Chapter One Arrested What do you mean We have to wait here for a lawyer Aunt Bernadette frantically cried at the military police officer We’re United States citizens Don’t we have rights The officer gave Aunt Bernadette a cold emotionless stare and turned to walk out of the room He opened the door then turned back toward us and hissed You are not in the United States anymore You will follow our laws The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him Aunt Bernadette paced the room like a panther in a cage Tomas sat in a chair in the corner his knees tucked up to his chin His arms wrapped around his legs and his head rested on his knees I knew he wished we were anywhere but a North Korean military station I sat motionless in the opposite corner of the room It was our fault we were here not Aunt Bernadette’s I felt horrible especially since we were having a great visit to South
Korea until this happened Now we might never make it back home to the US We’d broken the law and crossed from the democratic republic of South Korea into communist North Korea Even worse if we ever saw Mom and Dad again they’d probably ground us forever Marisol stop crying Aunt Bernadette snapped at me It won’t make anything better I didn’t realize I was crying but tears were streaming down my face I’m sorry I blubbered wiping my face with the back of my hand Tomas raised his head worry spread across his round twelve year-old face I walked over and put my arms around him As his twin sometimes I could sense exactly what he was feeling Aunt Bernadette still paced the room Mari what will happen to us Will we see Mom and Dad again I hope so Tomi I hope so It’s all my fault you know he said
I shook my head It’s my fault too Yes it was his idea to go canoeing in the river inlet But I did jump in the canoe with him because I was bored Dad was busy doing research in a museum archive as part of his job as a history professor Mom had gone out for a while shopping for groceries We were tired of sitting around We wanted to explore Korea more There were four canoes just sitting in the park Why not we thought
What Tomas and I didn’t expect was the force of the river current We paddled as hard as we could but we drifted farther from the South Korea shore Before we knew it we’d crossed the border and were in North Korean territory When Aunt Bernadette realized how far we’d drifted she panicked She grabbed a canoe and paddled out to bring us back to South Korea But like us the current pulled her across the border too swiftly Before Aunt Bernadette could even see if Tomas and I were okay a North Korean military officer had his machine gun pointed in Aunt Bernadette’s back We were quickly handcuffed and led away from the river Although we’d been traveling around Korea for three weeks we hadn’t really learned about the demilitarized zone Until today Did you know they’d arrest us I whispered to Aunt Bernadette I looked around the room for hidden video cameras She stopped pacing and knelt down beside me Or shoot you two That’s why I came after you she said She explained the tense history between North and South Korea At the end of World War II to keep Japan out of Korea Russia and the United States split Korea down the 38th Parallel Russia would control the north the United States would control the south
