November 20, 2020 at 06:00 a.m

Giza Province, Egypt

My mother has been going to Jiayuguan to pick up vegetables with some of the big fathers and uncles in the village for more than four months, leaving me and my two older brothers who have not yet gone to school, and an older sister who is in the fourth grade of primary school, and my sister and I are all responsible for eating, drinking, and Lazar.

The summer sun on the Loess Plateau is scorching, the earth is scorched and scorched at noon, and the wild children walking on the earth barefoot are like ants on a hot pot while walking and jumping, using this way that others can't understand to make their little feet cool and cool. On this day, my sister went to school, and my eldest brother and I walked to my cousin's house not far from my house, which was only separated from my house by a wheat field. After the three brothers crossed the wheat field, they arrived under the earthen wall of my cousin's yard, and the eldest brother beckoned me and the second brother to sit down, and said, "I invite you two to eat watermelon."

As soon as the eldest brother finished speaking, the other end of the wall threw over some eaten watermelon skins, and the eldest brother happily pointed to the watermelon rinds and shouted at me and the second brother: "Look at it, there are watermelons, there are ones on them that they haven't eaten clean", and then the eldest brother crawled over and picked up all the watermelon skins, wiped the soil on them, and handed them to me and the second brother.

A few ignorant wild children have not eaten watermelon for a long time, and the watermelon skin covered with soil has been slipped over and over again by the three brothers, eager to gnaw the white flesh on the melon skin clean for it. As for the hot earth, under the temptation of the watermelon peel, the three brothers had long lost their consciousness of it, and after a beautiful meal of watermelon, the three brothers fell asleep under the courtyard wall of their cousin's house, and it seemed that the earth had become a bed, and the earthen wall of their cousin's house had become a pillow, and the green wheat field had covered the three brothers like a quilt.

The fourth uncle, who went to the city to follow the market, happened to pass by the path next to the wheat field and saw the sleeping three people and a pile of watermelon rinds that had been slipped as thin as paper. The fourth uncle's eyes instantly turned red, and then without saying a word, he quietly picked up the bicycle and turned around and left. About half an hour later, the fourth uncle carried a bag of watermelons from the back of his bicycle and walked back from the entrance of the village, and when he passed by the door of our house, the fourth uncle stopped, took the watermelon off the bicycle and gently placed it in front of a water cellar in front of the house, and then rode to the back of the earthen wall of my cousin's house to wake me up and my eldest brother and second brother, and asked us to carry the watermelons in front of the house.

When I heard that the fourth uncle bought watermelons, my two brothers and I were so happy that we couldn't wait to rush to the house immediately. Later, I heard from my mother that she had a quarrel with the fourth uncle at that time, and the fourth uncle swore that he would never enter our house again, so he put the watermelon at the door of our house and let our brothers move in by themselves.

As for why the eldest brother knows that there will be watermelon peels thrown over the wall of my cousin's house, this question has been bothering me until now, more than 20 years have passed, one night I went back to my hometown with my eldest brother, I asked him with a smile why he knew that there would be watermelon peels thrown over the wall of my cousin's house, and the eldest brother said: "That day, I was playing with my cousin's daughter at their house, and their family wanted to cut and eat watermelon, and my new mother (cousin) saw me and asked me to go home and not stay in their house. When I went out, I heard my new mother ask my cousin to throw away the watermelon rind along the wall, so I found out, and immediately ran home to call you and your second brother."

Then the eldest brother was silent for a long time and did not speak, so many years in addition to my parents and then particularly distressed is my brothers and sisters, fate has made us a family, and we have experienced so much together, we have been with each other so far, we have tasted each other's bitterness, maybe in the end what we want to give each other is to take care of each other.