Rann had no close friends in Korea and so he told no one of his book. The publisher consulted him about the title and Rann could think of none better than
In the weeks that followed he read and returned the galley proofs. It wasn’t long before a neat package arrived for him containing a copy of the book itself:
Rann sat down and read it through and then he placed the book on the shelf containing his other books about Korea.
It is a good job, he thought to himself. Indeed, he had said what he had to say, and there was no more. He wondered if Americans would read what he had written and if they did, would they understand it?
A few days later Jason Cox, another supply sergeant and one of the men who worked with Rann, came running into the office waving a copy of the military newspaper frantically over his head.
“Rann, you old son of a gun, when did you do it?” he shouted.
“What?”
“This!” The man banged a copy of the newspaper down on Rann’s desk and pointed at the front page.
Rann stared at the headline, COLFAX WRITES EXPOSE. The article continued. “Rann Colfax, a supply sergeant now stationed at Ascom supply base in South Korea, and a surprisingly young newcomer to the literary scene, has, in spite of his youth, produced what will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most beautifully written novels of this century. His characters have been drawn straight from life and are presented with such tender understanding that long before the last page has been finished one feels one knows the Korean people as human beings rather than ‘gooks.’ He traces the life of a Korean man of the upper classes from the late 1800s through the Japanese occupation, the Second World War, the Korean War, and up to our present military involvement in South Korea. Aye, and therein lies the rub—Sergeant Colfax has written of the military entanglement with the black market and prostitution rings in South Korea with such realism it is obvious he must have had firsthand knowledge of his subject. It remains only for Sergeant Colfax to give the true names of his characters for the arrests to be made. He has left a lot of questions as yet unanswered, and I will not be surprised if they must be answered to the proper authorities in the future. If I were in authority, I would certainly want to know where and how he gets his information, for he seems to be doing a better job than any of our so-called intelligence agencies. It will be interesting to see what follows.
“In the meantime, all thinking Americans should go out and get this book and read it and then reread it, for it is probably the greatest book about a people that has ever been or ever will be written. Definitely recommended!”
“Come on, Colfax,” Jason urged. “Give! I’ve already ordered your book along with dozens of other people down at the bookstore this morning and we are supposed to have it in about ten days, but meanwhile, ole buddy, you can tell me. Who are all of these people you’ve written about and not named?” An exaggerated shrewd look came on his face. “You’ll be going home soon and maybe I could put the info to good use.”
“I really don’t know what you are talking about, any more than I know what this newspaper is talking about. No one in my book is taken from life, and I couldn’t name one of the characters in it if I had to. The people are real enough to me, but it stops there. They came out of my imagination.”
“That’s a good story for the higher-ups,” Jason said, winking his eye and turning up the corner of his mouth. “But you don’t have to keep it up with me. After all, we’ve worked together all these months and we’re buddies. You can tell me anything. It won’t go any further.”
Rann was grateful when the phone on his desk rang and he waved good-bye to Jason as he answered, “Good morning, Ascom supply depot.”
“Sergeant Colfax, please,” the voice on the other end of the line purred.
“This is he.”
“Yes, Sergeant Colfax. General Appleby would like you to be in his office tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. He says he would like to read what you have written and asks that you bring a copy along. We will see you at ten a.m., Sergeant Colfax.”
A metallic click ended the conversation before Rann could ask any questions.
The rest of the day was taken up with the telephone and with people stopping by the office to discuss the article with him. Rann could not understand all of the excitement since no one here had read his book anyway. Everyone seemed slyly “in” on the information about which he had written. He was invited to several parties during the afternoon but Rann declined, preferring to get to bed early to be fresh for the interview with the general the next morning.
The general’s office looked different when he entered the reception room. He must have appeared surprised as he wondered if he had made a mistake, for the girl at the desk explained, “Go in. You are in the right place. The requisition finally came through last week for our new carpet. We waited two years for it. The red looks nice, but it makes me nervous.”
Rann looked at the room. Yes, it was the same except for the bright-red carpet in stark contrast with the black teakwood desk and black leather couches.
The same carpet was in the general’s office and gave a rose cast to the beige grass paper on the walls.
“I didn’t actually write the book for publication, sir,” Rann explained to the general. “I wrote it more or less as a personal record of the Korea I’ve come to know since I’ve been here.”
“I’ll have to read this and talk to you again,” the general said. “I suspect with all this publicity that the pressure will be on me to look into this black-market business and come up with some answers. Where did you get your information?”
“That’s just it,” Rann explained. “I don’t have any information. All I did was look at all that was going on, and what I have written is the only logical way it could be done.”
“Well, I’ll read this and get back to you. In the meantime, don’t talk to anyone about any of this. The whole damned country is buzzing as it is. Why don’t you take a few days off and go down to Pusan and lie in the sun for a while. It will give me a chance to boil this whole thing over and I’ll call you down there. There are some reporters from the local papers in the outer office now and I think the best thing to say is that you have no comment until they have had a chance to read the book. That should stall things for a while.”
IN PUSAN, THE BEACHES WERE WIDE, the sky clear above a sparkling blue sea, the soft green hills blending into the gray, rugged mountains in the background. Rann had been there for three days when the general called him.
“Well, Colfax, you’ve written quite a book. The only thing is, from the looks of it, you had to be mixed in the black market to have written it. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think you were, it just looks bad. We have to think of how to explain it.” The general waited.
“All I can do, sir, is to tell the truth,” Rann told him.
“Of course, of course,” the general agreed. “It’s a question of how and where that must be decided. Meanwhile, you had better get back up here. There is a meeting in my office tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock. Most of the more important officers concerned will be here and I’d like you here for that. Maybe we can clear everything up then. By the way, Colfax, Mrs. Appleby is having a little cocktail party get-together for the officers’ wives’ club at our house tomorrow afternoon and she would like for you to come. I thought we could go directly from my office if that’s all right with you?”
“Your wife, sir?” Rann knew he could not refuse, but he felt his face flush as the memory of his anger came back to him.
“Yes, certainly, fine woman, my boy, never holds anything against anyone. You will come, of course?”
“Yes sir, of course.” Rann took the next train back to Seoul.
The general started the meeting the next day. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I don’t believe Colfax has had anything to do with all of this. I think he is just young and has a fertile imagination. However, in what he calls his logical way he just may have hit on a few things that can help us. I think we should ask him all the questions we can think of and then start a full-scale investigation before his book hits Korea. I am giving Colfax an early discharge, and I’m sending him back to the United States now. He can wait there. I don’t want the wrong people to get hold of him while he is here.”
For nearly three hours Rann answered questions as carefully and as completely as he could, being careful
