Chapter 2, Final draft, Park. Kyeongmin

I am sorry I should have posted it as a comment, but somehow my comment box seems that it doesn't want to work.

 

 

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First murder

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the year of 2013 becomes the year of the Snake, which means it's better for me to keep my nose clean until the year is over, seriously.

In 2010, having finished military duty, I was very excited and confident enough to see a bit more of the world by myself, so I went to Australia with only small amount of cash and a working visa. It was not easy at first, but it was great. During the first two weeks in Sydney, everything was new to me. I took hundreds of photos, visited every single corner of the city, and made a number of friends from all over the world. Although it struck me as a culture shock to share a room with girls at backpackers' hostel, but even that was quite an experience at that time.

 And then, magically, Sydney, one of the world's most famous and beautiful cities turned to be just another city, and my life became boring. I was tired of the same buildings, once-is-enough botanic gardens, Subway sandwiches, McDonald's hamburgers, and most of all, the fact that I was still a tourist. What I wanted was a real Australian life. That's why I looked for a way to share life with natives and luckily found a memo on the Sydney tourist center webpage that Mr. Thompson, a management consultant who was at that moment looking for someone to help him with his new building project.

 For next eight solid months, as a mentor, he taught me all he knew about Australia and I enjoyed a lot of interesting stories of the Thompsons. Among many, I particularly liked the one that he worked for MI7, the British Military Intelligence Section 7, listening to radio transmission from Russia during the Cold War. Above all, what made me more proud of myself was that I did such a wonderful job in building a Queenslander-style house in which they have been living so far.

  One day, I had to take care of the house on my own, because one of their friends was ill in New Zealand. Within a radius of a mile, there was no one but me, a cat named Bing, and four chickens left behind for ten days. I was a complete free man and it was the most extraordinary time that I had ever had in all my life. I would sit in a long comfortable chair watching Bing chasing birds and the chickens with a glass of beer always in a hand. At night, when I turned all the lights off in the house, I could see thousands of stars and even the Milky Way. It was a spectacular view.

 However, that moment didn't last long. I noticed that Bing behaved in a strange way. He was extremely cautious, crawling on the floor, looking in every direction as if being afraid of something. But I didn't give him much attention, because I thought that he was playing. Next day, it was about noon, I was having brunch watching TV, and Bing was also enjoying his cat food on the floor beside me. Then suddenly, Bing jumped right up through the air, made a weird scream, and dashed to the back door like a flash. I was totally surprised with my mouth half open. I was just about to say something to him, then, I saw.

"Holy shit!!" I gave a cry.

It was a dark, enormous, and horrifying creature that I never encounter that close. I hastily climbed up the kitchen table, and what I saw was a python slithering in from the front door. As soon as I saw it, I just knew that it could kill a man. My heart was beating so hard that I could even hear it. I grabbed an iron bar which I had been using as a dumbbell, tried to chase it away to the front door again. The snake was unbelievably heavy; I could feel that from the tip of the iron bar. After a struggle, I got the python out of the house. I thought it was over. Through the glass of the front door, I could watch it sitting on the stair case. I took photos and even short videos as a proof of my triumph. Ah, to my stupidity, a thought struck me that if the giant snake freely hanged around the house, I couldn't go out! I didn't want that situation, which means either of one could live unless the other died.

I ran like a wind through the back door and went to a shed where all the tools were stored. I chose a shovel and got close to the front door again from the outside. The snake was not there. A Queenslander-style house was about a meter high above the ground, because of possible floods or humidity. I searched thoroughly under the house. The free-ranged chickens helped me. After a while I found the monster and it seemed that it was heading back to bush. In an open place, I could see its whole body. It was approximately 4 meters long, and I was not sure, but it looked like the python had already eaten something because its abdomen was swollen.

This was the moment that I still don't understand. Certainly, I could let it go, but somehow I killed it. I chopped it several times with the shovel, and it was a hard job for its skin was really tough. I might have thought that I could easily cut it into half. Then suddenly, a strange feeling came into, and I could describe it as nothing but guilt. The snake was not an ant or any kind of small insects that we kill often. It was a being. And it was first time for me to take a life. Although I can give me an excuse that I had no choice to save my own life, but somehow, after the incident I had a series of nightmares for days. And I made up my mind not to kill anything even roaches. The extremely unpleasant strong feeling is the last one that I want to have again.