I Feel Vindicated

While taking classes at Ewha, I rarely ate lunch at the school cafeteria. The food was gone and the kitchen cleaned by the time I got back from school, at around 1:30, so I would pack along a pbj and two hard boiled eggs, when I remembered to. When I didn't remember, I would stop on the way to work for kimbop, a delightfully bland and inoffensive food. Today, however, I broke that pattern, taking my repast at the kindergarten. As I went through the buffet line, I took perhaps a larger helping of kimche than ever before, for time takes rather fiendish pleasure in counterbalancing those lessons that experience has so painstakingly taught. I knew it was hot, of course, "But certainly," thought I, "It can't be all that my memory trumped it up to be." So, rather than the cautious nibbles I've been accustomed to, my chopsticks raised a Korean-sized, dripping red cabbage leaf to my mouth. The first thought that raced through my startled mind was, "Just keep eating. Don't think about it. Just keep eating." One hand clenched into a fist, and tears swam in my dilated eyes. And I kept on chewing. A pose of casual nonchalance impossible to strike, I bent my head, clapped my unclenched hand to my burning mouth, and writhed on the edge my seat. It was a few moments before I could bring my hand from my mouth to the glass of water before me. I raised it to my lips, but as soon as the water touched my tongue, the pain exploded. The cook, bless her!, noticed my fierce discomfort, and rushed over with a piece of cheese. I took and gratefully laid it on my swollen tongue. I let it sit there, not chewing, just taking relief in its beautiful, smooth coolness. I still hurt all over, for quite a while (in fact, when I caught my reflection in a mirror, nearly a half an hour later, my lips were still a swollen, fiery hot red), but that soothed the worst of it, and I was able to open my eyes and relax my clenched toes. The half dozen kids I was sitting next to were eyeing me bemusedly. Then Raymond laughed, "Lis Teacher! Watch!" He dug his spoon into the kimche and shoved a dripping spoon full into his mouth. I was as amazed as I pretended to be, but laughed a few minutes later to see, from the corner of my eye, a small, red-faced boy chugging down a glass of cool water. Somehow, I feel vindicated.