The Face 3

He sat quietly in his seat, waiting for his Father to take the first bite of rice. Then, he began to eat rice, kimchi, chi-gae, and other foods. But he could not taste the food. All he could think about were his ancestors.

"Father, why did you give me that mask?"
"So that you could know how I feel."
"How can I ever know how you feel?"

My Father looked at me, almost straight at me.

"What do you want to ask me?"
"I saw my ancestors through the mask."
"What did you say to them?"
"They said that they live the same life over and over again."
"Is that what they said?"
"I saw grandmother."
"What did she say?"
"She didn't say anything."
"Nothing at all."
"Nothing."
"They didn't tell you how they live so many lifetimes."
"No."
"They have to eat a human being in order to keep on living after one lifetime is over."
"But how can they eat human beings when they are spirits?"
"You will find out."

I was getting a bit scared. Also, why had Father said such a thing? Did spirits really eat human beings? I knocked on my mother's room. My mother decided to live like a hermit in her room. She decided to not say one word because she believed that language was the cause of life's problems.

My Mother knocked her knuckles on the floor. That was the sign for me to come in.

"Mother, I know you do not like to be disturbed... but is it true that our ancestors need to eat a human being in order to live many lifetimes? Do they eat a human being for each lifetime that they live?"
"Yes," she wrote.
"Leave," she wrote.