By HeeSun K

Today in art class, we did drawing. 

The teacher told us to draw faces of our mom and dad to prepare for Parents’ Day happening in few days. Most of my classmates drew their mom’s face. I wanted to draw my mom too but I couldn’t remember her face. I was told that my mom went to heaven after giving birth to me. It’s sad I don’t even have a picture of my mom. Even seeing her once would have been a treasure for me.So instead, I drew my dad’s face. 

Holding the apricot colored pastel crayon, I drew his facial line on a white paper, then the nose, eyes, mouth and ears. When I was drawing my dad’s glasses as a last step, Chulwoo came up behind me and suddenly hit my hand for no reason.

“Dumbass Chulwoo! The glasses got messed up because of you!” I cried.

“Come on, that’s not a big deal. You just need to draw that again.” He snickered.

“Do you want my new crayons?” He boasted.

“Mine is very expensive, and I bet it’s going to make you draw even better.

Look! My dad bought it for me from his business trip.” He beamed.

“And yours? They’re all worn out. How do you even use that?” He smirked.

“What are you doing? Stop making fun of me now!”

I pushed Chulwoo down hard and fast on the floor, surprising him. I got up quickly and grabbed his neck with both hands. The fight continued and our classmates gathered around in crowd to watch us scrapping. 

“Dongha, beat him!” Cried a classmate.

“Chulwoo, you can do it!” Cried another.

“Hey, stop you two! You guys will get in trouble.”

As Sohee was trying to calm two of us down, the teacher came into the room. 

“What is this mess?” She demanded.

The teacher shouted and the whole crowd into a cold silence.

“Did you two make this mess when I was not around? Who started?” 

“It’s Dongha who pushed me first.” Chulwoo said in a tearful squeak.

“Is that true, Dongha?”

“Because he ruined my drawing and made fun of me for no reason.”

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t fight with your classmate for that reason?”

I looked at floor with no answer.

“I’ll have to ask you to write an apology letter, with your father’s signature on it.”

“No way!” I shrieked.

“What why don’t you understand?” She said.

“That’s not fair!” I shot back angrily.

“Now, everyone go back to your place. Sit down!”

The teacher didn’t listen to me: Chulwoo hit me too… It was not fair… I thought.

It’s him who ruined my drawing from the first place… Besides, he upset me!

Suddenly, tears ran down my cheeks and blurred my sight. 

My dad read my apology letter that evening and sighed deeply. 

“Tell him sorry when you go to school tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to! I’m not going to talk to him! He ruined my drawing and made fun of me.”

“Why did he make fun of you?”

“He laughed at my old crayons.”

“Are they all worn out?”

“I thought they are just fine. I can still use them.”

“Can you show it to me? Let me take a look.”

Dad looked at my crayons and didn’t say a word.

The next day, late at night, dad came home drunk.It was my first time to see my dad drunk. I was so worried about him.I had to support him from stumbling and helped him lie down on the floor. 

“Dongha! I bought a present for you.” He slurred. Dad handed me the present while lying down on the floor.I took off his jacket, hung it on a chair, and covered him with a blanket;gently removing his glasses and put them on the table. Then, with excitement, I finally opened the present. My heart beat faster as I unwrapped the paper.

“Wow~ It’s new crayons!” I exclaimed with joy. I opened the crayon box: “Look at these colors! Oh! So beautiful!”I rejoiced with eyes as big as saucers.In the box, 48 color crayons laid side by side; 24 more colors than my old crayon box!

Papa must have fallen asleep. I could hear him snore. I went back to my room and took out my sketchbook. I wanted to draw my dad’s face again from scratch. I took out crayons and drew my dad’s face.I could feel the smooth and nice texture of the crayon. As I scrabbled on paper, the crayons made a nice sound. I truly felt like I was drawing better than before. As I drew more and more, I started yawning.

“Haaaa … .” 

Somewhere, I began to hear a beautiful melody: it was not a piano or a xylophone sound. When I faced towards where the music was coming from, it was rather like the sound of a bellfrom a silver lining in the sky.I could see the crayons fly up to the sky spinning round and round and round; dancing to the rhythm of the music that sounded like flowing water in a brook on a sunny spring day.The crayon fairies flew freely in the sky and started to draw using many magic wandsthat sprinkled silver powder to make a face, eyes, a nose, and a mouth and ears.As two legs were drawn, the lady’s pink skirt blew with the wind and the crayon fairies spread apart.A bright light beamed and she began to move slowly.

“Huh? Who is that?” I exclaimed.

“Dongha~” She said softly and she walked towards me with her arms wide open. 

I was stunned and couldn’t say a single word.

“Dongha, my darling!” Her tender voice sounded like an angel from heaven.

“Mom? It’s mom! I am sure it’s my mom!” I cried to myself.

“Mom! Mamma!” I kept crying out.

I ran towards mother as fast as I can to reach her arms and when I reached her, 

she hugged me tightly.

“Mamma!” I wept softly in her bosom.

The air was filled with the scent of My Mother, My Mamma.

I woke up from the dream, surprised by my dad’s snoring. The dream was so vivid that I still felt the presence of my mom. I’ve never seen her in my life before and I didn’t have any memories about her;so, to not forget her, I began to draw my mom to capture her face.

“Mamma!”

In my drawing, she is smiling at me gently. 

A tear drop rolls down slowly and falls on my Mamma’s face in the drawing. 

“Mom, I will never ever forget you.”

I wiped my tears and looked at my sleeping dad; his beard looked shabby than usual. I picked up my new crayons again and drew his portrait. I colored his face, his beard with black dots and, finally, his glasses. My dad looked great. 

Mamma and Papa lay side by side in my drawings with a happy smile.I whispered in my dad’s ear.

“Papa, I love you. Thank you so much.”

HeeSun K is a student in University in the Community. She arrived in Toronto from South Korea in September, 2018. Shortly after her arrival, she met a student on College Street who, upon hearing of her interests, handed her a copy of Learning Curves. “You should go here,” he suggested, pointing to an article about UitC. On September 26th, the first day of classes, HeeSun sat proudly in the classroom at Innis College and became a valued member of UitC.