Watermelon Aqua Fresca

A bowling ball size watermelon sits on the dining room table. Evergreen skin, taffy pink flesh, and coffee bean seeds, this fruit bleeds when cut. It is both a large centerpiece and an homage to summer.

A watermelon summer. During the last week of preschool, I sat on the steps of La Petite Academy spitting seeds with six of my classmates. It was my first official competition. I remember thinking that spitting seeds was not something I was particularly good at nor was it a prize-worthy event.

Then a strange turn of events happened, I spit the winning seed. I took home my prize, a dancing doll music box. Her cotton arms moved in a mechanical dance each time she was wound at the base. She wore a floor-length floral gown with pink and orange flowers with pink strapped heels. Her silky brown hair was styled in a 1960s bouffant. Each night before bed, I watched her dance on my headboard before falling asleep. It was my one and only watermelon summer. Until today.