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A huge watermelon lay on the ground.
Its rind was dark with pale green stripes running lengthwise. Fuzzy leaves
sprouted from the vine and snaked along the sand, cocooning the melon from
the harsh desert elements. It was ripe and ready to be picked.
A small brown mouse ran towards the
watermelon, his tail dragging behind him in the sand. Jafar was a skinny
mouse. He had a difficult time finding food to eat. He was so excited to
see the watermelon patch. He almost missed the watermelon as he scurried
by. Catching a glimpse of its stripes, the mouse stopped. "Wow!" he called
out. "Food! This is enough to last me for a week!" He touched the rind. It
felt cool compared to the hot, midday-heated sand. Wasting no time, his
razor-sharp teeth dug into the melon. He scraped off some of the rind and
gnawed at it for several minutes, then rested. "This rind is very thick,"
he noted, seeing that he still hadn’t reached the flesh inside yet. He was
getting tired, but kept on gnawing.
After a lot of hard work, Jafar
broke through the rind. The scent of juicy, ripe watermelon wafted up
through his nostrils. He could see the pink flesh. When he gnawed it,
juice dripped all over his brown fur. He made a hole, barely big enough to
crawl inside. Climbing into the melon, Jafar sat there, eating away at its
flesh. It was so cool and juicy and tasted so delicious to the hungry
mouse. All day long he nibbled on the watermelon. He spit all the seeds
off to the side, into a pile, which was getting bigger and bigger. The
pile of seeds wasn’t the only thing getting bigger; Jafar’s tummy was too.
Instead of being a skinny little mouse, he was now a fat mouse.
As the day wore on Jafar found
himself inside the empty rind. There wasn’t one piece of pink melon left.
A pile of black seeds taller than Jafar was piled high. Jafar looked up at
the small hole he’d come in through. It was no longer right in front of
him. It was way up at the top of the melon. He was puzzled, wondering how
he was going to get out. He couldn’t climb up the side of the rind. It was
too slippery and wet. He tried to climb up on top of the pile of seeds,
but was so fat that he sank down to the bottom of the pile. The seeds
collapsed on top of him. He climbed out, brushed them all off, which
wasn’t easy. The seeds were sticky and clung to his fur and tail. He even
had to pull seeds off his soft pink ears and his black wriggling nose.
Gazing up at the hole in
frustration, Jafar began to jump. He jumped and jumped and jumped, but he
always fell back down to the spongy bottom of the melon. Giving up, he
decided to take a nap. When he woke up he’d figure a way out. He curled up
into a ball and fell asleep.
While Jafar was sleeping, Zirak, a
huge gray elephant, came walking by. He was headed to the river for a
drink of water. He didn’t see the melon lying on the ground. As he walked
past, his tree trunk-like legs kicked it. It went rolling across the sand
and landed with a thud at the bottom of a date palm tree. Jafar woke up to
find himself being tossed around and around. "What’s happening?" he called
out. When the watermelon stopped rolling, he stood up. The seeds had flown
all over the inside of the melon. They were stuck all over him again. It
took him an hour to pull the sticky seeds out of his ears, off the bottom
of his feet and off his long tail. There was even a seed stuck on his
chin.
He was pulling the last seed off
when he noticed that the hole he’d bore into the watermelon was right in
front of him. He went over to it and stuck his head out. He saw the trunk
of the date palm. He saw the blue sky above, the coral pink sand below and
Zirak, the elephant, standing down at the river having a drink of water.
"Ah, good. I can get out now," Jafar said. He put his front legs through
the hole and tried to get out. "Uh oh," he mumbled. "I’m stuck." And stuck
he was. He was still fat and full of watermelon. He was wedged tightly in
the hole. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t even pull himself back inside.
"Help! Help!" Jafar called out. "Zirak!
Help me!" he called to the elephant. But the elephant couldn’t hear him.
He was too far away. "Help! Help!" he cried again.
Faruz, another mouse, was scurrying
by. He’d caught himself a juicy, emerald green scarab beetle and was
holding it tightly in his jaw. He heard Jafar calling for help and ran
over to see what the problem was. When he saw Jafar’s body sticking half
way out of a hole in the watermelon, Faruz dropped his beetle and started
laughing. "Hee hee hee. How did you do that?" he asked the fretting Jafar.
"I made the hole when I was much
skinnier. I ate too much melon and now I’m too fat to get out. Help me get
out of here," Jafar begged.
Faruz walked over to the watermelon.
He grabbed hold of Jafar’s hands and pulled. He pulled and pulled and
pulled, but Jafar wouldn’t budge. His tummy was just too fat and too full
of melon. He tried to push Jafar back inside, but he wouldn’t move either
way. "You’re stuck! You’re going to have to stay in there until you lose
some weight," Faruz chuckled. Feeling very hungry at the site of the
beetle wiggling about on the sand, and seeing he could do no more to help,
Faruz ran off, leaving Jafar hanging half way out of the hollow melon.
"Help! Help!" Jafar called out once
more. This time nobody came. "What am I going to do?" he whined. Several
tears ran down his furry little cheeks. Then, much to his delight, he
watched Zirak walk up the bank of the river, heading towards him. "Help!
Help!" he called as loud as he could. Zirak didn’t hear him. He came
closer and closer. Jafar waved his little arms back and forth but Zirak
was just too big to notice the tiny mouse. He started walking past, his
trunk swinging back and forth. It bumped into the watermelon, which
started rolling down a hill, straight towards the river. Poor Jafar was
still stuck in the hole. He spun around and soon became rather dizzy. The
watermelon kept rolling towards the river. Right before it reached the
water, the melon hit a large rock. It burst open and Jafar was tossed out
onto the sand. He landed with a thud on his head. The rest of the melon
kept rolling and went into the river and floated away with the swift
current.
Jafar stood up, feeling rather
dizzy. He brushed the dirt off his fur, pulling more black sticky seeds
off his tail and tossing them aside. He rubbed his plump tummy. "No more
watermelon for me," he said. "I don’t want to ever get stuck inside one
again." He licked his lips and smiled, "Mmmmm, but it sure was delicious." |
