LB11

"Rem! Are you done yet?", Mellow called out. He was watering his plants while waiting for Rem to dress up. "hurry up or we might miss the show later on!"

The show that he was referring to was The amazing world of gumball. Apparently, the two of them had became obsessed with the show.

"I'm ready!", Rem rushed towards Mellow. "Catch your breath first, we're not in that big of a rush", he patted the boy's head. After locking the front door, the two of them set off to school. As they chatted throughout their way, they had reached the old woman's house. Usually during this time, Mellow would be helping the old woman with her plants and trees.

"moww... ", something warm and furry rubbed against Mellow's legs. It was Paste, the old woman's cat.

"Hello there", he greeted as Rem picked it up and held it in his arms.

"shall we go see granny first?", Mellow pointed towards the way that leads behind the house. Rem nodded and the two of them, including Paste went around the house. Surely enough, the old woman was there, harvesting some fresh red tomatoes.

"Granny!" "Grandma!!"

The two of them shouted in synch, making the old woman startled. "Wah! Oh, it's you two dearies", she sighed in relief. "oh that's right, Mellow! Rem!", she shouted.

"Follow me!", she said while making a following gesture. She took a long knife for cutting off branches and entered the forest behind her garden. Mellow told Rem to hold on to him in case he trips.

"Watch your steps, dearies. We're almost there", said the old woman while clearing some of the long branches to make it easier to get through.

"Where's grandma taking us?", Rem asked Mellow while walking carefully. "To be honest, I don't know either. It's my first time entering these parts of the forest", Mellow answered. Although he might know where she was leading them. If his guts are correct, she'll be showing them her lemon tree. However, it didn't change the fact that he felt tired after walking so long.

"Granny! Are you sure you're not lost?", he asked. The old woman didn't respond. Instead, she took out an old folded paper from her pocket and unfold it. "It looked like a treasure map", Mellow thought as he saw an X mark on the paper. "Since this tree has a blue mark, then it must be... that way!", She muttered to herself. "Come on you two, hurry up! ", she called them as she wandered off towards a certain path.

"ughh.. ", Mellow grunted. "Come on, let's catch up to her"

Rem nodded and held Mellow's left hand. "Grandma walks so fast", he commented.

"She's probably a witch or something", Mellow replied almost instantly. After walking for some time, the old woman stopped in front of a lemon tree. Although the tree was 3 metres tall, it didn't have any lemons.

"Here we are, my old lemon tree", she said proudly while giving the tree a few soft pats. Rem leaned closer to the tree. He was excited to see the lemon tree, even if there weren't any lemons.

"It's really big, Mellow!", Rem commented with his eyes glimmering. "Heh, you adorable kid", Mellow thought to himself as Rem ran off to examine the tree from leaves to roots.

"How long have you grew this tree?", Mellow asked.

The old woman took a second before answering, "I think my late husband and I planted this tree about 40 years ago"

Mellow was shocked. If it was that old, then it should be covered with countless lemons that are enough to last a lifetime.

"...there's no way that this tree never bear any lemons", Mellow pointed out. "Even if there's something wrong with the tree, it should have produced a lemon or two"

The old woman took a moment and replied, "however, 6 years after, a lemon grew right here", she pointed a branch with white markings on it. "The day that it produced the lemon was the same week when I gave birth to my daughter"

She continued, "after another 5 years, my husband had left this world and a few days after his death, the leaves wilted for days. I kept feeding it with fertiliser but it wasn't useful. But I kept on trying and trying and eventually, it got healthy again. Until, the lemon from the tree become rotten around 8 years ago"