Free Feedback by Peter Cawdron Page B

telling you, she’s about the right age to have been plucked out of the water by those fisherman.”
    Jason shook his head. “You’re an idiot,” he said affectionately, unable to suppress the grin on his face.
    “You laugh, but I’m telling you, this shit is real. I saw lights over Manhattan last night.”
    “What would an alien be doing in my apartment?” Jason asked, humoring him. “Why would an alien come all this way to sneak around disguised as a young asian woman?”
    “I don’t know,” Mitchell replied. “Maybe it’s like those nature documentaries. You know, where they film animals in the wild. Yeah, that’s it, they’re doing a special on the mating habits of Homo sapiens and are looking for some live footage.”
    “You really are an idiot,” Jason repeated, finishing his coffee.
    Mitchell put on his best English accent, impersonating Sir David Attenborough as he said, “The mating call of the wild physics student can be heard for miles, echoing through the concrete jungle.”
    Jason punched him playfully on the shoulder, saying, “Let’s get out of here.”
    But Mitchell wasn’t finished. He kept his voice in a style that could only be described as BBC English, giving his words a crisp, clipped tone as he added, “The call of the Asian American is distinctly different from that of the African or European American, earning these fascinating creatures the title of the Great Warbling Bed Thrasher.”
    Jason laughed.

Chapter 05: Sunny
     
    Night had fallen in North Korea.
    Lee staggered in the rain.
    Blisters had formed on the sides of his feet where his boots had rubbed the skin raw. The pain caused him to hobble, but he had to push on.
    Rocks and pebbles crunched under his stiff rubber soles.
    Torrential rain blurred his vision, running down over his forehead, across his eyes and down his cheeks. Blinking and squinting, he raised his hand to shelter his eyes from the rain. The rain sounded like a jet engine warming up, thrashing the leaves, splashing in puddles, and slapping at his shoulders.
    The young North Korean woman slipped on the muddy track so Lee braced her against himself, catching her before she fell. Although her arm was draped over his shoulder, her body felt limp.
    “I can’t do this,” Sun-Hee said as Lee struggled to keep her from slipping to her knees. “I can’t go on.”
    She was shivering. Her clothes were soaked. Rain ran down her face like tears. Her straggly black hair was as wild as the darkened tangle of trees and vines around them.
    A stream ran down one side of the track, cutting its way into the trail, curling around rocks and over boulders, washing away sections of the track. The rain pounded the leaves of the trees hanging over the path.
    In the darkness, Lee couldn't see more than a couple of meters. The trail seemed as though it would never end.
    “Please,” she whimpered. “It is too much. I must rest. Let me rest.”
    If they stopped, she would die from hypothermia, Lee was sure of it. He had to get her to the village, but the look in her eyes pleaded for mercy.
    A thicket of bushes provided some relief from the rain.
    Lee helped Sun-Hee sit on a gnarled root beneath an old tree holding the embankment together. He tried to get her out of the worst of the weather, but the rain dripped relentlessly upon them, washing over his eyes and cheeks, running down his neck.
    He stepped back, arching his head toward the sky and allowing the rain to wash over his closed eyes and fall into his mouth. After a few seconds, he cupped his hands, catching what rain he could and drinking, trying to quench his thirst.
    “You should leave me,” she said.
    Lee put his hands gently on either side of her head as he crouched before her, looking deep with her dark eyes as he spoke.
    “Hey, it’s going to be OK. You’ll get through this. In the weeks and months ahead, all this will seem like a bad dream. A year from now, you’ll laugh as you tell this story to your friends