Under the Mango Tree: 101 Tales (5)

SWALLOWING SEEDS

Challenge No. 93. Planting the Seed.

Did you ever hear the myth that if you swallowed a watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow in your stomach? If Jack had swallowed the magic beans instead of planting them, could he have gained magical powers? Write a scene or story in which a character swallows a seed.

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The kitchen was an ode to the tamarind fruit. Leah was in full mode, making jams and balls and juices. Her son Dwight and her brother Dennis hovered.

"Ow!" Dennis yelled as Leah tapped his hand.

"Then don't touch!"

"But mum!" Dwight defended his uncle. "Can't we have one tamarind ball? Just one?"

"Allu just here to eat my profits. If I keep giving away, how am I supposed to pay my bills?"

Dwight crossed his arms and pouted.

Dennis fished out a five-dollar bill. "Da Lady. Four tamarind balls please?"

Leah growled. "Look!" And shoved the sweet towards the duo.

"Mèsi." Dennis grinned.

"Dwight, put that money in my pocket." Leah thrust her hip out. Accepted the payment and returned to work.

"Mmmmm these are gooood." Dennis snapped his lips.

"Yeah." Dwight cooed.

"It is from the tree in the yard?" Dennis asked.

"No, we were in the bush on the hill. There is a big tree up there." Dwight revealed.

"Really? You must show me."

"Sure! We're going next weekend."

"Don't swallow the seeds. Donald is collecting them to plant." Leah interjected.

"Really? He's going to try to get plants from these seeds? What if I swallow them instead." Dennis said.

"Only crazy you will do that. Besides.... you never hear the myth that if you swallowed a watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow in your stomach? Same thing for the tamarind."

Both man and boy burst out laughing.

"Well... I'm just saying." Leah ended.

The following weekend Dennis showed up as promised.

"Uncle Dennis, you don't look well."

"I don't feel well. I feel thick. Wooden."

"Dennis, I warned you!" Leah screeched.

"Oh, give it a break!" Dennis snapped let's go tamarind picking."

As the days and weeks went by, Dennis got sicker and sicker.

"What's wrong with him!" The family kept asking but the doctors had no answers. Then... whatever ailed Dennis, also killed him. The autopsy revealed heart failure.

"Heart failure my tamarind ball." Leah snorted.

"... And that's the story of my Uncle Dennis." A now, adult Dwight told his son.

"What does that have to do with this tamarind tree?" The child wondered.

"Oh, I didn't say?"

"No."

"Well, he wanted to be buried out here, so my mum did and before we knew it this tamarind tree grew on the spot."

"Daaaddd."

"Hey! Don't look at me. You must have heard your grandma say that if you swallowed a watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow in your stomach."

"Well, yeah."

"There you go."

"So, you're saying that Uncle Dennis swallowed a tamarind seed and a tree grew up in his stomach?"

"Yerp."

© 1 June 2022