FIGHTING FIRE WITH LOVE.
Paul Angers—son of a Korean woman and a Black G.I.—arrives in the U.S. after the Korean conflict with foggy memories of the family he left behind. Adopted by an American couple as a young child, his past haunts him as scenes from his homeland invade his mind at odd times: his birth mother, his sibling, and himself barely old enough to walk with a group of refugees toward a mountain village where they hoped to find safety. Su Kimchi—Paul’s birth name—recalls hunger, danger, and fear were always present.
Eighteen years later, Paul is a paramedic at a Kansas City fire department with a racist Fire Chief who lost a buddy in the war and hates both Koreans and Blacks. Kimchi will entertain you with his knowledge of martial arts—he has a black belt in Judo!—and fire rescues, and will soothe the racist beast that may lurk unbidden inside of you. A gritty story of compassion and warm memories of his Korean mother, Cam, who abandoned him at an orphanage when he was four years old.
One day Paul meets Rikki, a young white woman who transports people around Kansas City’s Swope Park in a homemade rickshaw. This experience takes him back mentally and emotionally to his East Asian homeland. As the two become friends, Rikki refuses to reveal her real name. Determined to learn what this girl’s hiding, Paul follows her one day to a shack in a vacant lot, where she lives the life of a hobo. When he discovers the secret she can no longer hide—and feels she wouldn’t survive the coming winter in her crude hut—he talks her into sharing an apartment with him.
Their lives become ever more complicated when Paul finally learns who Rikki is… then finds racism within his own family as he also deals with prejudice at work. A near tragedy threatens to separate this young couple, who are not quite ready to admit their love for each other.
Throw in some drugs, abortion, and arson, and you have a story for these times that you can’t put down.
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