Chapter 5

“So your mom’s job in Atlanta is permanent?” Kevin Coris asked.

He was listening to Denise Robert’s phone conversation; she had just said good-bye to her mother.

“Yeah, sweetie, she’s being promoted to an upper management position. And this affects us, now. She wants to sell our house and buy one in Atlanta. You know, we’ve been thinking of going to college in Atlanta since we’ve got those great college offers and the best ones were in Atlanta. I know that you could go to college anywhere you want, but living apart from Mom these last six months, well, I miss her lots. And she misses us.”

“You know, darling, that there’s nothing that ties you here now; me neither, especially since Aunt Helene met Ryan and she’s talking seriously about moving in with him. I told her to go for it; she shouldn’t be concerned about me or where I’ll live when she sells her house. Would you like to go to Atlanta and finish high school there?”

“Oh, darling! Thank you!” she cried and hugged him. “That would be super.”

“The idea of moving away really appeals; you know how I’m so uncomfortable with how we’ve gotten all involved with helping the kids do the damn Program and I can’t stand the idea of doing that for another whole year. But remember about what I said about the possibility that you’d have to do the Program in Atlanta, if they don’t accept your completing it here.”

“I know, sweetie. But the idea isn’t as terrifying to me now; besides, if I don’t want to do it, you’ll get me out of it, right? Using your superpowers?” she giggled.

“Well, sure. With what I know now, there’s no way anyone could force you to do it now. And we’ll need to be sure we keep our advanced standing for college, but I’m positive that we can make sure that we can. Okay, call her back and tell her what we decided. You and I can pack up the house—your mom won’t have to travel here to help—and if she agrees, I can ask Bob to handle the sale too. We can move right after school ends; is that okay?”

“Yes! Yes!” She was already dialing.

About a week later, when Kevin returned home, he found a letter from the State Department; when he opened it, he was amazed. He looked up as Denise came into the room.

“Denise! Look, I got this letter—it’s from State, and see, it’s signed by the Secretary of State. She asks me if I would participate in this high school scholar exchange program in South Korea for three months this fall—actually beginning in mid-August. They selected students who had achieved some form of honor in their schools or communities, and she says with my presidential commendation, my mother’s career, and my knowledge of Korea and the language, that I was one of their top choices.”

“Wow, that’s quite an honor! You gonna say yes?”

“Well, that’s up to you—would you go with me? I wouldn’t want to be apart, and I’m sure that with your background, they’d let you go too. The president gave you that award, after all.”

“Well, what could I do if I went? I don’t know...”

“Sweetie, I don’t know myself what we’d supposed to do. I guess they’ll tell us. There’s a phone number to call, so I’ll call tomorrow. You’re really good with languages—”A”s in Spanish for two years, so why not take a crash course in Korean—we’ll try to find one in Atlanta, and I’ll speak to you only in Korean too. I’ll bet you can pick up a little by then.”

“Well, okay, I suppose. I don’t want to lose my advanced standing for college credit, though.”

“Yeah, there’s an attachment with the letter and looks like they’ve thought about that. It says we’d be taking classes that will be matched to our senior high school programs so that we’d fit right in when we returned. Their high-school program is really intense; way more rigorous than here, ‘cause the kids have to take these comprehensive exams to get into good universities. If we go there, we wouldn’t lose any ground. It’s great prep for college study, I was told when I lived there.”

“Let’s see what they tell you when you call, then, and I’ll decide. Meanwhile, we’ve got to get back to packing. And I need to call Mom and see how her house-hunting is going.” she replied.

Later, Denise reported on her conversation with her mother.

“So she’s found this place; it just came on the market. It’s a two-story Victorian on the north side of Atlanta, close to a local high school and not far from Avery University, but it’s over a hundred years old and needs work. She was interested in it because we’d be living there and it was the only reasonable house she saw that has a nice kitchen and living area and has the bedroom space she wants. She has the idea that when we moved away, she could rent some bedrooms to college kids since it’s close to several of the colleges there. It’s got five bedrooms and three baths and the second floor has a kind of a large sitting room, she said, and the second floor actually has two stairways going up to it. She had a co-worker who knows about construction look at it and he told her it’s a great deal, so she put a deposit on it.”

“Wow, ok—hmmm, a big house. Say, how’d you like to drive down there tomorrow for the weekend? We can pack like demons to make up for that time, but I’ve got the germ of an idea. I’ll tell you after I think about it some more, okay?” Kevin asked.

That weekend they drove to Atlanta, leaving right after school. Kevin, Denise, and her mom Kasey, went to see the house on Saturday. There were three bedrooms on the first floor, a living room, formal dining room, a very large family room which had been turned into a den, a library, kitchen and attached breakfast room, and covered porches outside on three sides. The second floor had two bedrooms which opened into a large sitting room between them, a large bathroom, and the back stairway led to an outside entryway behind a utility room off the kitchen. The property had a three-car detached garage.

“You know,” Kevin said as he walked around, “this reminds me of some of the old colonial-era houses we had in Jakarta. Many of them were kinda like this. What some people did was make them into two-family houses and the second floor here is big enough for that. Kasey, see if you can find a good architect to take a look and see what would need to be done to make an apartment on the second floor, and fix up anything that needs work in the whole house. Let me know what they estimate for the cost of the work. I can help you pay for the work, too, and if you rent the upstairs, I’ll bet that some improvements may be tax deductions.”

“Kevin, that’s sweet, but you don’t have to spend your money for that...” Kasey began.

“That’s okay, I want to do it, and you know the money’s not a problem. This is for you and Denise. Think of this as a kind of retirement investment; you’ve been like family to me and I’m so grateful for that.”

Denise hugged him. “You’re so wonderful, darling, thank you. Oh, tell Mom what you heard about Korea!”

“Oh, yeah—so I called—Denise told you everything so far, right? I spoke to this woman who told me what the kids on this ‘mission,’ she called it, like a diplomatic mission, I guess, would be doing. We’d be going to various schools in Seoul and some other cities, taking classes matched to our own senior year program, and meeting with the local kids. Lots of kids in South Korea know English, a little anyway, but you know I read and speak Korean. The classes we will be taking are designed to be for advanced students who are learning English, so they’ll be mostly in English. We’re supposed to answer questions about student life and family life in the States and in general, let the kids know what American kids think about, you know, events, their country, stuff like that. There’s an orientation meeting when school ends and another one a few days before we leave for Seoul.”

“And Denise will be going, she told me,” Kasey commented.

“Yeah. She’s gonna take a crash course in Korean. It’s not needed for the kids going, but that way she’d be hugely popular, being able to speak with the kids there, they’d absolutely love it. Whenever I spoke Korean, and me being a Westerner, everyone thought how great that was; it showed that I was really interested in them and they appreciated it.”

“Where do you stay?” Kasey asked.

“That’s cool too. With the family of a high school kid. And the kid goes with us when we go to the other schools, like our mentor and host. So we build these relationships. I know the diplomatic staff at the embassy there and one family was close friends of my folks. It’ll be great seeing them again. And maybe I can get to see my old sahyun, my taekwondo teacher.”

The two returned home when the weekend was over, and during the following days, they let the high school know that they would be moving after the end of the term and continued planning their moving to Atlanta. They also looked into finding a Korean language class and located a private school in Atlanta that offered summer language courses; she could take an elementary Korean class there. Soon the house was packed, all but the essentials, and Denise heard from her mom about the remodeling plans. The house was vacant and the work on the first floor could be completed during June; the second floor would take until mid-August or possibly later, but since it was being converted into a separate apartment, the first floor would not be affected and could be occupied.

They had decided to move to Atlanta as soon as school finished for the year, so they picked up all of their records, academic, medical, and financial; closed the utility accounts on the house; and changed their address with the postal service. Then the two paid a visit to Bob Hollingsworth to bid farewell. He told them about a law firm in Atlanta with which his firm had a close relationship and he gave Kevin the contact information. After stopping to visit Aunt Helene, taking her to dinner, and wishing her luck, the two returned to Denise’s home for the last time to spend the night, leaving the following morning.

Kasey Roberts’ new home would be ready to be occupied in four weeks, so Kevin and Denise decided to rent a room in an extended-stay motel for the month while they ran their errands to set up their new life in Atlanta. Their first stop was the high school that was nearest to the new home. They went to the school office.

“Damn,” Kevin muttered to Denise, “here I am again. Registering at yet ANOTHER damn school—I’ve lost count.” He chuckled. “At least I know I’m not gonna get drafted into the Program right now, anyway. This place is dead; no Program here now.”

“Yeah, darling, me neither, and I have my hero to protect me, anyway.”

After looking through their papers, the secretary gave them some forms to complete and told them to wait if they had time; she would see if a counselor was around to talk to them. If not, they could make an appointment. A counselor was available, so she directed them to her office, telling them to bring the forms they had completed.

“Hi there,” the woman said when they knocked. “I’m Mrs Joyson. And you are?”

They introduced themselves.

“We just moved from North Carolina,” Denise explained. “My mom got a job here earlier this year but I stayed to finish junior year there. We plan to go to Avery, we’ve both been accepted.”

“Really. That’s a little early, isn’t it? May I see your transcripts?” She scanned through them. “Ah, both of you have a lot of advanced standing credits, okay. I can see that the university had a good basis to accept you. Excellent records, both of you.”

“Thank you,” they responded.

“But of course we’ve got a complication for you,” Kevin grinned.

“Uh, oh, that’s a word I don’t like.”

“Not too bad. See, Denise and I’ve been selected by the State Department and the Department of Education for a mission to South Korea this fall, for three months, returning mid November. We’re supposed to represent U.S. high schools and take classes and visit in a number of schools while there.”