Escape from Camp 14

Shin’s cellmate was around 50 years old and refused to say why he was incarcerated, though he revealed that he had been there for many years. His name was Kim Jin Myung, but he preferred to be called Uncle. He helped tend to Shin’s wounds, and Shin inferred that he had past experience of this kind of work. This was Shin’s first exposure to ongoing kindness, and Shin was both grateful and puzzled by it. Uncle was also an entertaining speaker and the guards pressed Shin to inform them of what he had been saying. Shin answered the guards honestly, but he also told Uncle that the guards had asked him to act as an informer. Uncle was not surprised, and he continued to withhold personal information.

One day, a guard handed Shin the school uniform that he had been wearing when he was taken from the dormitory. Shin did not want to leave the cell, as Uncle was the only person he had ever trusted, and he felt greater affection for him than for his own family. However, they would never see each other again.