This one is for Lacey, who correctly guessed that I had already imagined where my wonderful watermelon that I ate yesterday may have come from. Enjoy. :o)
Keeku's Melon
There once was a raccoon named Keeku, who was always very curious. She was also always very hungry. She lived in a little forest by the Rushing River, and each night in the summer she would wend her way through the forest, through the bracken, past the Wise Old Tree and to the field where a large patch of the best and most beautiful watermelons grew. Using her clever little paws, she would carefully knock on the rind of each melon and cock her black ears and listen intently. When she found the one that sounded perfectly hollow and shined just right in the moonlight, she would pick it and roll, roll, roll it into the river. There it would land on her special rock, a rock that had been hollowed out by the water until it was the exact shape of a melon.
While the melon sat in the cold, clear water, Keeku would lounge lazily on the bank of the river, making a hammock from the willow branches. She would dip one clever little paw into the water and pull out a minnow, munch on it and gaze up at the stars (Keeku was never far from food, and her favorite forms of relaxing always involved eating). She loved watching the stars move through the sky while a minnow wriggled in her gullet. She could imagine moving through space with them, seeing the Archer string his bow, listening to the Lion roar and the Bear amble through trails of stardust. How shiny the stars were! If there was one thing she loved more than melon, it was something beautiful and shiny and those stars were the shiniest creatures she had ever seen.
She wondered how they would taste. Would they be cold and hard like the river rock and heavy in her tummy? Or light and sweet like the summer air? If only she could pick them like the berries in the fall, hold them in her paws, twirl them and spin them and then gobble them up!
Once her melon was perfectly chilled, she would pick up the round and heavy fruit and, with an expert hand, very carefully crack it open on a pointy rock she reserved just for this purpose. With a “CRACK!” the melon would split into 4 juicy pieces, and while she nibbled on the sweet and cool, firm flesh she would look up at the stars with longing. She did this so long and so often that by the time the stars went to bed and she was making her way back through the bracken to her comfy tree just before day break, she would have swirls of stardust in her eyes.
The Wise Old Tree saw this and grew worried. One night as Keeku was passing by on her way to the river bank, she spoke to her. “Keeku, I have grown here for many, many years. My seed was planted when the Rushing River was just a Chortling Creek and the Watermelon Field was full of wildflowers that were still wild. I grew up under the stars and have seen more of them than the world can ever count. So heed my warning! There are many things in the night sky besides stars and it won’t due to miss them but for the stardust swirls in your eyes.”
Keeku clicked and giggled and thanked the Wise Old Tree, but waved off her warning with a clever little paw and headed for her favorite place on the river bank, rolling a watermelon along in front of her.
Soon she was sitting and eating the sweet, juicy melon (cooled to perfection by the cold, clear water) and the stardust was swirling in her eyes once more. She wished with all her heart that she could go up, up, up from her willow hammock, up past the branches of even the Wise Old Tree, past the Moldy Cheese Moon and into the delicious and shining stars.
But stars, of course, are not berries to be picked or rocks in a river. Some are vast planets and suns and moons, larger than Keeku’s entire imagination. They are alive! Some are just being born into the universe, some are leaving it in spectacular bursts of color and light…and some are not actually stars at all.
While Keeku stared up into the blackness of space, admiring the beautiful stars and longing to reach out to them, hold them and gobble them up, something was staring back at her. His shiny eyes watched her closely, and with longing! She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and how he longed for a friend to ramble with through the starry night.
Vulpecula, or as the Wise Old Tree called him “Little Fox”, had stared down at Keeku every summer night since she was just a kit, splashing in the river water and rolling around her strange little snacks. He had watched her grow bigger and cleverer, finding the perfect rock on which to place her melon so that the river water would not sweep it away. He watched her quick little paws crack open the melons and wondered what they would taste like. Would they be light and sweet like the shooting stars? Or perhaps they would be hard and heavy like blackness of space?
Suddenly, he just had to know! He reached out and grasped the handle of the Big Dipper with his teeth, pulled it out of its resting place in the sky, and with a rush of air and a trail of stardust, “scoop!” went the dipper and he scooped Keeku right out of her willow hammock and up into the sky with him, watermelon and all! All that was left behind was a single watermelon seed from Keeku’s last bite.
The Wise Old Tree shook her leaves and sighed. She had seen the new constellation appear in the night sky, and knew that she would never again hear Keeku’s clicks and giggles here in her forest. Still, she was as happy as a Wise Old Tree can be. Now Keeku could play each night among the stars that had so enchanted her, with Vulpecula at her side. Together, they could taste the cosmos, greedily gobbling up only the sweetest and most beautiful star fruit throughout the vast universe. The Wise Old Tree just hoped they left some stars in the sky for her enjoyment!
And what of that watermelon seed, left sitting on the mud of the river bank in the perfect indentation of Keeku’s clever paw? It burrowed in, deeper and deeper into the mud until it began to swell and grow. It drank in the river water and the starlight and grew larger and larger until the vine stretched all along the bank of the Rushing River. Soon, it began to bear fruit, the small green orbs ripening in moonlight. Just like Keeku, the stardust began to swirl through the melons, leaving its mark on their beautiful, red flesh. All the animals who ate these wonderful melons would look up at the night stars with longing, wondering how they would taste. Surely, they would taste just like this.
While the melon sat in the cold, clear water, Keeku would lounge lazily on the bank of the river, making a hammock from the willow branches. She would dip one clever little paw into the water and pull out a minnow, munch on it and gaze up at the stars (Keeku was never far from food, and her favorite forms of relaxing always involved eating). She loved watching the stars move through the sky while a minnow wriggled in her gullet. She could imagine moving through space with them, seeing the Archer string his bow, listening to the Lion roar and the Bear amble through trails of stardust. How shiny the stars were! If there was one thing she loved more than melon, it was something beautiful and shiny and those stars were the shiniest creatures she had ever seen.
She wondered how they would taste. Would they be cold and hard like the river rock and heavy in her tummy? Or light and sweet like the summer air? If only she could pick them like the berries in the fall, hold them in her paws, twirl them and spin them and then gobble them up!
Once her melon was perfectly chilled, she would pick up the round and heavy fruit and, with an expert hand, very carefully crack it open on a pointy rock she reserved just for this purpose. With a “CRACK!” the melon would split into 4 juicy pieces, and while she nibbled on the sweet and cool, firm flesh she would look up at the stars with longing. She did this so long and so often that by the time the stars went to bed and she was making her way back through the bracken to her comfy tree just before day break, she would have swirls of stardust in her eyes.
The Wise Old Tree saw this and grew worried. One night as Keeku was passing by on her way to the river bank, she spoke to her. “Keeku, I have grown here for many, many years. My seed was planted when the Rushing River was just a Chortling Creek and the Watermelon Field was full of wildflowers that were still wild. I grew up under the stars and have seen more of them than the world can ever count. So heed my warning! There are many things in the night sky besides stars and it won’t due to miss them but for the stardust swirls in your eyes.”
Keeku clicked and giggled and thanked the Wise Old Tree, but waved off her warning with a clever little paw and headed for her favorite place on the river bank, rolling a watermelon along in front of her.
Soon she was sitting and eating the sweet, juicy melon (cooled to perfection by the cold, clear water) and the stardust was swirling in her eyes once more. She wished with all her heart that she could go up, up, up from her willow hammock, up past the branches of even the Wise Old Tree, past the Moldy Cheese Moon and into the delicious and shining stars.
But stars, of course, are not berries to be picked or rocks in a river. Some are vast planets and suns and moons, larger than Keeku’s entire imagination. They are alive! Some are just being born into the universe, some are leaving it in spectacular bursts of color and light…and some are not actually stars at all.
While Keeku stared up into the blackness of space, admiring the beautiful stars and longing to reach out to them, hold them and gobble them up, something was staring back at her. His shiny eyes watched her closely, and with longing! She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and how he longed for a friend to ramble with through the starry night.
Vulpecula, or as the Wise Old Tree called him “Little Fox”, had stared down at Keeku every summer night since she was just a kit, splashing in the river water and rolling around her strange little snacks. He had watched her grow bigger and cleverer, finding the perfect rock on which to place her melon so that the river water would not sweep it away. He watched her quick little paws crack open the melons and wondered what they would taste like. Would they be light and sweet like the shooting stars? Or perhaps they would be hard and heavy like blackness of space?
Suddenly, he just had to know! He reached out and grasped the handle of the Big Dipper with his teeth, pulled it out of its resting place in the sky, and with a rush of air and a trail of stardust, “scoop!” went the dipper and he scooped Keeku right out of her willow hammock and up into the sky with him, watermelon and all! All that was left behind was a single watermelon seed from Keeku’s last bite.
The Wise Old Tree shook her leaves and sighed. She had seen the new constellation appear in the night sky, and knew that she would never again hear Keeku’s clicks and giggles here in her forest. Still, she was as happy as a Wise Old Tree can be. Now Keeku could play each night among the stars that had so enchanted her, with Vulpecula at her side. Together, they could taste the cosmos, greedily gobbling up only the sweetest and most beautiful star fruit throughout the vast universe. The Wise Old Tree just hoped they left some stars in the sky for her enjoyment!
And what of that watermelon seed, left sitting on the mud of the river bank in the perfect indentation of Keeku’s clever paw? It burrowed in, deeper and deeper into the mud until it began to swell and grow. It drank in the river water and the starlight and grew larger and larger until the vine stretched all along the bank of the Rushing River. Soon, it began to bear fruit, the small green orbs ripening in moonlight. Just like Keeku, the stardust began to swirl through the melons, leaving its mark on their beautiful, red flesh. All the animals who ate these wonderful melons would look up at the night stars with longing, wondering how they would taste. Surely, they would taste just like this.
1 comments:
Thanks for the dedication! I love your stories. All through reading that I could see the characters. You seriously need to write these things down - get published (I'd be happy to ride your coat tails as illustrator) :)
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