Me and my buddies Matt, Marcus, and Junior were walking into the city the other day, and we could have used a good meal. We'd spent most of the whole day walking, our feet hurt, it was hot, it was late, and to be honest we were getting a little sick of each other. Tensions were running high. I asked what time it was. 21:19 by my watch, spat Marcus. You use twenty-four hour time? Yeah, it's nice to get that ambiguity out of the way straight off. Must save you plenty of trouble not having to remember if it's day or night. Shove it. Besides, said Matt, you're about two hours off. I keep telling you to change the battery in that expletive deleted watch. It's actually 11:20. That late already? We should get moving. Expletive deleted, I'm hungry! yelled Junior, louder than necessary. No one responded. We were all hungry.
I think Junior smelled it before any of us even saw it; it was dark and he always had a pretty good sniffer. He got a little antsy as we trudged up to the little moon-lit shape. Well look at that, boys! A fig tree! Sweet salvation! Junior almost hopped out of delight. Short-lived joy, however. A thorough examination revealed three half-buried rotten figs by the base of the tree, and nothing else. That's when Junior lost it. I mean, completely lost it.
He picked up a rock from the ground and smashed the tree, over and over. He tore each leaf individually from its branch, and then snapped the branches. We kept telling him it wasn't even fig season, but he couldn't hear, or didn't want to hear. Finally, after a furious minute, he tore the battered, frail remains from the ground, pulling up clods of dirt with the roots, threw the tree aside, and sanity returned to him. He's usually such a nice guy.
We were all silent, until Matt and Marcus burst out with sudden congratulations for his exploits. They were honestly amazed. Did you see that? How did you smash it up so quickly? You're crazy, man! We walked the rest of the way with a sense of triumph coursing through the group, but I just couldn't get behind it. The next morning, I found my way back, and carefully planted what remained of the tree. I brought some water from the nearby stream. I said a few encouraging words, and a few of apology, and left. I haven't been back since, but someday I'll find that tree again. Maybe eat a fig or two.
Hopefully,
walter