Knock on the door.
Who is it? I ask.
Special delivery!

I open the door.
I'm handed aa envelope postmarked Seoul Korea.
Sign here, please.

I walk over to the desk and open the envelope.
Inside the envelope is a letter along with a round trip plane ticket to Seoul Korea.

The letter says, "Congratulations you are the grand prize winner of "Why Korea is a Beautiful Country?" contest. Thank you for submitting several of your poems to us. Now get ready to take some pictures of your dream.

A month later April 1st

I find myself boarding the plane flight to Korea.
We take off, and I decide to try and sleep for the entire flight.

But I'm woken up by people screaming. Then hear a voice over the loudspeaker saying, "Put your life vest on, fasten your seat belts."
The flight attendants were running down the aisles yelling.

I see a bright flash as bright as a noon sun,

Waking up on a sandy white beach,
To the sound of ocean waves.
Feeling ocean waves at my feet trying to pull me back into the sea.

Standing up wiping the sand off my pants.
Looking around,
I see an empty beach, a deep blue ocean, trees and mountains.

Seabirds flying high as if searching for something,

Suddenly I hear yelling in a strange language from behind me. Turning around, I see bizarre looking people riding horses ******* towards me with swords raised screaming what sounded like "Mooreup Ggul-eo! Mooreup Ggul-eo!  I tried to run but was grabbed by one of them and pushed to the ground. Because of being scared of having my head cut off. I didn't say a word or move a muscle.  

Next I was bound, gagged and tied to a horse with a rope.

The men mounted their horses. They began moving down the beach while dragging me behind the last horse.

After what seemed like many hours of walking and with the sun setting we reached a grotto surrounded by cherry blossoms, roses and pine trees. Stunning like something from a fairytale.

One of the men removed the gag and untied me.
He grabbed me by the arm yelling something at me that I couldn't understand while pointing at and pushing me into a small cave.
When I turned to look around, I noticed the rest of the group were all bowing, and some even seemed to be crying. I was grabbed again turned around and tossed into the cave.

Then I hear a sound like a sad young woman crying.
I say, "Hello." No answer.

I continue walking toward the crying in this cave as dark as moonless night. When I come to an open chamber as bright as the midnight sun.
I'm shocked to see a beautiful Goddess tied to a throne by her wrists and neck.

I quickly begin to untie her. I try to speak to her. But neither of us can understand the other. But I remembered the most important word in the Korean language and say,  "saranghamnida" She stops crying looks directly at me and says, "jagiya saranghae."

After I released her from the prison of, her thrown. She jumped up
and put her arms around me and with her head against my chest listening to my heart. She kept hugging me. She wouldn't let go of me.

She takes my hand pulls me slowly towards the cave opening.
I tried to stop her because of the people waiting outside guarding the cave but insisted she seemed triumphant and not afraid.

As we stepped out of the cave to a beautiful red-orange sunset.
She bows to me, and I return the bow and we both bow to the people guarding the cave. All of a sudden, the crowd cheers yelling Dongroe! Dongroe!...

I fell in love with the incredible Goddess Yuhwa. Last night I dreamed that she was bathing in my steamy cup of tea. That took the chill in my Soul away.

Copyright © 2016 Ronald J Chapman All Rights Reserved.

Mooreup Ggul-eo! = On your knees!
saranghamnida The Most formal way to say I love you.

jagiya saranghae = Darling, I love you.

Dongroe  A ceremony in which the king and queen bow to each other, share wine and food, and have their first night together.