A Bite of Yellow

   
I've never met a plum I didn't like, but the yellow are myfavorites. They remind me of a Danish plum sort called reinekloder. They havethe same contrast of a very tart skin and a sweet flesh - wait, that sounded abit cannibalistic - albeit a bit more watery than the Danish variety.
These little globes of sunshine are only available for abouta month every summer. I miss them in the depths of winter and start looking forwardto them before the height of summer. I feel about these yellow plums the way Ifeel about Ontario strawberries,but the strawberries now last from June well into September.
I had a bag of four yellow plums in my fridge for while andwas spacing them out, wanting to extend this part of summer for as long as Icould. It's been almost a month since the season for yellow plums ended andearlier this week, I realized I need to be careful about how much slowly I eatthem or they might go bad. By this morning, there were two left. Now there’sone.
I took the other out of the fridge, holding it in my left handas I moved to the sink, the cold seeping through my skin. I rinsed it under thewarm water, taking the chill of the fridge off. Watching the drops of water dewthe yellow skin, stripes of ripe and more-ripe flesh visible underneath, Icouldn't feel my mouth gear up for the joy that is to come. I leaned in overthe sink and took the first bite.
I feel the give of skin under my teeth with its accompanyingtart flavour. Past the skin, I sink into the inside of the plum and the insidesinks into me. An inside that is so ripe it is almost liquid. I take a bite andthen another, the mix of the sweet mush and the almost-crunch of the tart skin makingmy taste buds slightly confused, but very happy. The plum is so ripe I can suckout the pit after only a few bites and then I eat the rest of it, juicesdripping down my hand. It is like eating liquid sunshine.
This is happiness.