A struggling farmer finds a special seed that transforms his life
One day, there was a guy named Bob. He was a farmer. He thought he made decent money, until the bills hit him real good in the face. While walking on Dry Creek, which was his favorite place to go, he stumbled upon a seed. It looked strange. It was riddled with holes.
He looked at the seed long and hard. It looked like cheese. He said to himself, “I am going to study this.”
Bob boosted out like a rocket back to his farm. He rushed to his computer, his shoes squeaking like a mouse. Looking online, the farmer found no data on the seed. He decided to use his farmer instincts. He rushed to the kitchen, opened the cabinet door, and pulled out his music box and a cup. Bob wound up the music box, and out played the familiar tune: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down . . . He poured himself a cup of coffee and drank it silently while he listened to the music box.
When the song ended, he grabbed the seed and barged through the door. Bob planted the seed.
Days passed. Weeks passed. Months passed.
Summer arrived. Birds tweeted like a quiet waterfall. Bob looked out his window and saw a large, fully grown tree right where he had planted the seed. He ran as fast as he could. Then he put on his brakes, staring up at something he thought he would never see. Attached to the tree was a giant block of gorgeous American cheese.
It amazed him. His curiosity overflowed with cheese love! He grabbed the hanging cheese and walked it carefully back inside. After setting the block on the counter, Bob removed a chunk of feta from his refrigerator, sprinkling it on the block of American. Bob tasted both at the same time. He ate it ALL. “Wait,” he said, slapping his own face. “I should have just tasted the American by itself.”
Then a lightbulb fell from the fan fixture above, whacking his head. “Ow,” he said, but at that exact moment an idea also hit him. What if I grab a new seed from the cheese tree and sprinkle feta on top of that, then plant it?
Bob followed his idea through. While he waited for the seed to grow into a tree, he made a stand—a cheese stand. He ran back inside his house with plans for new cheese experiments. He waited for summer. He waited, and waited, and waited.
“Jofist, I have a problem,” he said. “A cheese problem.”
Finally it arrived—the tree was there! Bob went to the cabinet, poured himself a cup of coffee, drank it faster than ever, and barged back out the door. Running towards the tree, he opened his hand and waited for the cheese to fall. When the cheese fell, it was larger than Bob’s whole body! It was as big as a giant Newfoundland dog.
At the last moment he jumped out of its way, and an idea hit him instead. He ran back inside, grabbing some wood from a nearby wood stack next to his house. Bob grabbed a rusty metal chicken coop roof and cut it into the shape of a perfect square. He did a few other things to it until he had created a sturdy guillotine to cut the cheese.
The cheese was so big that Bob required the help of his neighbor, Jofist. He banged on his neighbor’s door.
“Jofist, I have a problem,” he said. “A cheese problem.” “Should I get my forks?” Jofist said.
“We’re just moving the cheese.”
Bob and Jofist carried the gigantic, 100-pound cheese to the guillotine, which was in the backyard.
Jofist said, “Remember the movie about the flying guillotine?” “Ahhhhh, yeah,” said Bob.
“Are you sure you remember the film?”
“Oh, look! We’re here,” Bob said, scratching his head.
The two men put the cheese on the guillotine, slicing it into itty-bitty squares. Then they put the squares into a bucket and walked to the cheese stand. Jofist and Bob took a seat at the stand and waited for customers to roll in. And they rolled in alright.
Bob counted about 200 customers. Jofist watched the stand while Bob brought more freshly picked cheese.
At night, Bob and Jofist split the cheese. Bob carried his cheese to the left.
Jofist took his to the right.
Every day, the two neighbors repeated the same thing. Bob’s wealth grew big, and he split it with his neighbor. Until one day, after finishing up their day, a thunderstorm hit. They ran back inside. Jofist was worried that his house would be struck by lightning. But Bob was worried about something else. His concern was the trees!
He hoped and hoped. The night grew darker and wetter. He went to bed. He heard a crack, a crook, and a zing. He fell asleep. He woke up, nervous about his trees. Skipping his coffee and music box, Bob ran in his pajamas out the door and stopped in the middle of his field. He was surrounded by burnt trees. The cheese trees were burnt to a crisp.
Bob looked at what had been the feta tree, but there were no seeds. Then he inspected the American tree. He looked around and around, losing hope and walking away. BUT, one branch above him dropped a seed onto his head. It bounced, and landed in his hand.
Bob leaped with joy! But looking down it was still burnt. There was still one thing on it—C1. He ran to town looking for an address—C1. He found none.
Walking back home, he saw Jofist waving at him. Bob did nothing but look down at the ground, thinking about his precious tree. So he went back home and went to bed.
But one day while he was shopping, he was looking around to cross the street, and he saw the address—it was C1. He went to the house with “C1” and knocked on the door, but nobody was there. He pushed open the door and right in front of him there was a seed with “C1” written all over it on a desk. He heard footsteps. He wanted to hide, but he stood firm and confronted the maker of the seed. The maker was walking up to him with a banana. He was shoving a banana in his mouth.
Bob asked the maker, “How did you make this?”
The maker said, “I don’t know. It just came up to me.”
Bob was confused, but he just said, “Okay. Can I take the seed?” The maker was surprisingly nice and he said, “Sure, Bob.”
Bob was relieved—he was going to get his tree back. Bob said goodbye to the maker.
Bob was off to his farm. His stand was back in business.
Bob grew really rich and became good friends with the maker, but one day, sadly, he heard of the death of the maker. So, in his honor, he made a statue of him.
That’s the story of the cheese tree.
