30 May 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2752: split in two

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

“So, Mellie, I just pulled the second to last bunch of my cantaloupes, and I've cut a few to make sure: they are good and sweet. I can roll the truck over this afternoon – do you need half a dozen or a dozen?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Melissa Stepforth Trent said to her cousin David Stepforth. “When you get here you'll understand you really don't need to stop anywhere else.”

Sure enough, David Stepforth brought the truck up to where his cousin and her family were staying and had his truck emptied and his day's pay made by the combination of the Trents, themselves a family of seven with their cousins Vertran (9) and Tom Stepforth (16) making nine, the Lees, just two, but leaving room for the ten Ludlows, and then David's uncle Thomas Stepforth Sr. looking out for Major Thomas Stepforth Jr. who rolled up with his car and just started loading up his trunk for his household of six.

“You know what I like about cantaloupes and honeydews?” five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow said to Tom Stepforth next door. “They're like watermelon, but in other nice colors, and you know what else?”

Lil' Robert started rubbing his little hands together.

“Snack size,” he said.

“Yeah,” Tom said. “I'mma tear a couple of them bad boys up!”

“Yeah, me too, Tom!”

“Why and how is that little blonde baby Ludlow boy like that?” Maj. Stepforth said as he fell out laughing. “Lil' Robert Edward 'Snack Size' Ludlow!”

“That's not even the right question, Major Tom,” his mother Mrs. Velma Stepforth said. “What you need to ask is how your namesake is still on Lil' Robert's level, and still doesn't know that melons are a diuretic and will have him running all night long if he eats two!”

Maj. Stepforth stopped laughing and put his face in his hand.

“You still remember when I did that, huh?” he said.

“Sure do – you might want to help your son and Lil' Robert out!”

“So, what you want to do is listen to your cantaloupes – all of them should be ripe at around the same time, but you have to check them for musicality.”

Thomas Stepforth Sr. was explaining the ripeness of cantaloupes to his little grandchildren Gracie (8), Milton (8), Vertran (9), and Velma (11).

“When you knock on these things, they should not sound hollow but full, and then when you means the cantaloupe is not quite as ripe as we want it to be."

“This has got to be the most fun food search I've ever done!” Milton said as he and Gracie started knocking on one of two sets of cantaloupes in he house.

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said as she picked up and smelled a cantaloupe. "I'd get this as a perfume, but I don't need anyone trying to eat me."

Meanwhile, in the Lee kitchen, Col. H.F. Lee listened to his wife explaining theories of the cutting of cantaloupes.

“I like to insert the knife on the stem end and then stand it up and bring that knife down so it will split in two and the seeds fall into the bowl I have in the sink. I also will strain those seeds out and have that juice for later!”

“That sounds like a lovely morning beverage,” he said.

“One of the best-kept secrets of summertime,” she said.

Meanwhile the adult Ludlows were washing and cutting cantaloupes with the combined efficiency of two people now settled in on feeding eight little mouths.

“Rob is out here talking about 'snack size' for one of these,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“If his stomach ever gets as bold as his imagination – oh, never mind,” Capt. R.E. Ludlow said as he cleaved a cantaloupe into two halves. “We only have ten years to go on that!”

“We're going to have eight teenagers at some point,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Gotta make sure it's good food they want then, and just pray we can handle it!”

“Yep,” Capt. Ludlow said.