By Matteo Sorcinelli, Y10
I tried to scream as my mother plunged her knife through my body, but no sound came out. I did my best to thrash around but my body wouldn’t listen to me. I started to lose consciousness, as my last day of living flashed before my eyes.
…
It started on a fateful Monday morning when my sister and I helped our father pick up crops on our family farm. The sun glared down at us from the sky as we slowly trudged through what seemed like a hundred rows of corn. We finished after what seemed like an eternity and began the short walk back. It felt as if it were a dream when we saw the front door of the barnhouse and walked inside. The barnhouse was made of dark oak and was relatively small. I had sat down on the couch wiping sweat from my glistening forehead as I took off my shoes, revealing my bloody feet. “Marcus!” I remember my sister calling out, “Come here, there’s a surprise for you.| I had made my way to the kitchen where I saw my sister cutting up a watermelon. At the time, that watermelon felt like a blessing for my parched throat, and I had lunged towards it. The cool and watery touch of the watermelon set me off, and I began shoving piece after piece in my mouth. ”WAIT!” my sister yelled, “I haven’t removed the seeds yet.” The removal of watermelon seeds was a kind of tradition we had had in our family for generations. What our mother told us is that her great great uncle had eaten watermelon seeds and had fallen very ill, and then he vanished without a trace. “It’s fine,” I answered in between chunks of watermelon. My sister sighed looking at me with disgust in her eyes and even though I didn’t know it at the time, that would be the last memory of her. I remember going back to my room when I suddenly felt as if my whole body was burning. I remember falling to the floor and squirming in agony as I scratched my skin, hoping it would stop. The real pain had only begun when I began to turn green. It felt as if something was crawling out of my body, ripping my skin away in the process. I remember the fear I felt as I suddenly couldn’t move my arms and legs anymore, and when I tried to call for help, it felt as though my mouth had been sewn shut. Then, all of a sudden, the pain stopped. As I slowly came back to my senses, I realised that I was still paralyzed in what felt like a curled up, ball-like position facing upwards. I decided that it would be best to just calm down and wait for someone to walk by and bring me to the hospital. Shortly after the pain had stopped, I heard the front door open and the voice of my mother rang out. I tried to shout to get her attention but was quickly reminded about my current situation when no sound came out. I waited patiently for her to find me as I racked my brain, for how I would explain my current situation. Finally my mother’s face came into my field of vision and she gently picked me up. I remember feeling ecstatic because this nightmare was finally ending, when instead of bringing me to the car, she set me up on a cutting board. I stared in shock as she began to pull a knife out of the drawer, and looked at me with hunger in her eyes. I tried to scream as my mother plunged her knife through my body but no sound came out. I did my best to thrash around, but my body wouldn’t listen to me. As the world slowly faded away, I tearfully belittled myself for not heeding my sister’s warnings: the watermelon curse is real.
