The boy who turned into a plum tree

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Prunus who loved to eat plums.

'You shouldn't eat so many plums,' his mother told him. 'One day you'll turn into a plum tree.'

The only time that Prunus stopped eating plums was when there were none in the shops. And there were none in the shops because they were out of season.

When plums were out of season Prunus would become very sad. He tried eating other fruit but nothing made him happy like eating plums. He ate stewed plums out of tins but that only helped a little bit. He didn't become happy again until plums were back in season and on sale in the shops.

One year Prunus had been waiting a long time for his beloved plums to return and when they did he pestered his mother so that she bought three kilos of them. Prunus didn't wait until they got home. He started eating them in the car.

'Prunus, be patient. If you eat too many too quickly they'll give you diarrhoea.'

'I don't care. I just love plums.'

Prunus did love plums and they made him very greedy. He ate the whole three kilos before they got home. He didn't want to stop eating them. When he reached the last one he kept sucking the seed in his mouth. He sucked and sucked. He wanted to get as much plum off it as he could. He sucked the seed so hard that he swallowed it 'Gulp' straight down into his belly.

'Mum! Mum! I swallowed a seed!'

'Well, I told you not to be so greedy.' Mum pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. She got out and started picking up the groceries from the back seat.

Prunus raced around to her. 'But Mum, what will happen to it?' He looked really worried.

Mum kept picking up the groceries. 'Don't worry dear. It will come out when you go to the toilet.'

'Won't it hurt?'

'Maybe just a little bit. You'll be fine.' Mum shut the car door and walked to the house.

'But Mum. What if it doesn't come out?'

'Then the seed will grow inside your belly and turn into a plum tree.' Mum smiled.

For the next few days, whenever Prunus went to the toilet he checked to see if he could see a plum seed. He never did.

And inside Prunus' belly the seed sprouted a root. The root worked it's way down into Prunus' bowel where his poo was forming. As you know, poo is a good fertiliser and fertiliser makes plants grow. A shoot started to grow up from Prunus' belly.

Prunus could feel something funny going on in his belly but his mother said, 'Don't mind darling. It's just that plum seed trying to find its way out.'

Then one day when Prunus woke he found a branch was growing out of his mouth. It was already too thick for him to bite through. He went to the kitchen and said to his mother, 'Gare sa planch krowwem rom my mauf.'

'Don't speak with your mouth full, Prunus. Now hurry up and eat your breakfast. Don't be late for school.' She was too busy getting ready for work. She didn't even look.

Prunus sat at the table and didn't touch his breakfast. He still hadn't eaten anything when his mother left for work. 'Bye dear. Now hurry up. Don't be late for school.'

'Go to school,' Prunus thought. 'No way. All the kids'll laugh at me because of this branch growing out of my mouth.' He went down the backyard and sat on the swing. Prunus liked to sit on the swing whenever he was upset.

While Prunus was sitting on the swing another branch sprouted from his left nostril. Then one came from his right ear.

'Oh no! I really am going to turn into a plum tree.'

Another branch sprouted from his left ear and one from his right nostril too.

'Glelllp!' he called out but no one heard him.

Then his eyes popped out as two more branches grew from his eye holes.

'Nobody's going to come and help me now. And I can't even see.' Prunus thought. He was about to kick himself off on the swing when a root burst out of his bum and struck itself into the ground. Prunus could not move.
When Prunus' Mum came home later she couldn't find Prunus anywhere but she found a plum tree growing under the swing in the backyard.

In time beautiful plums grew on the tree. Prunus' Mum enjoyed the plums. 'I wonder where Prunus got to,' she thought. 'He would have liked these plums. Oh well, I'll just have to eat them myself.'

The End

Footnote: The inspiration for this story came when Izmaillah told me he once swallowed a plum seed and the seed never came out.

Illustrations by Izmaillah Ouedraogo