Get a food

“It’s almost there!” Someone is shouting to me. I know, I know it. But always, that “almost” seems to be really hard and frustrating. I am standing on a tree, with my trembling leg, my left hand is grabbing a branch very tightly, and the right hand is aiming at …a certain fruit. I am running out of my energy. “Hang on! You can do it!” I heard somebody else yell up at me. I wanna give up! But everyone is staring at me. I cannot quit, actually I know even some girls are looking at me from a corner of the park. Don’t give up! I can do it! Look, finally I slightly touched the fruit! But well…by the way, what is this fruit? This brown, red “fruit” doesn’t look like it’s edible. It must have an astringent taste. Maybe rotten. Why on earth am I struggling to pick up this extremely weird material?

“Watch out!” At the same time my friend is screaming so, I fell on the ground, from the tree. Having mud all over myself, I checked my right hand. I got it, there was the “fruit”.

I was eight years-old. You know, it is the time when boys are the most ambitious, courageous, and reckless. In school, we were always talking about who is the fastest runner, the best player of soccer, and the bravest explorer. When I scored a goal (it rarely happened), I used to feel like was the champion of the schoolyard. Although, the world of children was sometimes very harsh. We all knew that who had the strongest power in our “tribe”. The bravest leader was admired by every boy. Then of course, I was one of those ordinary boys, who were always surrounding him.

One day’s lunch time, suddenly our leader said. “Let’s eat a fruit on a tree.” What? I just thought. Shall we eat a fruit on a tree? That’s absurd! Even though I was typical eight years-old boy and not smart at all, I knew normal humans don’t eat such a wild stuff. Absolutely it will be nasty, at least it’s not the fruits like we know. He continued, “Hey boys, why not?” But…wait, he is our leader. He is not idiot. He must be considering for something I cannot think out. Indeed, that might be wonderful in a sense. We will go to the familiar park and climb up a tree, and then eat the fruit! It seemed as a huge adventure that getting own food without any grown-ups’ hand. For me, food had been always prepared for a meal. In most cases they are cooked or industrialized, so I just got curious about where are they from, what are they before cooked. What an awesome plan it is! Then I said,

“I wanna do that!”

“Oh, really?” He answered unexpectedly. “I just said so but you look really excited!” Other boys were also surprised and saying, “Do you want to do that?” “You are a man.” “I want it, too!” I turned white. Now our leader is loudly declaring that after school today we would meet in the park, in order to “eat” tree fruits. Everyone was so excited over the totally abnormal adventure. Somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, “That’s the spirit! Yoji! Show me your move, first!” What the heck, I screwed up. I was deeply regretting what I said, already. I have a fear of heights, actually.

              Anyway, I have no other choices. A man should be responsible for what he said once. I talked to myself to inspire myself. I am ready to die, when I arrived in the park, there were already many boys, girls (totally unexpected) and they were waving to me. “We’ve been waiting for you, man!’ I said hello to them awkwardly, and I felt cold drops come out on my skin. Maybe I looked unusual, the leader spoke to me. “Are you ready? If not yet, I will do it first.” Then he run to the tree! It’s lucky! I was looking at his back, with feelings of splendid gratefulness. He’s just climbing up! Everybody’s admired-eyes are given onto his back! Hang on! It seemed that he would go on steadily…..but, what happened? He stopped. A few moments later, he got down from the tree. “…What’s up?” Somebody asked. He doesn’t answer. …Wait a minute, come on, is he scared? He doesn’t say anything, looking at the ground. And an awkward pause followed. And then, he just said, “It is too high.” You can’t be serious. The next moment, everybody turned to me simultaneously.

              It can’t be better. Oh my Gosh, because even he surrendered, I cannot do it. Although I was thinking so inside my head, my legs were going forward against to the tree, pushed by an unopposable power. I felt everybody gazing every movement of me. I put my hand, then my foot on the tree. Then I tried to climb. But my foot slipped down, scattering small pieces of barks. I just glanced at people behind me. All of them are staring me. I cannot run away. I tried again. This time, I felt my foot firmly spiked the tree, and my hands bring my body upward unexpectedly. I managed to climb up to one of main branches. Occasionally, leaves hits on my face and smells like a glass. Pieces of barks get into my nails, and hurts. I must already have climbed high. I thought I shouldn’t watch below. That moment, I found something unfamiliar in front of me. That was a “fruit”, not a leaf nor a branch. I tried to pick it automatically. But, there was a distance. I cannot get it at this late. I boldly threw my right hand into the air.

               “It’s almost there!” Someone is shouting to me. It was not until this time that I could hear someone’s yelling. Actually I am running out of my energy. I wanna give up! But everyone is staring at me. I cannot quit. Don’t give up! I can do it! Look, finally I slightly touched the fruit!

              “Watch out!” At the same time my friend is screaming so, I fell on the ground, from the tree. Having mud all over myself, I checked my right hand. I got it, there was the “fruit”.

              My friends were hurrying to me. “I got it” I said. That fruit was in my hand. Of course it still looked dirty, weird, and nasty. However, I didn’t know why but I strongly felt the significant presence. It was not like “clean” fruits in supermarket, nor in my refrigerator, though that heavy weight, a wild leaf left behind upon it, and the unprecedented feeling when I wrenched it off from the tree made it a special entity. Definitely, I took “food” by myself. I felt like I spend all of my energy into this nasty lump. In order to get just a one fruit, I had to get exhausted so much. After that, of course I ate it. The taste was… I don’t mention it here. Nevertheless, this experience became a special, precious, memorable one for me. When I firstly heard “eating a fruit on a tree”, what my intuition sensed was genuine. It was totally fantastic. I could feel how exhausting to get food, how interesting to get food, and how grateful to be able to get food. Of course when I got back to home, seeing my muddy clothes, my mother scolded me sharply, “What on earth did you do!?” But at that day, good smell of her cooking let me appreciate her, a little more than usual.