The Call of Blood
By Jess Row, first published in Harvard Review
After one of his patients develops severe dementia and begins speaking only in Korean, a Black male nurse develops a relationship with the patient's daughter.
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Plot Summary
Kevin is a Black nurse who fought in the Gulf War from 1989-1992. His mother was Irish but spoke French, Latin, and Jamaican Patois, and his father was Jamaican. Currently, Kevin takes care of Mrs. Kang, an elderly Korean woman who is losing her memory. She only speaks in Korean and has lost a lot of weight. Her daughter Hyunjee deeply cares about her mother and constantly visits her with food. Hyunjee is a divorcee with two daughters; her ex-husband is a rich Jewish lawyer. Kevin and Hyunjee get to know each other over time. One day, Kevin decides to take classes to learn basic Korean. Hyunjee walks in on him speaking basic responses to her mother. She asks Kevin if he would like to go out with her, and he says yes. They have sex and then speak about their exes. Kevin tells Hyunjee about how he found out his wife Renée was cheating on him when he overheard her speaking to another man on the landline. Later, when Kevin is once again in the role of being Hyunjee's employee, Hyunjee blows up in frustration, saying maybe it would be easier if ethnicities existed separately, if they were not all forced to coexist in the United States because of colonization and immigration. This rant comes about after she has to tell her daughter that she cannot serve Korean BBQ for her bat mitzvah. Kevin is uncomfortable and somewhat offended by Hyunjee's words. Hyunjee calls Kevin that night and apologizes. Kevin accepts her apology, though Hyunjee can tell everything is not normal. He gets another call when he is off-duty that Mrs. Kang has an infection from the stent put in by the night nurse. They both run to the hospital to attend to Hyunjee's mother, and the woman apologizes again. Hyunjee soon introduces her daughters to Kevin. Mrs. Kang lives through her infection, and one day when Kevin is treating her, he responds to her in Korean. She tells the nurse, "I never had a son. I do not know who you are!"
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