'Watermelon': Sehri Tales selections, Day 3

I.

With each mouthful, cold and crunchy, I keep thinking of my father. I never really liked watermelons, the taste and the texture felt either too bland or too watery. But the old man would always ask me to eat some, and I would listen because I would never not listen to him. I never liked watermelons, but the more time passed, the more I found myself cutting up slices and, in the heat of summers spent in concrete jungles, the crunch in my mouth overpowered the noise outside.
crunch
My father offers me slices. I want to say no, I fail. There are not enough words available to explain my wants to this man.
crunch
I think there will forever be a silence between the two of us. It is a space occupied only by small slices of watermelons.
crunch
The taste isn't too bad.
crunch
You get used to it in time. If you're lucky, you might even tear down the silence and find love there.
crunch

by Raian Abedin

II.
The first time I came across a shooting star, I didn't really know what to ask for; but
somehow my mind lingered across the sweet summer days somewhere amidst
a lost childhood.
A childhood where summer vacations meant passing through the Kirtonkhola river
as excitement brewed within me to finally see my Nanabhai;
"But why do watermelons come with these seeds, yuck!" I'd frown and spit across the yard as Nanabhai laughed silently,
trying not to fuel my disgusts over watermelons.
"But, Nanabhai, these seeds are what makes watermelons melons, otherwise it would just be water!" Nanabhai would say the strangest things sometimes that I would never understand.
"Then I'd rather have water!" trying to carefully bite through the melon slices avoiding the seeds, shooting and spitting them out on the yard like bullets if any caught my tongue.
"But seeds are what you plant for the roots within you to grow, to become something, a someone." Nanabhai's voice being wise as ever, that it missed the attention of a 9-year old me, too busy picking out the seeds out of a watermelon.
Nanabhai had the strangest things to say at times that would carry valuable lessons
that I would have needed fifteen years later;
but little did I know!
For now when I come across a shooting star,
I would ask for another summer day with him under the shades of a scorching sun,
eating watermelons in the yard — laughing.

by Maliha Tribhu 

III.
Swipe.
In another universe, I'm smearing that perfect garlic confit onto a baguette slice.
Swipe.
In another universe, Haute Hijab's pastel PR package arrives at my door.
Swipe.
In another universe, my ducks celebrate their millionth follower with a three-tiered watermelon cake by the pond.
Swipe.

by Risana Nahreen Malik