章節 1: Chapter One: A Secret Kept Safe
Sabra Chandler walked into the bank and stood in the lobby for a moment looking down at the safe deposit key her uncle had given her. It had come as a complete surprise to hear from her uncle Robert after so many years…
Earlier That Day
Robert Chandler waited in a downtown coffee shop called "The Perks". It was a trendy shop that sold only special blends of coffee by the cup. He glanced out the large window at the foot traffic. The last time he had been in town was to attend his brother's funeral. That was six years ago, now he was back to see his niece and deliver the key to Randal Chandler's safe deposit box. The taxi pulled up in traffic and a young woman stepped out and headed to the front door of the shop.
Robert was surprised by her! She looked like a high school student and not a 34-year-old professional public relations manager. Sabra pushed open the door and looked around. When she spotted him her smile lit up the room. She came over, "Uncle Rob, how are you?"
He rose, and he hugged her, giving her back a light pat, "Hey kiddo, you're looking good!"
They sat. "I was surprised to hear you were in town," Sabra said. She waved to the young woman behind the counter and looked at Robert. "How's everyone?"
Robert smiled. "Everyone is doing fine," he sipped his now tepid coffee. "Russell sends his best."
Sabra nodded, her expression gave nothing away. Robert recognized that look from his brother, Randal. He could never tell what Randal was thinking and it was the same with his daughter. Her demeanor was friendly but placid. Her cool grey eyes were snapping with humor and that was the only difference between his brother and his niece. "I heard Russ and Elaine had patched up things between them."
Robert shrugged his shoulders. "You know Elaine, she'll make it work."
Sabra nodded. When her iced coffee order arrived, she grinned in appreciation. "Thanks!" she pointed to Robert's cup, "Want a refill?"
Robert shook his head. "No, have you been by the cemetery?"
Sabra shook her head. "Not in a while, everything looks okay?"
"Yeah, I don't know why I went," He responded. "It's a morbid place."
Sabra smiled understandingly. "I know, it's just too tailored and reminds me of the cemetery suburbs."
Robert chuckled lightly. The Chandlers all had a dark sense of humor at times. He liked Sabra and he had that in common. "The reason I'm here is I received a notice in the mail from Randal's bank. He had a safe deposit box. I was the contact for some reason, so I'm handing it over to you."
"You know what he had in the box?" Sabra asked.
"No idea," Robert replied. "He had the box for a long time, he'd been paying it from the time you were ten years old."
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small manila envelope. "The key is in there, along with the paperwork the bank sent. I've signed off on it giving you access to the box. I don't think it'll be anything surprising."
"Dad wasn't one for secrets or surprises," Sabra replied taking the envelope. "But I'm curious what he'd put away under lock and key for so long."
Robert glanced out the window again. "You okay here, kiddo?"
"I am for now," Sabra answered. "But I'm ready for an adventure soon."
Robert chuckled lightly. "Well, maybe whatever's in that box will help you start your adventure."
"Maybe so," She said around the straw she sipped from, "How long will you be here?"
"My flight is in the morning," Robert said. "I'm going to make a loop through town and head on back to Missouri. You think you might come out soon?"
Sabra shrugged and sipped her iced coffee. "Maybe around Thanksgiving?"
Robert nodded. Holidays were still difficult for her. They were hard on him too…
She went to the bank manager's desk, and he looked up and smiled, "Ms. Chandler, it's good to see you. How can I help you?"
"I'm here to examine the contents of a safe deposit box," she said and handed him the key and the documents her uncle had given to her earlier that day.
He looked at the paperwork and handed her the key and papers back. "Come with me and we'll pull the box for you."
She followed the manager down the marble corridor and through a set of heavy metal gates, into the cool vault. There were rows and rows of deposit boxes with numbers printed on oval brass plates. Below were larger boxes. He stopped at one of the larger boxes and pointed to it, "Here's your box, Ms. Chandler. If you'd allow me, I'll open it and take it to a private room where you can examine the contents without being disturbed."
"Thank you," Sabra replied. She handed the key to him, and he unlocked the door and pulled out a metal box that was the size of a milk crate. He slid the box out and carried it to a small room with a table and chair inside. He set the box down and handed her the deposit key.
He closed the door behind him, and she lifted the lid of the metal box and peered inside. In the movies, there would be stacks of cash, bond certificates, a dozen passports in various names along with a gun and a letter. But that was the movies, not real life. There was a rectangular wooden box, a document folder, a small photo album, and a letter addressed to her. It was in her father's handwriting, she stared at the printing on the outside of the envelope.
It was not sealed, the flap was tucked in, she opened it and pulled the letter out. It was written on a yellow legal pad and was several pages long.
Dearest Sabra,
By the time you see this letter, you'll be old enough to take on the request I'm about to ask of you. I know you'll do your best to find Shin Chol Sun's family. Chol Sun gave me this prototype lens to bring home to the States and hang onto until he contacted me. Years have gone by, and he never got in touch with me.
I tried to find Shin Chol Sun, but I could never find him. I tried to find his wife, Shin Na-Ri, but I could not find any trace of her or Chol Sun's boy.
I know you only have vague but good memories of when we visited South Korea to see Chol Sun and his wife, you were only four years old when we visited. We had a great time, and we took pictures of that day. Chol Sun and I spoke in private that day and that's when he gave me the eagle's eye to hang onto. He was in a financial bind, but he didn't want the eagle's eye to fall into the wrong hands. He specifically told me to never hand the eagle's eye over if anyone other than his son contacted me and asked for the return of the lens.
In the deposit box is a photo album with pictures we took that day at the park. When you look at the photos I think you'll remember the picnic we had under that big tree.
Something was bothering Chol Sun, and I think I should have pressed him, but Chol Sun was always one to keep things bottled up inside. I often wondered if his son would be like him or more like Na-Ri.
Let me tell you about the eagle's eye. The lens is a prototype camera lens, the first of its kind and while I had this lens, I applied and got it patented. Chol Sun and I worked on the lens while I was stationed in Korea, but he was the genius behind the development of the lens. So, he has been credited as the primary inventor of the Eagle's Eye Lens.
My request is, should you ever return to South Korea, try to find Shin Chol Sun's family or his son. The return of the eagle's eye to them could help them financially, or maybe just bring good memories to the family.
All my love, Dad
Sabra folded the letter and opened the photo album. The pictures were black and white and as she studied each picture, memories of that time came to her. They were fleeting memories of warm sunlight, laughter, running through the tall grass, and the rough bark of the tree they had picnicked under. The group picture was of her mother and father holding her high on his shoulder. They stood with a Korean couple. Chol Sun was holding a toddler in his arms. All were smiling except for Chol Sun, he looked grim.
She opened the wooden box to look at the lens. It looked different from the normal camera lens. There was a folded letter in the lid, written in a script she could not even begin to decipher. She unfolded the paper and examined the neat lettering. At the bottom were two signatures, Shin Chol Sun and Randal Edward Chandler. Sabra wondered what this document was, but she could not even guess. She carefully placed the document back, closed the lid, and secured the latches. The document folder had the patent certificate and all the paperwork. There was a folded mechanical drawing that her father had drawn and signed with Shin Chol Sun and Randal Chandler printed neatly as the designers of the Eagle's Eye. It was an impressive piece of workmanship! Sabra was proud of her father and of his friend Shin Chol Sun!
She took everything with her when she left, and closed the deposit box. She would keep the Eagle's Eye with her along with all the paperwork and the photo album. One day she would go to Korea, and she would find the son – one day.
章節 2: Chapter Two: Have Passport Will Travel
ONE YEAR LATER
The phone in her office jingled in the style of an old-fashioned telephone. She strolled down the hallway to her office and looked down at the digital readout. The VIP division of the public relations firm, Pinnacle, Inc. had called again. She sat down behind the desk with her tea and glanced at the clock on her desktop. Twenty minutes until she went online with her other online classmates. They assembled in a virtual lecture hall with Professor Jin, who taught creative writing and a series of other literary classes through the University of California.
Sabra Chandler was now more than ten months into online creative writing courses and eight months out from work. She had collapsed from overwork and was working from home taking care of minor accounts on a part-time basis. Once she had settled in at home she had searched around several universities and found exactly what she was looking for and registered for a core curriculum in creative writing. The first class was short story writing. She registered for the last open slot of a highly popular professor who had immigrated to the United States more than thirty years before and started teaching Asian Literature but eventually developed a following of creative writers who enjoyed his teaching methods.
At the end of the first class in the series, Sabra had already decided to register for all of Professor Jin's classes. At that same time, Professor Jin noticed Sabra. Her writing had touched him deeply and he immediately put her in touch with his nephew in Korea.
Shin SooYun was born and from the second semester of her creative writing courses, she and "Director Jin" were formally introduced. An online correspondence began between her and Director Jin. By the end of the semester, their email debates were a regular occurrence.
Professor Jin and his nephew had begun to correspond again as well, and they now had someone in common that allowed them to rekindle a relationship that had been severed when his brother had died.
Classes continued and the new year came and with the new semester, Director Jin began making inquiries about the talented student in Professor Jin's online classes who was now going by the name of Shin SooYun. The correspondence between Director Jin and SooYun had developed into something more than professional opinion or literary critique – although it was that too. Now there were philosophical and sometimes friendly debates over all sorts of topics.
Sabra and Director Jin developed a deeper online friendship. It seemed to frequently cross into an area that both would skirt around. Always one or the other would rein in just short of confessing having deeper feelings other than friendship! The chats and emails were always interesting, and always exasperating! His answers or responses to her messages sometimes took weeks. He would never explain his absences, just pick up where he had left off in the dialog. Then there would be regular messages for a few weeks then he would disappear again. Finally, Sabra had just begun to accept this kind of correspondence and when the messages started up again, she would also pick up where they had left off.
Sabra began making definite moves toward resigning from Pinnacle. She was not sure what she would do, but she was finally feeling confident in her ability to write and storyboarding. She was not sure if it was screenplay writing, or in production that she was interested but she was ready to explore!
Sabra logged into her student portal and saw that in her inbox folder were her revised episodes of a screenplay that still had no title. It did not even have a working title and worried her that she could not develop a suitable one! She downloaded the three files that constituted three episodes of the screenplay. There was a message from the "Director" which she would read after class. From Professor Jin was a comment that said, "SooYun, Let's talk after class."
She smiled. The professor had dubbed her 'SooYun' almost immediately after speaking in the video chat room designed for student conferences with the silver-haired Korean academic. He had a quick wit and a smile that flashed in his merry black eyes. He spoke perfect English but tended to mix Korean phrases and English, especially when speaking to SooYun. Most of the time they were in a chatroom. There was a four-hour time difference between where she lived in South Carolina and where the professor lived in California, and it was not always convenient for them to video chat except on special occasions.
The class started, the video feed opened on her computer monitor full screen, and those in her class slowly appeared as round dots of color with their chat handle or last name. If anyone had questions, they could type them in, and they would get transmitted to Professor Jin's classroom computer. It was almost like attending the large lecture hall with the other students. Sabra considered herself far too old to sit in a classroom, she preferred online classes when possible. The local university in her town had online options except for exams and she showed up on exam day looking like any other college student.
When the class was over, she kept the chat option open and went on and began working on the suggested revisions. Then the chime sounded, and she shifted her mouse to wake her screen that had fallen idle.
Prof Jin: SooYun, How are you today?
SooYun: I am well. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I am enjoying this semester!
Prof Jin: That makes me happy. Before we go further, I must tell you what I have done. And hope you forgive me.
SooYun: What could you have possibly done to need my forgiveness?
Prof Jin: The details are posted to your special assignment folder. It is a writing job.
SooYun: A job? Professor Jin, tell me about this job!
Prof Jin: I have submitted the project you have been working on, and it has been reviewed by a panel of screenplay writers and accepted!
SooYun: I am not sure I understand. Is this really a job?
Prof Jin: Yes, there was a panel of writers who reviewed your screenplay, and they had positive things to say about your work. It has been accepted. There is also a contest of sorts going on. There are three entrants selected for the contest. Before I forget, do you have a passport?
SooYun: A PASSPORT?!
Prof Jin: Yes, you will need a passport.
SooYun: Where am I going?
Prof Jin: Busan, South Korea.
SooYun: WHAT?
[video conference requested by Professor Jin]
The video camera over Sabra's computer monitor began to flash. She sat back in her office chair and clicked the "OK" button to open the video call. Professor Jin Cho Sol's face appeared. His silver hair was mussed, and it did not improve as he tried to smooth it down. "SooYun, do not be angry with me," he said as he moved in closer to the camera. His face filled the screen. "But you need this – this is what you have been waiting for!"
She opened her mouth to protest then closed it. She opened her mouth again and then leaned forward slightly. He waited. It was what she had been waiting for! "Professor Jin, when do I leave?"
He sat back. A beautiful beaming grin spread over his face. He clapped his hands together. "SooYun, thank you!" He laughed happily. "I will send you the itinerary!" He leaned toward his video camera, "You leave tomorrow!" He ended the transmission when she shouted in alarm! He laughed in delight. He lifted his eyes heavenward. He prayed to all the deities that what he had set in motion would work out to a satisfactory end.
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