The Mudskipper of the Tidal Flats
The Dohwang-ri Village Hall was packed with raucous laughter, makgeolli cups circulating from hand to hand. A sticky sea breeze drifted in through the windows and brushed across faces flushed with drink.
A thoroughly soused old man grinned at me and tipped the makgeolli kettle toward my cup.
"So you turned into a woman, and you're still knocking them back like that? Ain't that gonna wreck your body?"
Giggles erupted from the surrounding tables. I tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear and held out my empty cup without missing a beat.
"They call it a quasi-awakening in the city. Looks like only the outside changed — the inside's still the same. Well, one thing did change. I can't get drunk no matter how much I drink. All it does is run up my tab, and these volleyballs hanging off my chest... still feel pretty damn weird."
I pointed at my chest with an awkward grin, and the hall exploded into a sea of laughter. The old men slapped their knees, and a few chimed in with, "Aigoo, Sajeong's still got that silver tongue!"
I took their laughter as accompaniment and drained a bowl of makgeolli in one satisfying gulp. The stuff sliding down my throat tasted like nothing more than sour soda.
Then the hall door banged open with a clatter.
It was the Village Head. His face was flushed red as any drunkard's, but the urgency flickering in his eyes belonged to a man who'd sobered up in an instant. He swept a glance around the hall, then strode straight toward me.
"Sajeong!"
That damn name. I set my cup down with a slight grimace.
"Aigoo, Village Head. Please, that name... it really doesn't suit me anymore. Can't you see everyone's laughing?"
"For crying out loud!"
The Village Head slammed his palm down on the table in front of me and bellowed.
"What's so shameful about the three syllables your parents gave you?!"
The laughter that had filled the hall vanished at the sight of his angry face. He caught his breath, then got to the point.
"Granny Park got hurt digging clams on the mudflats. Said it was something like a mudskipper, but the size of a person. She startled, fell over backward, and wrenched her back."
I tilted my head, picturing the scene.
"Was the sun up? Tide out?"
"That's right. Sun was high overhead."
"And she didn't mix it up with something else? Every now and then you get ones trapped in the tidal channels that grow about as big as a person."
The Village Head waved his hands in frustration.
"Sajeong, Granny Park's spent her whole life working those mudflats. You think she can't tell a mudskipper from anything else? She was hopping up and down insisting what she saw was a mudskipper — the kind with eyes stuck on top of its head. We barely managed to carry her back."
I let out a small sigh.
"Mudskippers don't see people as food. They're so skittish they dive into a burrow at the first sign of anyone nearby. It probably just panicked at its own sudden size and thrashed around, and Granny Park happened to be in the way. The real problem is it'll tear up the whole mudflat later. Nobody's going to get seriously hurt."
The moment I finished, worried voices burst out among the villagers.
"Then what are we supposed to eat?"
"If it wrecks the whole mudflat, we gonna starve to death?"
I stood up, dusting the dirt from my clothes.
"All right. Don't worry. I'll take care of it within a week."
At my words, the noisy hall fell silent in an instant. Even the old men who'd been ribbing me a moment before went quiet, and the Village Head pressed his lips together and looked me straight in the eye.
Those gazes held a tangle of apology and expectation — the regard of people who thought well of me and worried for me all at once. I didn't look away. I met them with a small, easy smile.
"Still, I did just drink. Heading straight to work feels a bit much. And I don't particularly feel like getting coated in mud in broad daylight... I'll take a look once the sun goes down."
I said it playfully, smiling with my eyes, and the Village Head snorted and pulled a battered smartphone from his pocket.
"Figured you'd say that. You won't get how serious this is just hearing about it. See it with your own eyes."
He swiped the screen a few times and held it out in front of me. An old man watching from the side joked, "You looking at more junk again?" — but what was on that screen wasn't something you could laugh off.
On the mudflat, a terrified Granny Park was flailing as she stumbled backward. And in front of her, something enormous was twisting up out of the mud.
It was a mudskipper. The eyes perched on top of its head bulged the way they always did — but its body was massive enough to dwarf even the slight old woman.
I stared down at the screen, and a disbelieving laugh slipped out.
"Looks like it got startled by its own size, too."
I set my empty cup on the table and laid it out.
"As you all know, that thing lives off mudflat soil. It's too skittish to go after people on purpose. Granny Park just had the bad luck of being in its path when it panicked. I'll handle it, so until then, stay off the mudflats and work somewhere else."
A few people nodded silently. Nobody was going to argue further. Truth was, the people of this village had gotten used to this kind of strange commotion a long time ago.
I knocked back what was left in the makgeolli bowl and stood. When I opened the hall door and stepped outside, the midday sun stabbed at my eyes. I drew a deep breath of the hot, humid air, thick with the briny smell of the sea.
As I started walking, a small sigh escaped me unbidden.
Another headache added to the pile. Still, if I don't do it, who will?
Keeping the peace of this village. That was the reason I lived here in this strange, unfamiliar body — and my only role.
I trudged over with heavy steps and went into the police substation right next to the village hall.
The moment the door opened, the blast of hot, humid air vanished, replaced by a cool wash of air-conditioning that felt wonderful against my skin.
"Ah, that's nice."
As always, two people were on duty inside the substation. One was Officer Lee, a city boy who'd only recently been posted to this neighborhood. The other was Inspector Park, who might as well have been a local.
Inspector Park glanced at me once, then went right back to sipping the mix coffee in his paper cup and looking over his paperwork, as if nothing of note had happened. Officer Lee, the junior, on the other hand, shot to his feet to greet me. His face, though, looked more worried than glad.
He must have caught the smell of makgeolli on me. Officer Lee wrinkled his nose slightly and launched into a lecture instead of a greeting.
"Ms. Jang Sajeong, you've been drinking again? In the middle of the day..."
"I'm not here to work. Just stopped by to file a report."
I waved a hand casually and dropped onto the worn sofa.
On the television mounted on the wall, a lottery drawing was underway, complete with noisy music. Absentmindedly, I dug through my pants pocket and pulled out a lottery ticket I'd crumpled and folded away.
The announcer on screen called out the numbers one by one in a bright, energetic voice, but not a single one matched the numbers on my ticket. When the last number missed cleanly, I let out a hollow laugh.
Inspector Park, who'd been watching, smirked.
"Struck out again?"
I tore the ticket in half and shot back.
"Always, right? Weird thing is, on the days I don't match a single number, my luck's always good somehow."
"Call it buying off bad luck, I guess."
Inspector Park clicked his tongue. Then he pulled a sheet from a file folder and handed it to Officer Lee, who took it and came over to me. I picked up the ballpoint pen sitting on the coffee table.
I took the incident report form with practiced ease and neatly filled in the name, the location, and, under the damage description, wrote out: appearance of a human-sized mudskipper and threat to residents.
Halfway through filling it out, I glanced at Officer Lee standing there blankly beside me, and a mischievous urge bubbled up.
"Officer Lee, think about this for a second. A mudskipper the size of a person — and a pretty young lady like me is the one who has to go catch it?"
At my shameless remark, Officer Lee flushed slightly in flustered embarrassment. He waved his hands, not knowing what to do with himself.
"You know how it is! The day we pick up a gun, we're on the nine o'clock news..."
His innocent reply set Inspector Park and me laughing at the exact same time, as if we'd planned it. I handed the completed form to Officer Lee and went on.
"Fair enough. A human-sized mudskipper wandering around in broad daylight, people with puppy ears shopping downtown — and guns are still a no-go, right?"
Officer Lee shook his head with a look that said, What on earth are you talking about now?
"Ms. Jang Sajeong, if you keep that up, you know you'll get in trouble for a discriminatory remark, right? Please..."
He retreated to his desk with the paperwork, looking thoroughly fed up. Watching his back, I couldn't help but laugh.
This body of mine might even be younger than Officer Lee, but inside my head I was still a middle-aged uncle. So when I saw a fresh-faced young guy like that, the urge to mess with him just... well, it was instinct.
With the paperwork done, I stood up from the sofa. Inspector Park, having finished his coffee, crushed the paper cup and tossed out,
"Want a ride?"
I shook my head with a grin full of mischief.
"Hmm, maybe if it were the passenger seat of someone young and handsome like Officer Lee..."
I deliberately turned my gaze toward Officer Lee and squinted one eye in a wink. Sure enough, he jumped and coughed for no reason.
When I opened the substation door and stepped outside, the hot air slammed into my cooled body like a wall. It was the kind of brutal heat that sent heat haze shimmering up off the asphalt.
Weather like this, and the news would be begging people to stay indoors all day — but I stretched big, then started walking at an easy pace.
From the substation to my house was a good thirty minutes on foot, easy. For an ordinary person, walking that far under this blazing sun would be a recipe for collapsing in the road. But this body of mine, which could knock back several bowls of makgeolli like water without so much as a wobble, handled the heat pretty well too.
A cool shower once I got home, and I'd be fine. I looked out at the sea glittering along the far horizon and headed home at a leisurely pace.