One more bite, one more laugh.
One for Later
Jun and Lian each had a stick of candied fruit.
Jun had chosen his because the fruit at the top was the largest. Lian had chosen hers because she liked the way the sugar caught the light.
They sat on a low wooden beam at the side of the path, with their shoes just touching the ground.
“I’m saving the last one for home,” Jun said.
Lian looked at her stick. “I’ll save mine too.”
Jun took a careful bite from the top fruit. The sugar cracked.
Lian listened.
“That was loud.”
“Yours will be louder.”
“How do you know?”
“It looks shinier.”
Lian took a bite. Her sugar cracked too, though she wasn’t sure it was louder.
They considered taking another bite to compare, but Jun remembered their agreement.
“We should keep the last one,” he said.
“I know.”
“The one at the bottom.”
Lian turned her stick upside down.
“Now it’s at the top.”
Which One Is Last?
Jun swallowed before answering.
“The last one is the one nearest your hand.”
“Even if I turn it?”
“Yes.”
Lian turned it back. “Then why did we start at the other end?”
“Because that’s the first one.”
“It wasn’t when I held it this way.”
Jun looked at her stick. Then he looked at his own.
“We need a rule.”
“We have one. Save the last one.”
“We need a rule about which one it is.”
He pointed to the fruit nearest his hand.
“This one.”
Lian pointed to the fruit at the top of hers.
“I thought it was this one.”
“But you’ve bitten that.”
“Only a little.”
Jun considered the tooth mark in the sugar.
“Can it still be saved?”
“I think so.”
“For later?”
“For another bite.”
Jun agreed that this was possible, though he was not sure it helped.
A Fair Rule
They decided not to touch whichever fruit they were saving.
Lian held her stick very still. Jun moved his to his other hand so he could point.
“That one’s mine,” he said.
“I thought you were saving the bottom one.”
“I am.”
“You’re pointing at the one above it.”
Jun looked down. His finger was on the wrong fruit.
“I wasn’t touching the bottom one.”
“You were touching the one you pointed to.”
“That wasn’t the one I meant.”
Lian turned her stick slowly, examining the fruit from all sides.
“Does turning it count as touching?”
“Not if they stay where they are.”
She turned it again. The fruit at the top brushed her sleeve.
“Oh.”
A small shiny mark appeared on the fabric.
Jun offered her the clean corner of his handkerchief. Lian pressed it against the mark, then held the cloth up.
“Now your handkerchief is sticky.”
“It was clean when I gave it to you.”
“Then it’s had an interesting afternoon.”
When she returned the handkerchief, Jun noticed that she had one fewer fruit than he did.
“You ate another one.”
“While you were making the rule.”
“We weren’t supposed to.”
“We were supposed to save the last one. I haven’t reached it.”
Jun counted both sticks again. He still had three fruits. Lian had two.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” he said.
Lian looked at his stick. “Do you want me to wait while you eat one?”
“No. Then we’d both have two.”
“Yes.”
Jun thought for a moment.
“I could wait while you have another.”
“Then I’d only have one.”
“Yes.”
They looked at each other. Lian began to laugh.
Jun tried to keep a serious face, but the fruit on his stick wobbled when his hand shook.
The Same One
“Perhaps we can each choose which one to save,” Lian said.
“Any one?”
“As long as we don’t eat it until we get home.”
Jun studied his stick. The largest fruit at the top was already half-eaten. He chose the one nearest his hand.
Lian chose the fruit nearest hers.
“That’s the same place,” Jun said.
“It is.”
“Did you choose it because I did?”
“No. I thought you were right about the bottom one.”
“You said the top one was last.”
“I did. Then I turned it back.”
Jun stood and held his stick carefully away from his clothes. Lian climbed down from the beam, keeping hers upright.
They walked a few steps.
“What happens if the one I’ve chosen falls off?” Jun asked.
“You can choose another.”
“Even after we’ve started walking?”
“I think that should be allowed.”
“And if yours falls off?”
“You can help me find it.”
They reached the corner where the road divided. Jun checked his stick. His chosen fruit was still there. Lian’s was still there too.
“Do we need another rule for tomorrow?” he asked.
“Are we getting more tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then let’s decide after we’ve chosen them.”
Jun agreed. It seemed easier to make the rules when they had something to hold.
At home, he showed his mother the fruit he had saved.
“Was it the last one?” she asked.
Jun looked at the two fruits above it.
“It will be.”
He took a bite from the top one. The sugar cracked.
He listened carefully, but Lian was already around the corner, and he couldn’t hear whether hers was louder.
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