Red Oak II - Part 2
The family of animals followed around Sumi. She always attracted animals wherever she went. She seemed to know how to get them come to her at will. I don't know how she does it, but as long as I love Sumi, I should be able to get near animals, too. Growing up, I used to get bitten or attacked by dogs. Since I met Sumi, such things never happened to me. Therefore, it's obvious that Sumi protects me from animals, too. She is just like Tarzan in the jungle. Wait, does that make me Jane?
While I was daydreaming myself as Jane being safe from attacks of jungle animals, Sumi was still exchanging vigorous greetings with the cat. Then I noticed the turkey twins slowly disappearing behind the barn. It was clearly the sign of a suspicious activity which was about to happen. Are they going to transform now? Ha! I immediately followed them behind the barn. But, there was no sign of them anywhere but the yellow leaves fallen on the green grass. I kept searching for the trace of the turkey twins in vain. All I found was the sculpture of a fairy tale cottage in the middle of a big grass yard. I was surprised to find this space behind the barn. So I stood there inhaling the aroma of rich soil and grass for a while.
Just when I thought to myself that turkeys didn't matter any more, I saw someone in blue shirt walking out from a tree shadow across the grass field. The same blue as the head of the turkey! And a pair of blue jean! One turkey for the top and the other for the bottom. Two turkeys put together, that's just about the size of a person! The time is 5:50 PM. It was time for castle guards to go home, and enough time for the spell to break. The man in blue shirt strode toward me just like what the animals did before. Then he stopped right in front of me just like the turkey twins.
Then he put a pipe in his mouth. Something he couldn't do while being a turkey. Pooof! He blew out a puff, then glanced at me. Is he trying to suggest that he can talk now?
"It's really nice here." I spoke to him first.
Turkey man nodded without a word. He might need more time since he just turned human.
"Where are you from?"
"New Yo…, no, I mean, I'm from Korea, traveling on the route 66." Phew, I almost died in the next scene.
"Nice trip. I live here."
"Yes, I know, I've been watching you the whole time."
"What?"
"I mean…., oh, never mind." He must not remember it when he was a turkey.
Some awkward moments passed and I spoke again.
"My name is Jingoogk."
"I'm Lowell. Nice to meet you."
"Lowell? You're Lowell?"
"Yes…?"
I'm sorry to say, but I wasn't thinking that Lowell was a living person. Why was that? I don't know. I might have thought that the story Sumi read to me was from a long time ago. 'Lowell created the village and the descendants are running it.' That's how I understood it I guess. Anyway, I was very happy to meet him in real person. I had so much questions to ask him including the work on stone pavement in the front of the village. Because I was silent in my own stupor and oblivion, Lowell walked away from me and toward Sumi who was still playing with the cat.
"Take him with you."
"Huh? Is this your cat?"
"Yes, he is, and this is my home."
"Ah, you must be Mr. Lowell Davis."
Sumi obviously knew that Lowell was alive and well. Why did I have such weird thought? Strange...
* * *
Fences, eaves, gallery and low stonewalls ran intricately from a house to house, front door to a garden, storage house to barn and the smithy to stable and chicken coop. Each aged more than two generations. There were someone's sculptures adorning in-between the buildings. It was the result of one man's work spanning a long time. Lowell took us into the world that was two generations before us that he revived himself. It was way before when stuff made in factories engulfed every space in our life, machines finished off creating things instead of human hands. It was the time in the world when human and nature worked hand in hand.
Lowell gave us a quick tour of the ground and went inside a house through a low gallery and eaves. There were many drawings and paintings of villages and towns. He showed us one of the pictures and said it was the village we were in right now. We didn't see this part, yet. Does that mean there are much more to this place than we'd seen so far? I felt an urge to see everything that was here. Can we see it in time? It seemed unlikely. I tried to measure the possibilities in more realistic sense. Even if we look around until dark we couldn't cover everything. The sun would set soon and it would take more than an hour to look for a place to camp. To come back here from the campground, we would lose several hours traveling back and forth. It'd be nice to find a place to sleep within few minutes of distance. Oh a whim, I asked Lowell if we could camp anywhere on the grass or an empty lot. We wouldn't even mind the barn, either. It'd be just like in the movies.
Without hesitation, Lowell told us to stay at the general store building in the village. There's a bathroom in the back so it would be more convenient for us he said. Then, he invited us into his home and showed his artworks in the studio. He then introduced us his wife Rose. After showing us the building we would be staying, we planned to meet again after dinner. There was a small bridge between Lowell's house and the general store building we would be staying at.
The general store building looked just like buildings in Western movies. It looked older than a hundred years. We were completely ecstatic at this point. We not only saved a great deal of time, but were about to embark on a full 24 hours of adventure in this awesome place. Sumi was already excited about the prospect of seeing a beautiful early morning scenery. I got excited about the sunset. It would be beautiful all hours of the day and night here. Even if it rained or snowed, or rained and snowed all at the same time, it would've been great. We were so grateful to Lowell and Rose for providing us a place to stay. Now not having to go anywhere else tonight, we went straight out to explore this amazing Red Oak II until it was pitch black.
Pssst... did you know Jingoogk's blog is also in Korean?
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