Lee Jenny

 Lee Jenny

Pink Sugar Elephant

Translated from the Korean by Archana Madhavan

Pink Sugar Elephant was always crying because of the rain boots tight on his feet. But even if he wore rain boots that fit his feet he would still be crying. Because he’s been a crybaby ever since he was little and feet grow in secret anyway. The second pink sugar elephant spoke. That said, it’s not that there were two elephants. It’s not that there were two sacks of sugar or two spans of pink. There was no hill either but even today Pink Sugar Elephant lay on a hill, eating sugar and thinking of pink. He had never thought about elephants. Or had he? Had he forgotten because it was so long ago? Sugar, when he pronounces the word saliva gathers in his mouth. Silly, all sugar melts. It’s only a matter of time until you become fat. Seasons went by and Pink Sugar Elephant became Pink Sugar Balloon. No, that’s not right. Pink Sugar Elephant became Pink Balloon Balloon. No, that’s not right either. Pink Sugar Elephant became Balloon Balloon Balloon. You have nothing to do, do you? No, of course not of course not. Balloon Balloon Balloon was upset that even though he had changed his name there had been no change in how people treated him. It’s not that they were casually rude but he didn’t get the sense he was loved either. It would’ve even been nice to be treated casually like close friends do one another. Balloon Balloon Balloon deliberately held up one of the abandoned rain boots and as he savored the already melted sugar he gazed at the pink sugar elephant floating away in the sky. It was like a cloud and like a memory and like a teardrop. Between the feathers of an unblowing wind Balloon Balloon Balloon’s no-longer-present tail fluttered once. No, it fluttered twice. No, it fluttered thrice. PinkSugarElephantBalloonCloud. What a great name. Yesterday I decided not to talk about sadness anymore.