Shim Min Jung/A Plum Tree/Thursday 01:00~03:00pm

There was a big plum tree at the garden of my grandfather's house. Under the tree, he and I used to pick some plums. The plum tree was so big that my grandpa had to use a ladder to get the ripe plums on the top. I was too small to see the whole picture of the tree. Therefore if I looked up to see it, a watery sunlight began to show through the branches. The green leaves became shiny emeralds and twinkled along with the summer breeze. After wrenching the plums off the branches, grandfather said "Take this and try it!" slightly throwing one of them - the prettiest plum – to me. It tasted of the summer. It was sour but meanwhile sweet and cool. Hearing the sound of fluttering leaves, I ate the plums with him and my brother under the tree. The summer day's memory with my grandfather remains as the plum's taste and smell. Since my grandfather passed away, I never have gone there. Not only because my grandma sold the place to another person, but the garden was no longer the same place as I used to know. I loved the plum tree in that there was always my grandfather who waited every summer to pick plums with me. If I go to see the tree again, it would not be the same tree any more. So I want to treasure this memory, my ideal big plum tree, in my heart forever.