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This article was published in the August 2017 of the Elohist
“Thank you, Sir! I could warm up thanks to you.”
“I’m glad I could help you. I hope you will find a good land and blossom beautiful flowers in the spring.”
Around the trunk of Mr. Oak, there is a big pile of dry leaves. The flower seeds that are scattered here and there, blown by the autumn wind, are hidden in between the leaves for a moment to warm up their cold bodies, and are now about to take off again.
“Hanbyeol, your legs must be tired! Let’s take a break here.”
After the flower seeds leave, a tall man comes with his little boy. He gathers the leaves, which were embracing the flower seeds a moment ago, and starts a fire. As he doesn’t see any wood to burn, he breaks off some of Mr. Oak’s branches and throws them in the fire. At that moment, Juju happens to be flying to Mr. Oak. He shrieks.
“Oh no you! What a bad human! I’ll go and teach him a lesson!”
Juju flies to the man with his beak clenched as if he’s going to peck on his head. But then Mr. Oak urgently stops him.
“I’m okay, Juju. It must be hard for the little boy to walk on this cold day.
As long as the boy can stay warm around the fire, I can give them my branches as many as they want.”
Juju can’t understand how Mr. Oak always says he’s okay with everything. Anyway, he decides not to do anything to the man because he doesn’t break off any more branches.
The branches and leaves crackle in the fire. The man and the boy sit next to each other
by the bonfire. The man looks up at Mr. Oak and exclaims.
“Wow! It is a great tree! I’m sure it has lots of acorns this year because the drought was severe this summer.”
“Dad, isn’t it hard to bear fruit if there is a severe drought?”
“Usually it is. But not for oak trees! I heard that while all the other trees can’t bear fruit, oak trees try harder and bear even more fruit. People say oak trees decide how much fruit they’re going to bear, depending on the condition of the field. Thanks to oak trees that bear much fruit when food is scarce, animals can fill their hungry stomachs. They are very good trees.”
Juju visited the oak tree every day from the spring of this year, so he knows very well how hard Mr. Oak tried to bear good fruit. Because of the severe drought, many thirsty animals left for another faraway forest to find water, and many trees in the forest gave up bearing fruit. However, Mr. Oak focused on bearing fruit with no complaints, despite the scorching summer sunlight. The typhoon that came after a long drought tried to break off his thick branches that had plentiful acorns, but he endured it. Thinking of it, Juju exclaims, looking at Mr. Oak that has almost bare branches with few fruit and leaves.
“Wow, Sir! You are awesome! I didn’t know that. I felt merely frustrated when you gave everything you had. I am sorry.”
Mr. Oak just smiles at Juju’s sudden apology.
“When I let go of all my fruit and leaves, I can finally bear the most beautiful fruit, because God gives me a great reward for giving everything to my friends. The moon’s coming up now. Wait and see.”
The man and the little boy, who warmed up sitting next to the bonfire, put out the fire completely and leave. The moon rises behind the mountain. The forest is colored in dark as if it puts a dark sheet over it, and the sky gets embroidered with the stars that have appeared with the moon. Along the Milky Way, the stars all assemble around Mr. Oak, as if they all promised to do so, and sit on each branch and shine brightly, as if they have always been Mr. Oak’s fruit.
Whenever the wind touches the forest gently and passes by it, the grass makes a sound of shivering. Along with that sound, the cricket choir and the stars sing together a gentle melody that seems to praise and comfort Mr. Oak that has sacrificed himself since spring. Juju’s eyes, looking at such an amazing scene, shine brightly, too. It’s such a beautiful night. That night, one acorn that Derry and Terry dropped waits quietly for spring, hiding himself under a big and flat rock beside the pond in the north. The little acorn falls asleep with a pounding heart, dreaming of becoming a starry oak tree.