Grandma

On my most respected list of people, my grandma is probably first. My earliest memory of her was when she was living in a room, which would become my sisters. All she had was a mattress and a thin blanket. My grandma always babysat me, and at night, she held me in her arms while I howled away, pretending to be a wolf. She said to me in Korean, "Be quiet or else the wolves will come and eat you!" My grandma doesn't mess around. There is one photograph of my grandma in her youth; she looked like a dancer. Other than that photograph, the only face i see when I imagine my grandma is a small woman with a wrinkled face and snow white hair. But I know she has a hidden, glorious past. After retiring from the dance industry at a tender age of 20, my grandma decided to abandon the quiet life in her small Korean village and take to the seas. For the next thirty years, she ruled the Yellow Sea, pillaging villages, burning towns, and reaping the booty. Yes, all seemed quite settled for my grandma, until she met another pirate, trespassing on her waters. This pirate was also very skilled, and also very powerful. After an intense territorial battle, my grandma and the mysterious pirate agreed on a meeting, and from then, my grandma had met her husband. My grandparents then monopolized the sea, and were respected all around the world. Around 1950, my grandparents decided that the pirate life was too boring for them, so they settled in California. Japan, hearing that the legendary pirates had retired, seized the opportunity and invaded Korea, but that's a whole other story. i love my grandma. she makes the best gaddamn kimchi you will ever put your unworthy lips on. all other kimchi come up short compared to hers. i remember as a kid, i asked my mom how long my grandma was going to live. she assured me she'll be there before i leave for college. and that's true. i hope she'll be there to see me get married, because i want my kids to know who my grandma is. yo ho ho, it's a pirate's life for me.