Episode 15: Watering
"Ughhh."
I hadn't been feeling well yesterday, so I'd just lain down and fallen asleep. Maybe that was why, when I woke up in the morning, my back felt a little stiff.
I carefully stretched as I got up, but it felt like every muscle in my body was screaming.
When I used to work in an office, I sat for long hours, so my muscles were always knotted up.
A hunched neck was basically a given, my shoulders were constantly stiff, and my back wasn't in good shape either.
But while being here, I used my body a lot and walked a lot, so I'd lost some weight and felt much lighter.
"I should go for a walk this morning too."
I was planning to take a walk and then eat, but first, to prepare the meal, I took out some bracken from the refrigerator.
I'd dried and stored them earlier; this morning, I was going to make bracken rice.
Before going to sleep yesterday, I'd placed the stiffened bracken in water, and now it was revived and full of life.
I took out a pot, boiled water, and started blanching the bracken.
I stirred it with chopsticks while blanching, and after about thirty minutes, the bracken was cooked perfectly.
I took out a cutting board, drained the bracken, and cut it into uniform pieces.
Then I added soy sauce and sesame oil to the cut bracken and started mixing. The savory aroma of sesame oil stimulated my appetite, and before I knew it, I picked some up and put it in my mouth.
"Mmm."
It was delicious even just like this, but to have an even better meal, I set it aside for a moment.
This time, I took a carrot from the refrigerator and started cutting it into long strips.
I put the carrot and the seasoned bracken together into the rice cooker and pressed the button; later, if I mixed it with soy sauce seasoning, it would be incredibly delicious.
"Shall I go for a walk now?"
****
I changed my clothes and went outside.
I loosened up my body and walked up the path, but unlike usual, Nabi started to follow me.
"Nabi, are you going for a walk too?"
Normally, even when I left the house, Nabi never left the wooden veranda. I'd even prepared a small cat house on the veranda, and whether she knew it was hers or not, she always stayed near it.
I actually thought that was for the best. I'd often seen street cats die.
In the countryside, there are many things fatal to cats: pesticides, rat poison, cars, and so on.
Whenever Mom found a cat collapsed in the fields or on the road, she'd bury it, but perhaps because I was so young when I saw it, it remained quite a shocking memory.
I'd thought it would be better if Nabi stayed inside since the same thing might happen to her, but when she suddenly followed me, I felt uneasy.
"Will you be okay?"
Nabi began to take the lead, as if telling me to follow her now. I found the sight adorable, so I started following her.
With her tail held high, Nabi walked with a swaying gait. As far as I knew, cats didn't particularly like this kind of walking.
Occasionally, there are cats that unusually enjoy walking with their owners; I'd heard that such cats are called "walking cats."
"So you're a walking cat."
I'd thought you were a homebody since you stayed inside all this time, but now you seem quite used to this place.
I followed Nabi while looking around, and rice paddies stretching out below the village came into view.
The fields used for double-cropping still had barley planted, and as Mandeok had explained, there were also places preparing for rice transplanting by tilling with a rotary.
When I'd come last year after Father passed away, the harvest was already over, so it had felt desolate; but seeing it now, the countryside was brimming with life.
I could see people working in the paddies in the distance. Since I'd ordered a tractor now, I'd be able to farm rice next year.
As I was slowly heading down toward the village like that, I suddenly started hearing loud voices.
"Did I tell you not to touch my paddy or not!"
"If you only send water to the Village Head's paddy, how are we supposed to do our rice transplanting!"
I went toward the sound and saw two men raising their voices at each other.
Looking closely, one was the Village Head, and the other was Mr. Go Jeongnam, the husband of Mrs. Jo Yeongsun, the head of the women's association whom I'd met recently.
Curious as to what was happening, I approached, and the Village Head shouted loudly at Mr. Go Jeongnam.
"I'll let our paddy fill with water first and open the waterway for you when I see fit. Just wait! If you dare touch our paddy even once more—no matter what trouble happens then, you'll regret it dearly!"
With those words, the Village Head walked toward his truck parked by the roadside. His eyes met mine.
"Village Head, hello."
I greeted him, but he barely acknowledged me before getting into his car and driving off.
Mr. Jeongnam, who had been watching the Village Head leave, kicked a stone by the roadside and cursed.
"Damn bastard."
I read the room and then quietly approached the fuming man to greet him.
"Hello, sir."
"Yeah."
He was still angry, breathing roughly, and I quietly asked.
"What happened?"
"Yeah, you went to college, so listen and tell me who's in the wrong here."
Mr. Jeongnam explained the situation to me, and in short, they were fighting over water.
The residents of Bonghwang Village mostly focused on rice farming. There was a large stream at the village entrance, making it easy to draw water, but up here, securing water was difficult.
Fortunately, water flowing down from the mountain split into two branches, enough to sustain rice farming. One stream flowed toward Mandeok's and my house paddies, and the other flowed toward the Village Head's and Mr. Jeongnam's paddies.
The problem was that the water flowing toward Mr. Jeongnam's side wasn't very abundant, so they had no choice but to receive water in turns.
First, the Village Head's paddy had to fill with water, then the waterway had to be opened so water could flow to Mr. Jeongnam's side. But the Village Head refused to do so.
A waterway is a passage through which water enters and exits a paddy; you can block or open the entrance with dirt or rocks.
"Why won't the Village Head open it?"
"He says that if the weather stays dry, the paddy might crack, so he needs to soak the ground thoroughly first. But from what I see, it's already sufficient now. He's just doing this because he doesn't want to back down."
There's a saying about watering a dry paddy.
No matter how much water you pour on a paddy cracked like a go board from drought, it's hard to revive it. That's why water management for rice paddies is so important.
The news kept saying the weather was dry, but even to me, the Village Head's paddy was already full of sloshing water. I thought it would be fine to open the waterway.
"The Village Head is being a bit too much."
I took Mr. Jeongnam's side, and he clapped his hands together.
"Right? This kind of thing never happened when I farmed with your father..."
He'd lived like brothers with Father, and when Father came up in conversation, I grew curious.
"Did Father originally farm this paddy?"
"Until the year before last, your father and I farmed together. Last year, the Village Head said he wanted to farm it, so your father yielded. But I never dreamed it would turn out like this."
He said that when he was with Father, they would yield to each other and manage the water well. It was something unimaginable in the city, so I ended up laughing.
I wondered if they really had to fight this much over water, but then again, if water ran short, it would ruin a year's harvest. It was like a salaryman losing their entire annual salary, so I could understand why they were sensitive.
"What are you planning to do now?"
"For now, he says he'll open it soon, so I'll wait until this week. If he still doesn't open it by then... it's going to be an all-out war."
His eyes still blazed with fighting spirit, as his anger had yet to subside. I felt a bit sorry for him.
Then a good idea came to mind.
"Uncle, do you happen to have a water pump?"
"A water pump? I do."
"Then wouldn't it be better to draw water from our paddy instead?"
"From your paddy?"
"Yes, if we connect a long hose and pump it, I think the water would reach here..."
"That'd be great for me. But if you send water all the way here, won't your line run short too?"
He worried about our water, but I had already thought this through.
"I dug a groundwater well when I returned to farming, and there's plenty of water there. We can use that for our paddy."
"Really?"
"Yes. Mandeok is going to plow our paddy, so try talking to him."
Hearing that he could secure water, Mr. Jeongnam smiled broadly, a complete change from before. Seeing that made me feel good too.
"Then, if you use our water, could I ask you for a favor in return?"
"A favor?"
At the word "favor," Mr. Jeongnam, who had been cheerful just moments ago, tensed up and swallowed hard.
There's no such thing as a free lunch. Since I'd solved his problem, it was only natural to receive compensation.
"Please give me some kimchi."
"Kimchi?"
"Yes, the kimchi at my house is almost gone."
I like cooking and I'm good at it, but kimchi is a dish that takes too much work to make alone.
I'd thought about just buying it, but I remembered the head of the women's association saying to come by if I needed kimchi.
But I felt too sorry to go and simply ask for it.
I'd thought it would be better to help the uncle like this and receive kimchi in return. Mr. Jeongnam laughed heartily.
"Hahaha, kimchi? Don't you worry. I'll give you some fresh kimchi, and I'll tell my wife to make some geotjeori too."
Seeing the uncle so happy put me in a good mood too. Besides, when they'd drilled the well, they'd said there was a lot of water, so I figured sharing this much would be fine.
"Thank you."
****
"Hello."
"Hey, Minwoo. It's me."
Mandeok called in the evening. He must have met and talked with Mr. Jeongnam.
"You told him to use water from the paddy?"
"Yeah. Since we can fill our paddy with water from the well, I told him to go ahead."
"How much water is there?"
"They said 80 tons before. Shouldn't that be enough?"
"80 tons? That's a lot. That should be enough."
"I should have asked you first. Sorry. But the uncle seemed to be in a tough spot, so I wanted to help."
I asked for Mandeok's understanding, and he said it was fine.
"No, it's your water anyway... We village folks should help each other in hard times. Anyway, could I borrow your truck tomorrow to haul some sand?"
"Truck?"
"I need it for something, but our family truck is in the shop right now..."
I checked the calendar and didn't have any particular need for the car then.
"Yeah, I don't think it'll be a problem. Take it and use it."
"Thanks. I'll drive it carefully and bring it back."
"Yeah, but if you scratch it, I'll charge you for repairs."
"Don't worry. That won't happen. And that car is old and already covered in scratches... don't try to pin one on me."
I hung up with Mandeok and lay still, thinking.
I'd been worried that if Mandeok said no, I might have caused unnecessary trouble. I felt relieved.
And personally, I liked newly made kimchi even more than ordinary fresh kimchi, and since Mr. Jeongnam had said he'd give me geotjeori, I was looking forward to it.
I imagined wrapping thick slices of boiled pork with geotjeori, and naturally, my mouth watered.
"This won't do. I'll have to buy some meat tomorrow."