Topher and the Melon

Growing up on the farm we grew all of our own fruits and vegetables. Beside the house there was a large area, known as the side orchard; although that was a misnomer since a large majority of the farm had been a pear orchard at one stage.
Anyway, in this orchard next to the house there was a number of fruit trees (apple, apricot, plum) as well as vegetables like pumpkin and sweet corn. The rest of the vegetables were grown in another area behind the house.
Our farm was 12kilometres from town and there was another farm next to us; they used to pass through our farm to reach their place further up a valley.
 Every day my brother N and I used to walk home from the school bus with two of the neighbor's children. Ally was the same age as me and Topher was a year older. Topher got his nickname because his little sister couldn't say 'Christopher' when she was a baby.
One day, as the neighbors children were pausing at our house on the walk home, Topher spotted a large melon growing in the side orchard. It looked exactly like a watermelon and Topher fell in love with it, he wanted that big beautiful melon!
Sadly, although it looked like a watermelon on the outside, it was actually what we in Australia call a jam-melon or pie-melon. When you cut them open -instead of sweet, juicy pink flesh- you find pale yellow flesh that tastes horrible raw. When cooked in pie or jam its great but raw its terrible.
Topher was in LOOOOVE with that melon. He was deaf to our explanations that it wasn't a watermelon, and every day he would stop to stroke and admire the gleaming green beauty. He begged my mother to let him have that melon, she agreed.
Topher waited impatiently for the melon to ripen and be ready for picking. Finally the day arrived; that melon was HUGE!!!
I still remember the sight of Topher bravely staggering up the road carrying that massive melon. He refused help and managed to carry it the nearly-kilometre home, it took ages but he made it.
Now to find a knife and cut that beautiful prize open ready for the feast.....I wasn't there to witness the event but apparently the poor kid was heartbroken!!!...totally devastated!!!....all that hard work and devotion had been for nothing.
Fortunately he took it in good grace and accepted our "I told you so".