Lemonade Angel
by K.G. Song
Sitting by the window of her bedroom, Marie watched Mrs. Hong dragging her worn-out shopping cart behind her. Mrs. Hong stopped every ten steps or so and rested. Whenever she stopped for a rest, she touched her chest as if she wanted to make sure her heart was okay.
Marie noticed that the shopping cart contained only a few items as usual. Marie’s mother said Mrs. Hong makes a trip to the market almost every day for exercise more than shopping. The round trip would take almost two hours for Mrs. Hong even though the market was only a mile away.
It was barely ten o’clock in the morning, but the blazing summer sun beat down everything with relentless and blinding brightness. Sweat covered Mrs. Hong’s face and her thin dress stuck to her body as if she had just come out of a swimming pool.
Marie ran down to the kitchen. With a glass of cool lemonade, she ran outside and offered it to Mrs. Hong. Mrs. Hong smiled at Marie and accepted the lemonade with a bow. She drank it with delight and handed the empty glass back to Marie with a bow. Mrs. Hong did not speak English well, but her gentle smile and humble bows won over many people in the neighborhood.
Mrs. Hong came from a faraway country when the country was torn apart by a war. She and her son walked many miles to escape from the country when her village was bombed, and her home destroyed.
Marie’s church sponsored to bring Mrs. Hong and her son to the United States. For several years, they lived in a cottage at the church. Her son grew up and lived in the city, working at a university hospital as a doctor, but Mrs. Hong refused to move from her new hometown.
“Why do you touch your chest once in a while?” Marie couldn’t stop herself from asking when Mrs. Hong touched the chest one more time before she got ready for the next ten steps.
Mrs. Hong pulled the chain around her neck and pulled out a simple wooden cross. “I ask … God for help.”
“Oh, does God help you?”
“Yes, all the time. God just sent an angel. You.” Mrs. Hong pointed at Marie with a big smile and made a deep bow.
About the Writer
K.G. Song lives in Los Angeles in Southern California with his wife and a parrot. After rediscovering the joy of creative writing during the pandemic lockdown, he continues to craft flash fictions, short stories, and poems each day as he learns the art of writing as well as how to retire properly after many splendid adventures in life in Christ.
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Image is in the Public Domain.
