The water melon meal

07:59 م ‎20/‎05/‎2008
Once upon a time there was a very rich man living in a place faraway from our land, the man had everything he have ever wished for and everything he never wanted, he had the large castle by the sea that was which furniture came from the best designers in the whole world, he wore the finest suits and dressed in the most expensive jewels, he never saw whores and never needed them as the most beautiful women and their richest would love to be seen with such a very handsome, elegant and rich man. He had good relations to all of the high rank people in his country and other country; the decision makers, but mostly important he had this quiet modest best friend whom he befriended since they were kids and this friendship lasted till that moment. Beside his wealth he was very conceited, self-centered and believed he needed no one; which was true somehow, and every one else needed him at least in one thing. The man lost the joy in everything in his life, he lost the feeling of rest after working so hard, and lost the feeling of self-satisfaction after achieving a goal making him so miserable except in one thing; the man loved water-melon. He loved water-melon that he bought a very large piece of land and planted it with melons; the harvest was enough to give each family of his country a melon every week for the whole summer. He spent so much money on this land, got the best botanists to supervise it, bought the best seeds for it and got the most modern equipment in the whole world that some countries doesn't have even just one of those. The harvest of every year was better than the year before, and he used to take his share and export the rest to rich countries but never gave any to his workers or maids. But one time he got his first melon of the harvest and opens it to finds it white, yes completely white and not ripe, he rages and becomes so furious that he fires everyone from the farmer who planted the seed till the maid who served it to him. He ordered another one and the same happens; he becomes very upset and thinks this is a kind of a joke or some stupid game to ruin his only joy in his life. He goes to the field and order to cut every melon at a time till he finds a ripe one and enjoy it, but after three days of cutting the whole harvest is white and the man is angry like never, he goes to the field and yells with his loudest voice is this all the harvest, isn't there any one left?, isn't there a ripe one? And he threats ruining everyone's life for this conspiracy against him, but suddenly among his workers a week, small, old man stands up and tell him that the melons they did cut weren't the whole harvest and that he took one melon to his home after paying for it to the supervisor that was going to put the cash into the export income, and so the man rages and roars and say that both men, the worker and the supervisor are fired, but here shows the childhood, wise and modest friend and asks the small farmer: "Have you opened it yet? And he nods meaning NO, so he approaches the man and whispers some words in his ears; the rich man is surprised from what he hears and shouts loud what are you saying? Are you out of your mind? Are you crazy? How do you want me to do such a thing? but the wise friend smiles and waits for the man to calm down before judging his temper and such a bad attitude and yes in some hours while the small, week, old worker is packing his stuff with his family to leave the farm, the man is grieving such a stupid act and the wife is crying losing the job and the kids are waiting an unknown future, the rich man knocks the door with his wise friend, the small man opens the door and is surprised that isn't supposed to happen, what is the old man doing in his house? And the old man interrupts his fantasies of horror and say: "Can I come in?" and the small man is freezed in his place and in 10 seconds he says: "sure, sure, come in, please". The three of them sit to a small table in the middle of the tiny room that has nothing but the table and a rug hanged on the wall. The rich man isn't comfortable at all and no one would blame him, it may be the first time he enters a shell like that one. The rich man stutters to the small man and tells him: "Can I join you and your family in a meal were I can share the melon with you in the end of it?" the small farmer opens his mouth widely enough to see the wrinkled covering of his tonsils that was diseased many times and not say a word, so the wise friend smiles and say: "I guess you mean yes, don't you?, so the farmer nods positively so quickly and say "Yes, yes, of course that would be our honour" the farmer rushes from his seat and ran behind the curtain that separates the tiny room into 2 and tells his wife that is so surprised to hear such a conversation, he tells her to rush and makes the dinner and recommends she cooks the best meal she can cook and put all her effort and experience in it, she agrees and go rapidly to start doing her job. While the wife was cooking the rich man was getting more comfortable with the farmer and they started talking with each other about everything, and in that particular moment the rich man feels the joy he missed for many years, and thinks about it, his eyes are to the wall but his mind is so faraway thinking, yes, he missed the joy of communication with people that doesn't want an advantage from him or the privileges he can gives, the joy of talking to normal people that likes the person for whom they are and no more, the wife serves the dinner and after finishing the modest meal and washing hands here comes the moment all of them were waiting. The moment of opening the melon, the melon is still closed till now and no one knows, but the one who created it, whether it is ripe or white, the woman gets the knife and handles it to her husband, who handles it to the rich man saying that he would be honoured if the man cuts it, but the rich man handles it to the wise friend saying that the only one who should cut it is him, but the wise friend says: "We are in your home and we are your guests, you do it", handling it to the farmer the farmer looks at the rich man who nods as a yes so the farmer takes it and points its not so sharp edge to the green tough crust of the melon and starts opening it, he passed the knife through the whole melon but yet didn't separate the two halves, the farmer is so afraid it becomes white and is afraid of the man's reaction if that happened, the rich man looks at the two halves that are held together by the thin, tanned arms of the farmer and he is so confused and his feelings are conflicting to the farthest distance, he is waiting to see if his Ex-only joy in life would be ripe or not after he now had another joy and his heart became open to accept many of those simply joys of life that was given to humans with nothing in returns. The farmer thinks and finally separates the two halves from each other and the three of them looks so admiring, proud, surprised, and all those feelings that I can't write down right now, the color of the melon is so red, its surface looks like no other melon before, he cuts a slice and serves it to the rich man, another one to the wise friend and another one to him, but the rich man points to the curtain and tells him to give the rest of it to his wife and kids who deserve to enjoy it too, the man goes and give it to his family, the three men are sitting to one table; enjoying their water melon meal and enjoying the joy of life.
:)