Library Notes
July 18, 2003
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Let me tell you about something that happened to me recently that has not happened to me before in all of my eighteen years.
I was in Oklahoma a few weeks ago and Suzie, you-know-who, and I had occasion, or I should say, the need, to go to Wal-Mart.
I’ve told you that I love watermelons. When I was expecting my first child, I got as sick as three dogs on watermelon one night. My stomach said to me "If you send that down here, I’ll send it back!" Well, I did and my stomach did too. Yeah, it did, that and 90% of everything else I ate for eight months. But I’ve told you more than you wanted to know. Back to the watermelon.
We three went to Wal-Mart and they had watermelons for $2.38, a far cry from the 25 cents that I would prefer to pay, as my Dad used to do. But the cheapest I had seen yet this year, or should I say the least expensive. I snatched one right up and put it in the basket. It was so good and sweet, tasted just as it was supposed to.
So, as I started home, I stopped and bought another one, to continue the enjoyment.
That second one lay in the floor for a day or two, waiting for me to completely finish the first one, which I did in short order. That well-eaten carcass was duly dumped in the garbage can. Rubbing my hands together in anticipation, I put No. 2 on the table.
I slowly stuck that butcher knife in that striped beauty, started to cut it in half, anticipating that good, sweet scrumptious first bite. That watermelon exploded! That’s what I said, it exploded! Seeds and pieces of that melon went in all directions, including on that white blouse I was wearing.
Now, folks, I don’t mean a little pop. I mean an explosion. As many watermelons as I’ve eaten in my 18 years, that has never happened to me before. Watermelons just do not explode! But, honey, that one did.
If I’d been standing there before that thang exploded like I was after it exploded, I’da had some of it in my mouth.
That watermelon looked red, juicy and delicious, even after it exploded. I tasted a small piece and it had soured. Well, honey, again, I was pretty sour too!
If I’d been close to the store where I bought that thang, I would have gathered it up, took it back to them and insisted on another one. But, since I was 200 miles from the store, I gathered it up and took it out to the garbage can. There was almost a tear in my eye as I dumped that red, luscious looking – soured – striped, watermelon in the trash.
Woe is me. Let this poor watermelon-less woman tell you about James Patterson’s new book, "The Lake House.’ This book continues in the lives of the winged children from Patterson" "When the Wind Blows."
"Six extraordinary children are trying to lead normal lives in the Rocky Mountain countryside. They live in different homes, with different families, but there is something powerful that connects them. Something that puts them in terrible danger.
The only time they’ve ever felt safe was when they were together in the waterfront cabin they call the Lake House. And the only people they’ve ever trusted are Frannie and Kit, the couple who rescued them from unimaginable evil once before.
When that evil resurfaces, the kids reconnect with Frannie and Kit and set off on an astonishing adventure. They flee to the Lake House, but even that haven may no longer be safe.
Dr. Ethan Kane is chief of surgery at Liberty General Hospital, one of the most esteemed hospitals in the nation. It is here that terrible secrets lie, secrets that will change the world for all of us."