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Growing Watermelons Fiction By William Sack St. Xavier High School I n the far distance, just out of sight yet still within perception, is a mountain. On the mountain, up the steps, in and out of shade, walks a young man with a little too much bounce in his step. We shall call him Luo Binwang. When he reaches the top of the mountain, he sits down across from his master and smiles. His master, eyes still shut in meditation, smiles in return. Te master simply is Shifu. Te student smiles because he is having a good day; Shifu smiles because his student has something to learn. Looking at them in this crystalline instant, you'd think they're always smiling. You'd be wrong. Don't worry, though — we only learn from being wrong. Listen: A moment before, Shifu was not smiling. He was wheezing, hanging on to a tree branch, leaning, balancing, straining his eyes to observe his student walking up the mountain. He was looking for Binwang, but most of all he was looking for Binwang's mistake. Even a new Shifu knows mistakes are the secret to learning, and this Shifu was not new to the Shifu-ing business by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he invented it, so he knew that being all-seeing wasn't as easy as it looked. At the moment, though, it remained a business of one, so he still had to do all the omniscient legwork himself. Tus every sunrise on that mountain, he could be found staggering upon the precipice of oblivion, scanning the inconsistent horizon. No one ever saw him there, but if a passerby did, by some miracle, happen to observe him in his natural habitat, they'd have to admit his staggering had the certain grace of constant practice. Shifu was getting too old for this. Te thought made him smile. A moment before, Binwang was smiling. A moment before that, Binwang was smiling. And a moment before that again, not surprisingly, Binwang was still smiling. B inwang was having a good day. He thought to himself as he walked, and as he thought, he decided that although it was still early, today was a good day. Tis was not a hard conclusion for him to arrive at. Precedent supported days being good for as far back as Binwang could remember. He thought about that for a while. Yesterday was good. Te day before yesterday was good. Yesterday's yesterdays had all been good. Not wanting to rest on previous accomplishments, though, he examined all the evidence on the subject he had gathered thus far. And so he thought to himself: "Breakfast today was good. Te weather is good. I like walking. Exercise makes me happy. Tat cloud kind of looks like a rabbit. Tat other cloud looks like Shifu, or maybe a tree. Actually, it looks like Shifu in a tree. What a graceful cloud. Never mind that one, this cloud looks like a goose. I sure like geese. Maybe I'll write a poem. It'll begin, 'Goose, Goose, Goose.' I don't know what comes after that, but it'll be great, and one day, every child under heaven will know it." He continued. "I'm having a good day. Look at those 70 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 11.13 Illustration by Carrie Neumayer