Flat World Tales: Summary

This is a story I'm thinking about posting for the Thousand and One Flat World Tales Project.


Told in first person, a girl is sent by her parents to a week long Korean Youth Retreat the week before the start of school. Mildly annoyed at first, she arrives at the church with crossed arms and a scowl. Her plans of a relaxing last week of freedom from school were ruined with a week of “spiritual bonding” with about 50 other kids ranging from 9- 17 years of age. Of course, these weren’t just any kids, they were kids of vast majority spoke only Korean while she spoke none. Communicating would be impossible as would understanding anyone.

Along with losing a week of lazy T.V. watching and internet surfing; she finds the camp grounds barely proved livable. There was a recreation room, while large enough to hold the 50 kids and chaperones, was an open air room, meaning no walls to prevent bugs and other things from getting ‘in’. Below the recreation room were two bathrooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, containing a total of two sinks, three bathrooms, and three showers. Next to the bathroom was a room for sermons and while this time it was a closed room, it could probably just barely fit them all. Outside in the back was a labyrinth of about 10 or so small tents set up side by side. Cabins were available, but not for use as tents were supposed to “bring them closer together”.

Glaring at the banners in the recreation room she notices some are in English reading “The Change”. Scoffing at the somewhat cliché theme she meets Nina, who voices her opinion about the title, echoing the girls thoughts. Nina, like her, was forced there by her parents and was not enjoying the trip so far. Unlike her, Nina did understand and speak Korean.

They spend the next few days of the retreat complaining about the food; mouthing the praise songs; ignoring the sermons, Nina even goes as far to sleep during one; mocking and barely participating in the lame activities; talking back to chaperones; and making fun of the “dorks who were actually enjoying the retreat”.

The girl grows increasingly frustrated that she can’t understand anything being said to her. At one point, a chaperone asks to talk to the two girls and reprimand them for not following instructions. The girl argues irately that she couldn’t understand instructions. The chaperone responds that she could have asked someone and that this was not the only incident. She proceeds to scold them on how they’ve been acting and threatens to send them home if they don’t “take on a better attitude”. She sends them to separate tents to think about whether they’d want to stay and shape up or go home.

The girl reveals in thoughts that while she wasn’t completely devoted to God, she did have some faith and was somewhat interested in growing closer to God. While this was the perfect opportunity, she provides excuses, like the language barrier and the unfit environment, to defend herself. In the back of her mind she argues with herself that she could have tried before. However, reputations of extreme Christians have always been associated with the lower part of the social ladder at school.

She’s interrupted by the chaperone that lets her and Nina out and asks for their answer. They both answer that they’d stay and behave, mainly because being sent home early would not rest well with their parents, however, they continue to mock the retreat, but only to each other in whispers.

On the last night before going home, they have a ceremony where they re-enacted the feet washing ritual that was supposed to show them how to love, respect, and accept each other. After that was done, they formed a chain and hugged one another. Some girls started to cry and since the girl was well informed of the story already, she could understand the significance of this action and reached a moment of enlightenment. She started to tear and turned to see what effect this had on Nina. Nina scoffed and rolled her eyes saying, “Some girls are so emotional.” After a moment, the girl agreed, muttering a half-hearted, “Yeah.”

The next day they rode back to the church and said their goodbyes as them got picked up one by one. Nina’s car pulled up and she waved bye saying the retreat was almost bearable with her there. The girl hears Nina’s parents asking how the retreat was and Nina answers with a heartfelt description on how the retreat “really changed herself and how she viewed the world.” The girl parents arrive soon after and asked the same question Nina answered not too long ago.

The girl ruminates on her trip and how she could have made it a better experience. She disproves her excuses realizing she could have overcome some barriers with a little effort. The sermons did have English translations that she and Nina were too lazy to read; the praise songs didn’t have to be sung exactly right for her to be able to praise God; and she could have asked for translations from Nina for the instructions. She is glad that she was able to get a worthwhile experience from the retreat. Even if it was just one night of spiritually growth, that one night enabled her to understand what it meant to show love and understanding, helped her find God in her heart, and form a bond with not only God but the kids at the retreat.

She’s interrupted by her parents who ask the question again and she answers with a simple, “Yeah.” It was the same word she spoke to Nina last night, but this time it carried a different meaning, and meant a lot more than a hundred of Nina’s fake sugar coated lies. She had changed.