Morris

Behold! A tangerine named Morris came rolling down the hill. Morris was feeling particularly pleased with himself today as he had just left the tree he was growing on.

"That horrible tree, full of so many tangerines, who all totally think they are like the most delicious ever. Ha. Well I am off for some fun and they can hang around on that tree ripening up as long as they like. I can become delicious all by myself!"

So off he rolled.

Meanwhile back at the tree the other tangerines had not noticed his departure. They did not notice because they were all pushing and shoving each other out the way to get to the sunlight so they could become nice and tasty. To be honest if any of them had ever taken the time to talk to Morris they probably would have been very glad when he left because he was taking up a fair amount of space. "Good riddance Morris!" is what they would have said.

So Morris rolled down the hill. This was not so great because although the hill was nice and grassy, it was also a bit dirty and Morris was not used to this, having only been on a tree before. And the rolling made him dizzy. He felt like his juice was coming loose.

He rolled over an ant. The ant was very angry about this but when you are a youthful tangerine rolling down a hill for the first time in your life and have no ability to stop there are several reasons why you will not apologies to the aforementioned ant. Actually, the ant is small and to be honest you did not really notice him when you ran him over.

THUD! O dear Morris has bumped into a quick brown fox.

"I am The Quick Brown Fox. Despite the fact that foxes are actually orangey in colour (unless you are colour-blind) I am so named for the purposes of checking whether a keyboard is working (cf Lazy Dog). Who are you?"

"I am Morris the Tangerine."

"No you're not, you are green. Tangerines are orange like me."

"Yes I am I'm just a particularly youthful tangerine who happens not to be ripe yet."

"How ridiculous. You must be out of your tree!"

"Oh."

"I am the Quick Brown Fox, and I don't eat tangerines. This is very sad for me, but I don't have the right teeth or digestive system. I like to admire tangerines however, as they are beautiful. But you, whilst having the perfect form of a beautiful tangerine, are green and therefore infinitely less attractive to me. So I am leaving now."

And he did.

Morris was sad. He did not realise that people were so fickle, and that not being orange made you so much less popular. He realised he was not delicious, and now he was lonely. He was green and sour. He wished he was back on the tree, where it was warm and sunny and he could grow and become delicious. He missed the other tangerines. But the tree was so far away at the top of the hill there was no way he could return. Morris was sad, and if he had eyes he would have wept. But he did not, which is just as well because no-one would eat a tangerine that had eyes. Not even Rachel because she does not eat food that is looking at her. So Morris sat there.

Some days passed. Eventually Morris became brown and mushy. He felt tired. He felt tasteless and mouldy. He was always alone. He was very sad. How he had wished that he had stayed on the tree. How…

The warm summer breeze wafted through the park, carrying the delicious flavour of young tangerines. The dusk sky was brilliant orange. Morris the tree swayed gently, rocking all the baby tangerines that adorned his branches to sleep. He was proud and happy; he had taught them well the virtues of patience. He knew they would be delicious when they were ready.