The Plum She Never Tasted

It had been twenty-four years since she had last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. She had moved away and moved around and grown up and returned back to her original birthplace. She hated this place for so many reasons and swore she would never return. Yet here she was trying to find out where it all began. Everything and everyone had changed so much, including her, but the fruit stand still stood in the same place as it had all those years ago. In the late 1980's, there was a small shopping mall across the street, but that was no longer there and rows of condos replaced it now. Neither was the grocery store that stood on the corner and would give a discount for dented cans (which she was told to throw down on purpose). Even the filthy trailer park that she used to live in, although for a short while, was also gone and was now a very large shopping center. For years she used to think about that fruit stand and how mad the man would get at her. She often wondered if it was still there, but she could never remember what road it was on. She had lived in so many places as a child, they sometimes blurred together. After all, she was only seven years old the last time she went there. Like always, she was to go straight there and come straight back and find the smallest onion she could find, which in those days was no more than six to eight cents. So she would search and dig and knock over the onion pile, trying to find the smallest one she could. To her it was not just a game, but a goal. Maybe if she could just do it right, then everyone would be happy. She would finally pick one to her liking, then she would pay the man with a paper food stamp and get back the 94 cents or so. She always studied the food stamp as she walked there alone and noticed how much it looked just like real money, but only on one side instead of both sides. She never understood why this dark skinned man got so angry at her. Sure she would knock over some onions, but she always picked them up and put them gently back up there. She would go back home and be sent right back to do it again and again and again. Until finally he would yell, "just take it and go!" Didn't he understand what would happen if she didn't come back with the money? Didn't he know how scared she was? Didn't he ask his children to do the same thing for his cigarettes and beer? She pleaded with him, "please Mr. please", "I can't go back without the change..." He would yell again saying, "you tell her these are for food!" As if somehow, he did know what she was doing. In the end, she would break down and and so would he. The last time she remembered going to the fruit stand was the best and the scariest time. It was on her third trip back that day, he told her to go pick something out for herself. Anything she wanted in the whole fruit stand. "Anything?" she asked. "You can have one item of anything you want" She had never even eaten most of the fruits and vegetables. She didn't even know the names of a lot of them. She asked him many questions and he happily answered them all. She searched carefully, inspecting each fruit and vegetable with wonder and finally chose a beautiful plum. He said that, "when it is picked at just the right time, it is both sour and sweet." A very good choice he told her. Then he said for her to put the food stamp in her pocket and he gave her the 95 cents anyway. He said, "now go and never come back here again or I will have the police come for you." Believing that she had broken the law she began crying and ran out of the fruit stand. She was so terrified and confused and didn't understand why he was so nice to her and gave her the plum and the money and the food stamp and then he would have her arrested. She ran all the way home crying and burst through the door with a plum in one hand and an onion in the other. "Where have you been!" they screamed. She tried to tell them the story, but was called a liar and a thief because she still had the food stamp in her pocket and a plum she clearly didn't pay for. She explained that the man at the fruit stand told her that she could pick whatever she wanted. She was again called a liar and struck down. She fell to the floor with the plum still in her hand. She looked up and said, "but he told me I could have it." "Nothing in this world is free! What did you tell him?!" "Now we are all going to jail and you will never see your brothers again!" The beautiful plum was ripped out of her hand and was thrown across the room and rolled out the back door right into the dirt. She dropped her head and cried and sighed, because she thought that this time, she finally did it right and everyone was going to be happy. But they didn't care that he had caught on to their scheme or neglect or abuse. Nor did they bother to consider the time and strategy that was put into picking the perfect onion or even the most beautiful plum. They paid no mind to the learning experience of the different fruits and vegetables or the bond she gained through her curiosity. No one even asked about the onion, or the 3 previous onions or how she chose the right one or even how she reached them. They never wondered why it took so long, only that it did. Nobody knew how sad she was that she didn't even get to taste the sour and the sweet of the most beautiful plum because she had the 95 cents in her other pocket and that was all that mattered.