Joanne Sakamoto

The Time I almost Lost My Brother

            Last year, my family went on vacation to South Korea to visit some relatives. While we were there, we would go on tours in different parts of the country. On one particular occasion, we went to the east coast for about three days. Our tour guide couldn’t speak English but that wasn’t a problem because my mom can speak both Korean and English. So throughout the trip, my mom translated for my brother, Andrew, and me. It was all going pretty smoothly. We had been on tours like these before so nothing was brand new to us. Most Korean tourist attractions are pretty similar. But the final destination was a kind of site that we hadn’t been to before. It was a valley in the mountains that had a broad stream running through it. The place is very famous in Korea for its clean stream water and recreational sites. Along the stream is a wide sand trail that you can take up to the mountain. Eventually, you have to take a long flight of stairs if you want to go the very top, but it’s totally worth it. The two mountains that make the valley are very close together, so a suspension bridge was built between the two. The view from that bridge was amazing. But all of that was ruined because of Andrew. So, starting at the very beginning, we had arrived to the valley and were loading off the bus. Andrew managed to get out of his seat the quickest and got off before the rest of the family. Naturally, we assumed he would wait for us outside the bus. But when we got off, we couldn’t see him. We didn’t panic or anything like that. We thought he might’ve gone to the restrooms because he left the bus so fast. So my dad was sent to look for him there while my mom and I stayed at the bus in case he showed up. After a few minutes, my dad gave up looking for him in the men’s room and headed back to the parking lot. Andrew still hadn’t shown up. By now, the rest of the tour group, including the tour guide had gone off during their few hours of free roaming, during which we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. We still kept our cool though, and decided to ask around if anyone had seen him. But, as you can probably tell, I am of Asian descent and so is the rest of my family. Asians tend to have somewhat similar physical features. So, of course, it was a bit hard to describe him to complete strangers. Though there are a few things that differentiate Andrew from other boys. He is tall for his age and has a very high nose bridge, which is pretty uncommon in South Korea. So we described him, what he was wearing, his haircut, and everything. No one had seen him. Going up the sand trail, we eventually ran into our tour guide who was sitting with some other guides. We explained our situation to him and he set off looking for Andrew by himself. At this point, about an hour had passed and we were panicking. We were had planned to have a picnic beside the stream on a blanket, but we obviously had to find Andrew first, so I was holding a draw string bag with a blanket inside and a cooler the whole time. We kept looking and asking around for Andrew, but still nobody had seen him. Walking along the trail wasn’t getting easier either. It was going slightly uphill the whole time and my energy was slowly draining away. That plus the stuff I was carrying and the intense heat made me sweat buckets. After about another hour of walking, we reached the flight of wooden steps leading to the peak of the mountain. Our tour guide was already there, waiting for us.

            “Have you found him yet?” he asked.

            “No, we haven’t.” my mother said.

            “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll go back down, look for him along the way, and ask the other guides if they’ve see him around.” He suggested, “You all can wait here and eat while you can, or go up to the peak and search there, although I doubt he’d want to go up there. It’s a long trip up.”

            “Okay, that sounds good. Thank you.” My mother replied, “We’ll head up to the peak and look there.” With that, the guide left and we started our journey up the stairs. That was one of the most painful hikes I’ve ever gone on. We walked for two hours, which isn’t that bad, time-wise. But the steps were so steep and there were no rest stops or benches along the way. I could taste my own salty sweat every time I licked my lips. When we finally reached the top we were so tired, we didn’t know if we’d make back to the bus alive. We got to the suspension bridge and crossed it, gazing down on the stream below us. All the people looked like little ants, surrounded by the tall wooden columns that were trees. That view was pretty as a picture and gave me new life. The breeze renewed my energy and cooled me down and I could smell the fresh clean air as I heard the rush of the stream running through the valley. If I hadn’t had seen that view, I don’t know if I would be here today. So we crossed, headed down the other mountain, went back along the sand trail, and headed to the restrooms, all the while asking and looking for Andrew. When we met the tour guide, he sadly said he hadn’t found him. He said he would tell the other tour group members that the tour would be delayed until we found him and that he would continue to search for him. We agreed that that was the best plan. Before we went off again to look for Andrew, I went back to the bus to drop off the draw string bag and cooler. I will never be able to express the amount of relief and anger that came upon me when I went to that bus. Right there, sitting on the curb next to our tour bus, was Andrew. At first I couldn’t believe it was him. After four hours, after all that time of searching and asking, he had been at the only place where we hadn’t bothered to check twice. I ran to him, hugged him, and told him to come with me. I brought him to the rest of the family and the tour guide. All of them, excluding the guide, had the same reaction as me. It turns out he had wandered off after he got off the bus and then, soon afterwards, returned to look for us. When he didn’t find us, he stayed put at the bus for the rest of the four hours that we had spent searching for him. We of course loved on him and scolded him, all at the same time, telling him to never to do it again. In the end, I learned that I could never live without my brother. I also realized that the amount of love I have for my brother, no matter how annoying he can get, is immeasurable.