교육학박사 김한중교수의 Attribution

Imprisoned

Imprisoned

Flowers got bloomed and fell even in Chill-on’s devastated shelter.

Like that, four seasons have passed.

People treated Chill-on as if he was there since the beginning, and Chill-on himself became a member of the town naturally.

He was no longer poor, neither inordinate person.

Whenever there were parties in the town, people took the food, that were not much different from rest over, to Chill-on.

Just like how my mother told me, Chill-on emptied the bowl like a dog and just put out the vessels.

One day, three to four threatening-look men came to Chill-on’s house without a notice.   

 

“Are you Chill-on?”    

“Who are you?”    

“You should come with us.”    

“Where the hell do I have to go? This is where I live.”  

  

“Cut the chatter and do what you are told to do.”    

“I ain’t going, damn it.”    

“Damn it? Did you just said damn it to me? I can’t take it any more. Hey, put this guy in the car.”    

“I said I ain’t going.”    

However, Chill-on was too small to resist against those three strong and young men.

He looked like a elderly person with a his hair touched with grey.    

After such war-like incident took place, people were curious about who they were, why did they took Chill-on, and where did Chill-on go.    

“How can that beggar stay in the middle of the town, when our town is chosen to be so-called ‘the advanced town?’ To cure his madness, I sent him to rehabilitation facility.”

   

Village foreman, who was tall and even had that dangerous look in his eye, talked with confident, as if he did something that should be praised.    

“I mean he seemed like he was crazy and digged a hole through flat-stone, but he didn’t do any harm to town people. Why did he have to be sent to rehabilitation facility, such place where people become crippled?”    

People who knew foreman’s wicked and unabashed plot in his mind chewed him out.   

 

“Then why don’t you take him and breed him? It’s so shameful to live in the same town with that mad man. Anyway, he gets subsidy from the government, so there is no problem with sending him to the rehabilitation facility.”    

He then left the place while spitting on the pavement, with showing anger indicating the  he would do harm to one who go against him.    

“Passbook? Subsidy? Do you think we don’t know what you are thinking? You think we don’t know that you used up Chill-on’s money to build a pigsty?”    

All the people in the town knew foreman’s dishonest action, but they were too threatened to speak out, due to village foreman’s eye full of anger.

Anyway, all of sudden, Chill-on was taken like a dog and was sent to place that nobody knew. 

On the clothesline located in Chill-on’s house yard, only his underwear, that was originally white and now is hard to even guess what the original color was, was quivered in the wind.

For a while, people talked about incident that happened so suddenly, whenever they gathered up.

The conversation wasn’t about Chill-on’s life in rehabilitation facility, but was to point out the illegal action of village foreman, where he took the passbook that government subsidy came in and used it for himself.

“It seems like someone is arguing about me handling Chill-on’s passbook. If you have something to tell me, then speak up in front of me. No matter how busy I am, I visit Chill-on once in every week. Do you know how hard that is? And how can I visit him with empty hands? So I bought something everytime to give him with my own money. I don’t want an encouragement buy you guys shouldn’t talk down on me.”    

Village foreman praised himself and swore at the same time, with his murderous look for people to not go against him.

After his speech, he left the place.    

Nobody could neither talk against the village foreman nor report him to the police for his immoral and senseless action, and just satisfied with whispering behind.

Village foreman also wasn’t from this town.

All his family members were born and raised in this town, but left the town with departure of circus troupe, wandered around various towns, and came back when his father passes away.

 

As if he tried to pay back the poor treatment that he received in the past, he began to madly scrape up the money.

The only thing that he focused on was earning money; he had to grab even a cent, no matter what kind of harm that it will cause to others.

Due to his grimness and murderous look, people gave up to speak out even before they start the conversation with him.

Thus, it is right to say that village foreman got selected not because of his talent, but because people got scared from his murderous look.    

Time flied. People no longer was curious about Chill-on nor worried about him, as if he never existed before.

His shelter was now slightly leaned, and was full of grass that was never taken care of.             

People no longer cared about village foreman pocketing Chill-on’s subsidy, since it wasn’t their money.

People only felt sympathy towards Chill-on, but even that got blurred away.