25 Mrs. Sato

"These plums are so sour, how can anyone eat them?" said Hana, as she cradled the fruit plate and continued to pop one green-skinned plum after another into her mouth. Jun tried one and felt his teeth might really be getting old, the plums were so sour he thought they might fall out.

Hana, having eaten her fill of sour plums, at dinner time, held her cheeks and lamented, "My teeth are going to dissolve from the sourness." After a bite of food, she moved her cheeks around and said, "My teeth feel like they've gone soft, I can't even chew the rice properly."

Jun took the plums away from her: "Enough, don't eat any more plums."

Fortunately, in a couple of days, their neighbors, Tadashi and his wife, came to visit. Tadashi's wife, a hearty and cheerful woman, saw that Hana couldn't eat due to morning sickness and went home to bring her a jar of homemade pickled radish.