The Watermelon Vendor

For the first time today, my father-in-law met us seated on his little red electric scooter, and instead of getting off and walking into the dining room, continued to drive it right up to the side of our table. I think that's what he does most days, but his pride has kept him on his feet when we're there. He walked over, quite bent, to the lunch buffet and slowly gathered a plate of food - a big pile of sliced red onions, tomatoes, some seafood salad, a blueberry muffin - that J. carried to the table for him, and he stayed behind, toasting a piece of bread for a sandwich and picking up a dish of blueberries and some wedges of watermelon along with the inch-high stack of paper napkins he always insists he needs. We were already seated by then, and I watched to see if he could manage thsi balancing act. "I'm coming," he said, exhaling with a moan on every step, the blueberries sliding toward the rim of their dish. "I can make it."

"Oooouff," he said, slumping heavily into his chair and shaking his head. "It's not a good day."

"What's wrong?" I asked, smiling at him.

"Everything!" he said. "All systems are in decline."

"Such as?"

"This morning my eyes... I had my glasses AND a magnifying glass and still it was hopeless. I don't know..." he shrugged resignedly. "I just seem to be  'down' today."

"Then we'll have to cheer you up," I said. He gave me a withering but somewhat affectionate look. "You're hearing pretty well today..."

"Yes, that part seems to be working all right! It makes no sense."

"Seems to be the way it is - sometimes you just have a difficult day."

"Yes, that's how it is. Have some blueberries," he said, gesturing to his son. "Don't you want some?" and then grinned as he suddenly remembered something. "In Syria we have these, but white. One time I was with Alice," (a childhood friend who he had thought he wanted to marry) "when we were children, and something happened, I don't remember, but she fell into a stream and got wet. And her blouse got wet and was...you know... transparent." A little smile played around his lips, and he laughed. "Another boy was with us, and he said, 'Oh look, she's got berries under her blouse!' meaning this kind of berries. And I got furious, and went up to him and punched him. It's the only time I ever hit someone." He shook his head, laughing. "The only time I ever did something gallant in my entire life!"

He finished the blueberries and went on to the watermelon. I went and got some too, and we sat there eating it - it was very good today, sweet and fine-textured. "Ummm," I said. "It's good."

"Yes, it is good today." (My father-in-law loves watermelon; it's one of the foods I most associate with him because of the pleasure he gets while eating it.)

"My father used to buy a really big one--" he held his arms out to show how big -- "and he'd sink it into the pool in our courtyard so it would stay cool." He wiped his sticky fingers on several napkins. "And then he'd cut it, and we'd all sit there and eat it, around the pool." He smiled, enjoying the memory. I thought of the pictures of that house I've seen: the lemon trees in pots, rose bushes, the paved courtyard with its small stone pool and fountain.

"Where did he get them?"I asked.

"The watermelon vendor!" he said, as if I had asked a particularly obvious question. "He grew them - he was the farmer and he came into the city with a cart and a donkey and came around to the neighborhoods." He was quiet for a minute, and then looked up. "And he never called out, 'Watermelons!" like he other vendors did, calling the name of whatever they were selling. He always called, 'Only Allah is forever!!' -- in other words, 'come and get your watermelon and eat now, while you can!'"

Comments

[Lorianne]

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again. I love these posts about your father-in-law!

[dale]

Oh, I love that. "only Allah is forever!" meaning "get your watermelon now!" That cuts a bewildering number of ways!

[Marja-Leena]

gorgeous image and another wonderful story of your father-in-law!

[Dave]

Ditto with what Dale said. The germ of a poem, here, Beth?

[leslee]

Thanks, Beth. This is a nice slice-of-watermelon post - it feels like a refreshing palette cleanser between otherwise depressing reading, a brief "cure" for all systems in decline. The vendor is right.

[susurra]

there is only.... this moment, isn't there?
thanks for the reminder

[Julia]

Beth.. I wonder, next time you visit your father-in-law would you please tell him that this Brit finds his anecdotes fascinating and greatly enjoys these glimpses into another time and place... please thank him and wish him good days.... thank you

[zhoen]

ha!