Almost Lover

Peachland

I became obsessed with peaches at a very young age, in kindergarten to be precise, just after my grandmother told me my parents lived in Peachland.

Halmeoni said I came to this world in a giant peach that aimlessly floated in an eastward-flowing river in the outskirts of Chiba. My grandparents supposedly found me after the giant peach wedged itself against a tree log in the river bank, not too far from their house.

Of course, this story was a lie. But I didn’t know any better back then. I honestly thought I came to this world just like Momotaro, the Japanese folklore hero who came to Earth in a peach that floated down a river. I thought some kids were just born that way.

“You are not an orphan, Sunmi-chan. You have parents. The only reason why they could not come here and live with us is that they couldn’t find a peach big enough to fit them.” These were my grandmother’s soothing words everytime I came home from school crying because the kids made fun of me for having no parents.

Halmeoni was not a liar. At least she didn’t want to be. She just didn’t want to reveal to me at a very young age the reality of what happened to my parents, of how the family drove them away.

“Where is Peachland?” I had asked my grandmother.

“It’s a far, faraway place,” was always her answer.

I was ten when I found out that the story was a hoax, but even then, even after that lie broke my heart, I still wanted it to be real. I might have not come to Earth in a peach, but I knew there was a Peachland somewhere, a place where my parents lived.

A few months ago, my cousin told me “Peachland” is in Korea.