
The man sitting on the bed tilted his head at Go Gi-jin as he came through the door. But the moment he saw Go Panseok coming in behind him, he exploded.
"What are you doing here? Get out! I've got nothing to discuss with you!"
With that, he lay down on the bed. And then he started groaning.
"Nnngh, nnngh. I'm dying here."
This from a man who, a second ago, had been sitting up looking perfectly fine. Tsk. If it were up to me I'd sit him right back up. Go Gi-jin swallowed down whatever was surging up inside him and spoke.
"The thing is—about what happened yesterday. Seems like there might've been a bit of a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding? I got six weeks of recovery. What's there to misunderstand? Let's just let the law handle it."
"From what I heard, you made a mistake on your end too."
At Go Gi-jin's words, the man sat up in a fury.
"A mistake? What mistake did I make? All I wanted was to take a single photograph."
That's the biggest mistake of all, you scatterbrained idiot! Go Gi-jin thought it, but he was here to settle, and he couldn't say it out loud. That was when Go Panseok exploded beside him.
"One photograaaph?"
"Yes. One photograph. I heard that ranch had such beautiful scenery, so I went in to look around and take a picture. And what do I get? I go in to look at a ranch and my arm just—snap!—breaks."
The way he said it, as if he'd merely dropped by a famous tourist spot to snap a photo. Go Gi-jin was speechless. His mouth fell open—and then the man's eyes flashed as they landed on him.
"Ah. I thought I'd seen you somewhere. So you're that person. Mongmong…"
He let the corner of his mouth curl up, then drop.
"You came here to ask me to settle, I take it. I can't do that. I nearly crossed the River Jordan just trying to look at a ranch. How am I supposed to settle?"
He let that hang for a moment, then added,
"Though if you gave me, say, thirty thousand dollars—no, fifty thousand—I might consider it."
That was when Go Panseok—whom Go Gi-jin had been pinching in the thigh this whole time, begging him please not to say a word—blew.
"What? Fifty thousand? You think fifty thousand's some kid's toy money? I wouldn't give a bastard like you a single red cent! Why would I give money to something that isn't even human?"
"What did you just say? Did you just say I'm not even a person? Then what are you, huh?"
"What? You done talkin'?"
They had come to settle, and now they were about to start round two. Go Gi-jin's head began to throb. Afraid another disaster might break out, he grabbed his father tight around the waist from behind and muttered,
"Eotta, why isn't Uncle Gyeongsin here yet! He said he was right in front and he'd be right over."
Just as he was muttering that, a knock sounded at the door.