讀書筆記 dream child ( East and West)

I read “ Dream Child ” , the last article of book “East and West ”.

An American soldier had sexual intercourse with a girl in South Korea and then returned to the United States. The girl wrote letter to him informing him that she had given birth to a son and attached photos. When he went to South Korea to pick up the child, he found that the girl had not given birth, and the child in the photo was someone else's child. After returning to the United States, he told his fiancee that, and the fiancée believed they should bring back this dream child.

 1) (A) Faye asked Martin Baynes to watch an opera “ Madame Butterfly”.  Faye, twenty years old, she had lived in the shelter. Martin thirty years old, he had been found on the steps of a church not more than two weeks old. The minister had picked him up and had taken him to the orphanage. When he was sixteen , he left the orphanage. He worked with the minister’s father, Roger Walters, hardware business in Philadelphia. He served two years in Korea .

Four years ago, he returned Korea for a month’s vacation. He had met a girl only a week before he had been discharged from the service. However, he had found no trace of the girl he remembered. Instead there had been another girl , Minyi, with whom he spent six days .When he came home again he began to fall in love with Faye.

In the brief days spent with Minyi, a child had been born, a son, whom he had never seen. But Minyi had sent photographs over the years. Now more than three years old .He had named the boy Marty.

He was a solemn chap. The boy, his son, whom he had not been able to explain to Faye, he must explain before ask her to marry him. How could he explain to her that which he could scarcely understand in himself .He felt the old vague agony sweep over him .

Martin and Faye arrived at the theater. Martin found himself drawn into the opera. He felt a return of the old agony. If Minyi had been like Madame Butterfly? Minyi was too untaught , too poor , but she had taken care of the boy, she had been a good mother.He owed her much.

(B)Two weeks later Martin was in Korea. He recognized Minyi’s house.He stepped into the door. He asked Minyi : where is Marty? Minyi said: He died ten days. Martin shouted at her: I don’t believe you,you’ve hidden him. where are his clothes? She said: I give away his friend - very nice boy-  poor mother like me, American GI father go Stateside.-he no send money-

“Did no one see him dead?”

“My girl friend”.

“Where is his grave”? “ No grave, just take away”

He went back to the hotel and sobbed. Then he sat down to think: Perhaps Minyi was still lying. Perhaps her girl friend would tell him the truth. He must talk to someone else who had seen Marty when he was a baby. Certain of death.

In the morning, he took a cab, arrived in the lane he had visited yesterday. A few children played.They were all older than Marty would have been. There beside Minyi’s door a small boy in a red sweater he had sent Marty, playing in the mud. He walked toward him. He stopped and looked into the child’s face. Of course he knew the face. It was the one he watched change from a baby to a boy. At that moment, a door opened, a young woman came out.

“Where is his mother?” he demanded.

The woman said: “ me his mother”

“ Minyi is not his mother?”

 “ Minyi no gotta boy. You her husband? She take my boy for picture to you. She too poor, sick, no catch GI”

Marty was only a dream child. He would have to tell Faye about him. He turned away . He must go home. He heard the woman’s voice: “ You take this boy, fifty dollar.”

(C) He and Faye were sitting in their favorite restaurant. He had told her baldly, hiding nothing. She had listened in silence.  Could she understand? He asked: “ Faye, do you will marry me”? Faye said calmly:“ Of course. Because I understand how it happened. Do you think we should leave the little boy there — with a woman who doesn’t want him? On our honeymoon we’ll go and bring him home.”

He gave a great sigh. The load slipped away. Marty, the child who  never was, was lost forever in the shadows of non existence.

2) I think: Many US military personnel stationed abroad have had sexual intercourse with local women and have left behind illegitimate children. Many women sell themselves out because of poverty. Many illegitimate children are discriminated against. This is a sad and painful thing.

This article is in sharp contrast to the previous one “To Whom a Child Is Born”.