Watermelon Vine

It's a hot day in mid July, four year old little sister Anna chasing down our seven year old brother Jack. Her long red hair up in a pony tail. I brush one of my auburn locks out of my face as i sit under the shad of a tree watching them play. 1

She finally captures him and pounces in his back pulling a strand of his black hair causing him to yelp. They come over to me and lay their sweaty faces on my lap. Anna piped up, "Sissy, I'm hungry.... and thirsty." I looked over at Jack as he nodded in agreement. 2

This gave me a great idea. Something that would quench both of their cravings. WATERMELONS! I pulled my hair up in a ponytail. Cleaned the kids up, and headed to uncle John's farm. He was a big guy with a squared jaw, clean cut shave, and sandy brown hair. His favorite thing to do was spoil us kids and grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables. I left a note for Mama and Daddy telling them we were staying a day or two with Uncle John and Aunt Polly. They would be relieved to have an evening alone. 3

I took the spare pick-up from the barn and loaded the kids in the back. After a twelve mile drive we arrived at the farm. Uncle John was out plucking tomatoes and Aunt Polly was cooking dinner. He smiled and held out his arms for all of us to give him a bear hug. Then he held us out at arms length and noticed our green eyes were sparkling as they scanned the watermelon fields. "Ya'll are gonna have to wait until after dinner." He replied with his gentle rumbling voice. "Now you youngins go wash up." The kids ran in and hugged Aunt Polly.4

Now it was just me and Uncle John. So i snuck another hug and his light brown eyes seemed to smile. "With your cousins off to Florida with Grammy and Pappy for the summer, I have grown to miss having youngins at my feet.' he said with a laugh. "Well you never have to worry about me wanting to go to dumb ole' Florida. I am perfectly content here in Louisiana." I replied. "Well Kira darlin, why don't you go in and help your Aunt set the table?"  5

As I ran in, Aunt Polly wrapped me in a tight embrace and smiled. Her blue eyes sparkling as usual, and her strawberry blond hair was in a bun. She handed me the plates as we chatted. After a warm meal of fried chicken, corn on the cob, and mashed taters, we pranced to the watermelon field. 6

We ran down each row of vines trying to pick the perfect one, laughing and smiling all the while. Jack and Anna always liked to see how many watermelons they could jump before falling. All the watermelons looked delicious. But we wanted the biggest, ripest, juiciest one on the vine. Finally after an hour we found the perfect one. It was over half the size of little Anna with light green stripes in the dark green. Perfectly spaced apart. 7

It took all three of us to carry it to the back porch where Uncle John was waiting. He sat it down and sliced it into five giant pieces. Aunt Polly brought out napkins as we all picked up our piece and bit into the cherry red pulp. It's luscious sweet juices trickled down our chin and neck. Aunt Polly and uncle John were in their back porch rockers, and we sat between them eating our watermelon and talking about what needed to get done before summer ended. With a mouth full of watermelon I said with a sigh "Now this is my idea of a perfect summer!"8