Blog

“So, what is this I hear about you opening an orphanage?” Auntie Dan O confronted Ni Na half an hour later while Ae Ri led the first girl into the house to take a bath.

Ni Na faced her beloved servant.  “Dan O, would you – and Chung – be willing to sleep at a different house from now on?”

Narrowing her eyes at her young mistress, the older woman asked, “What’s this?  What exactly are you up to, Choi Ni Na?”

“Look at them, auntie.”  Ni Na tilted her head to gesture towards the group of children huddling together in front of Beom Sook’s extra residence.  “They have no one.  They have nothing,” she whispered.   “They’ve been living in an abandoned shack in the woods.  Starving to death.  Their families were wiped out by a plague a few months ago.”

“A plague?” the older woman quizzed her.  “What plague?”

“I do not know.  I’m wondering if it was confined to their village.  Perhaps something local.  Contaminated water, perhaps?  They fled here after their families died.”

“Poor mites,” her servant muttered.

“You see?  They need us, auntie.”

The woman squinted at her again.  “And just what do you mean by that?  ‘They need us.’  Just what exactly do they need?”

“They need a home.  And food.  And clothes.  And supervision.  And an education, of course.”

“Back up.  Supervision?  Are you thinking of moving them into your house?”

“I was,” Ni Na admitted reluctantly.  Then her face lit up as she smiled suddenly.  “But then Beom Sook offered to let me use one of his extra houses.”

The woman’s mouth fell open.  “He what?”

Ni Na bobbed her head up and down.  “Oh, auntie!  Isn’t he just wonderful?” she breathed in adoration. 

“Ah.  I’m beginning to see.  Supervision.”  She scoffed.  “Someone is going to have to watch them night and day.  Surely, not you!”  Her eyes grew wide.  “You’re a single woman!  You can’t live alone in a house with twelve kids.”

“Twenty-four.”

The woman gaped at her.  “Twenty-four?!”  

She glanced back at the group of children as though checking to see if she had miscounted.  But no way that she reckoned was she able to find more than eleven kids standing in front of her.

“The other half are at the orphanage.  With Beom Sook.”

Dan O searched her face.  “What do you mean to do, milady?”

Ni Na smiled at her.  “During the day I’m going to set up a school in the orphanage.  Two classrooms.  I’ll teach the girls while Beom Sook teaches the boys.”

“And at night?”

“Well, I am looking for a wise married couple to stay with the children then.”

Dan O frowned.  “That’s where Chung and I come in, isn’t it?”

Ni Na bobbed her head.  “I am hoping so.  Yes!  Is there any way that the two of you would consider becoming their night parents?”

The woman sighed and shook her head as she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose with her fingers.  “You always were bringing the strays home, weren’t you?  Forget trying to patch up the broken children too.”  She chuckled affectionately.  And ruefully.  “But, dear girl, you have taken on a mammoth project today.”  She eyeballed her.  “Is the grand lord truly in on this adventure with you?”

“Oh, yes!  He’s giving me the house.”

“He’s giving you the house?” she parroted incredulously.  

The man must be besotted with her dear Ni Na.

The girl bobbed her head.  “Yes!”

“And who’s to pay for all the food?  And firewood?  And clothes?  And shoes?  And school supplies?”

“I will.”

“Milady, I’m not sure that your father will be approving those expenses.”

“He doesn’t have to.  I have my own income.”

Dan O scrutinized her for a moment.  “From the pottery?”

Ni Na nodded.

“Is it enough?”

“It will be.”

“And when the boys hit a growth spurt, and your food bill triples?”

“I will make it work,” Ni Na asserted forcefully.

And Dan O, who knew the young lady best, sighed deeply.  There was no stopping her young miss when she got a notion stuck in her head.  Especially a notion to help someone.  It was best to simply support her.  And help her plans to flow in the proper direction.