Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - A Fruity Affair

“A Fruity Affair” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2019 written by Victor Achim, Școala Gimnazială "Oltea Doamna", Hungary.

A Fruity Affair

It’s a beautiful summer day and Victor’s family is celebrating Independence Day with a classic barbecue lunch. The home is empty as everyone chose to enjoy the family holiday outdoor. The spacious kitchen is bathed in the afternoon light but no one is there to see that something supernatural is happening.

In a fruit basket, left by Victor’s mother on the dining table, two angry cherries entered in a passionate argument about their personal attributes. Each of them tried to convince the other that no other cherry could be better-looking and with a superior shade of red than them. And as the fight proceeded, each cherry became more aggressive and louder, disturbing the other fruits in the basket who were quietly enjoying their day off. After five minutes of on-going fights, Mr.Apple lost his patience and screamed in pain:

“Enough! You two will wake up the whole house and get one of those hungry children in the kitchen. Do you think I want to be eaten on a day of celebration? Let me and my fruit colleagues enjoy the only day of the year when humans forget about fruits and their passion for eating healthy, and everyone selects meat and hamburgers instead of us.”

The cherry brothers remained in silence for five minutes but then out of nowhere, their desire to fight returned, and the argument continued on a even more hostile tone. This time even the other fruits took sides.

Madam Apple began screaming at the young Miss Cherry, proclaiming that a lady doesn’t act like Miss Cherry did. Of course Mister Banana agreed with her, but the group made of pineapples and strawberries took the young Miss side, saying that an independent female Cherry shouldn’t be put in a corner by a boy and if she has a voice she should use it.

From a siblings fight it turned into a full battle, and everyone took a side. The problem was that their outcry was so incredibly noisy that Mr. Mango began worrying for his life. Seeing the state of his fellow fruits beaten and bruised, he realized that Victor’s mother could see in them ingredients for her absolutely delicious summer fruit salad. In fact not long after, the loud noises brought Victor and his mom to the kitchen.

Once the humans arrived to the kitchen, they were surprised to find fruits all over the floor and on the table, all of them left in a really defective condition. Victor and his mom looked at the fruits with great surprise and they couldn’t understand what brought them in that state, but they agreed that whatever the reason behind their appearance was, the time to throw them in a fruit salad has arrived. Therefore they began peeling and cutting all of them.

In the end all the angry fruits ended up in a fruit bowl with the two annoyed cherries on top. At the end of the day, no fruit could remember how the fight started but they all knew how it ended with them being eaten by a hungry family.

After a long day of celebrations, Victor’s household returned to that peaceful state that defines every family holiday.