The Day I Swallowed a Watermelon Seed

One day during snack time, Peter was enjoying some tasty watermelon. Bite — spit — spit — chew — swallow — gulp — . Peter’s eyes grew big when he felt the lump of a watermelon seed in his throat, he tried to cough it up, but it was too late…the watermelon seed made its way down to his tummy!!

Dave, Peter’s older brother, gets up from his seat across the room to put his arm around his little brother’s shoulder. “What’s wrong lil’ bro?” Peter tells him what happened, and with a hopeful gleam in his eye, he mutters “what are you supposed to do when you swallow a watermelon seed?” as he looked at his older brother for guidance on how to deal with his new found problem.

Dave looks at his innocent little brother, pondering the idea of telling him the truth, or seeing what fun he could have by stretching the truth a little bit…he leans in a bit closer to his little brother and whispers in his ear “well I don’t know if I should let you in on the secret, but there is a way to reverse it…you my little brother, have a baby watermelon growing inside of you this very minute!!!! But wait, don’t panic yet, there is a way to fix it, if you do it just right.”

Peter looks up to his brother, and begs him to tell him the solution to his problem, he says “anything! I’ll do anything!! What do I have to do first?!!”

Dave thinks for a second, finally realizing, all the fun he’s going to have with this, “first, you need to make you sure you are eating twice as much as you usually do, because the baby watermelon will need food too. Don’t you dare eat anymore watermelon today though, because that will make the baby watermelon stay hiding inside your belly longer, until it feels safe to come out.”

“But if I keep it alive in my tummy, won’t it stay there longer?” Peter questioned. Dave replies, “If you make it feel comfortable, it will think it can come out and live a happy life outside of your stomach, and trust that you will take good care of it. We will trick it to come out. Now go take a nap, you need to get plenty of rest, it’s going to be a long day. Come to me right before you go to the store with mom.”

Peter wakes up from his nap and discovers that Dave has written up a list for him to take to the store, it said:

Napkins for diapers

Baking powder as a replacement for baby powder

A blanket

Don’t tell mom why you need these items, or the plan won’t work!

Peter goes to the store with his mom, he thought about how he would get the items without his mom asking him why he needed the stuff, so he made a plan. They got to the store, and Peter asked his mom if he could go get a cookie, she said “sure honey, I’ll be right over there in the produce section.” He used the time that it would have seemed like it would take to get a cookie, to run around the store looking for the things on the list that Dave had made him. It took less time than he had expected, but he still ran when he approached the cart, and he put everything in as quietly as he could. Suddenly, just as he had placed the last item in the cart, his mom turned around to put some watermelon in the cart and she jumped when she saw him, because she didn’t expect him to come back so soon. She looked at the cart and noticed that it looked like it had more in it than it had had when she turned around to get the watermelon, but she ignored it, thinking that she had probably put some stuff in without realizing it. Peter and his mom finished their shopping and went to check out. Peter’s mom put everything on the conveyor (or moving counter top, as he liked to call it), then as the cashier scanned the groceries, she looked at the items that peter had sneakily put in the cart, and asked him what he got the stuff for, peter panicked and said any excuse that would come to mind “ummm the baking powder is for…. Cookies!! Yeah…. We didn’t uh have much left. The napkins are for hmmm…..uh they’re to wipe my mouth after the cookies…..and ummm a blanket is so that I can…..uhhhh…..stay warm while the oven steals all the warm air in the room….for ummm baking the…..cookies!!” The cashier just laughed. “Wow, that’s quite an imagination you have there, Hun. No baking cookies until after dinner though, ok?” Peter’s mom replied. Peter smiled at his mom, happy that she just went with his crazy explanation, replied “ok mommy,” then they walked out the store and drove home.

When they got home, Peter was thirsty for a glass of milk, he got one cup of milk, went to the living room and watched TV while drinking it. Once he finished his milk, he remembered what Dave had told him. Dave’s words replayed in his mind “you’re going to have to eat twice as much food if you want the baby watermelon to come out soon,” with Dave’s words of advice running through his head he went into the kitchen and got an extra glass of milk for the baby watermelon inside of him. Peter smiled with pride in himself for remembering what Dave had told him to do.

Peter went in search inside his house for all the stuff his mom used for him when he was a baby, like his old crib, baby books, toys, and play pen. Once he found all of the stuff he gathered it all into a corner in his room, he called the corner ‘Seedie’s corner’. Peter picks up one of the books, and starts reading it to himself. The thought occurs to him that since Seedie was inside of him, would she hear him better if he read out loud or inside his head, he decided that reading in his head would obviously be the better choice, because Seedie was inside of him after all! So she probably could hear his thoughts just as easily as he could.

After reading Seedie the book, he prepared her crib for her arrival in the morning. Peter put a thin sheet inside the bottom of the crib, with the small blanket that he had bought earlier that day, on top. Then he decided to go downstairs and take a big mixing bowl from the cupboard, and bring it upstairs to the crib. Then he put it in with the small blanket laying in it instead, because Seedie was a watermelon, she would be round, so if he put her in the crib, she’d be tossing and rolling all night in search for a comfy position, but with the bowl, she wouldn’t have to worry about the discomfort.

Once Peter was done making Seedie’s bed he organized all of her toys and books, arranging them so that her area was perfect. When Peter was finishing up with making ‘Seedie’s corner’ he heard his mom call him for dinner. He groaned to himself thinking of the thought of putting more food inside his belly, he felt like he was about to explode. He reluctantly came downstairs, went into the kitchen, and got two servings of everything. After finishing one serving of all the food, he sat there staring at what was left for him to eat, he put his hands on his stomach patting it as in a way to say I’m so sorry I am causing you so much pain belly!! Dave laughed in amusement as Peter kept trudging through his plate of food not because he was hungry, but as if he was on a mission that had to be finished. Peter’s mom looked at the disgusted look on his face as he kept shoveling food into his mouth. With pity in her voice, she said “honey are you ok? You know you don’t have to eat all of that food, it is quite a lot for your size,” Peter looked at his mom and quickly changed his frown to a smile and replied “uhhh yeah I’m super-duper hungry tonight, that’s all…” his mom stared at him in disbelief of what he was saying, but said “ok hun, just don’t make yourself sick.”

A while later Peter finished his food and went up to his bedroom to lay on his bed. He felt miserable, he whispered to his tummy “Seedie I hope you’re full, because eating so much food for the both of us is sure making me sick.” Dave chuckles from the doorway as he hears his little brother speak to his stomach, Peter turns around and says “Dave why isn’t Seedie eating any of the food I’m giving her? I keep feeling sick because she isn’t eating her share,” Dave looks at his poor little brother, feeling bad that he is causing him this pain, but still in amusement of how gullible he was for going along with all of it, he said “oh it’s probably ummm morning sickness…” then peter says “but don’t you only get that in the morning?” Dave replies “umm well it’s called morning sickness because it’s the worst in the mornings,” Peter frowns at the thought that this feeling could get worse and says “aww manL, that’s a bummer.”

Peter wakes up the next morning and Dave was right, his stomach felt like it had flip flopped, it seemed as if all the food he had consumed was still following the river of milk he had inside of him, to his stomach, it was a never ending stream of rapids (food pains), making their way down to the digestion dock in his belly, disappearing, only to bring more in their place. He went downstairs for breakfast and sat at the table with his family, to eat, he moaned to himself, from the pain of the food inside him. His mom said “Peter are you sure you’re not sick? Do we need to take you to the doctor?” Peter considered it for a second, thinking maybe they could remove the baby watermelon while they fixed his tummy ache, but he realized that they may not know the cure to watermelon babies yet, so he kept his trust in what Dave had told him, and said “no mommy, I’m fine.” then Peter looks over at Dave “I bet it’s just the morning sickness. Right Dave?” Peter’s mom looks at Dave and says “Dave what did you tell your little brother?” Dave says “uhhh I may have told him that when you swallow a watermelon seed, it starts growing inside of you as a baby watermelon….” “Dave!!! How could you tell him that!! The poor things is sick to his stomach, what else did you tell him?!?” “I told him that he needed to…..eat twice as much food for the watermelon inside of him to grow and then come out in the morning….” Peter cuts into the conversation and says “you lied to me?!L” Dave then looks at his little brother feeling terrible for what he did and says “yeah… I’m so sorry little bro, it’s just that you were so gullible….” Peter’s mom gives Dave a stern look, and says to him “Dave that wasn’t a nice thing to do to your little brother, you are going to get a punishment for what you did to him, one from me and one from Peter. My punishment is that you are grounded for two weeks, and if Dave would like, later if he is feeling up to it, you can make him those cookies he was talking about. What punishment do you want to give Dave, peter?” peter looks at his mom then at Dave and replies “I don’t want to give him a punishment… I think that it should be punishment enough to know the pain that he put me through L” Peter’s mom looks at her good little boy and is touched by how sweet he could be to Dave after what he had put him through.

Dave learned his lesson on being mean to his little brother, by seeing him so hurt, he never tricked Peter ever again, because he knew how much pain that little prank had caused him.

The end