"I shall leave all his gifts on the table," thought Mum, anxiously looking at the pale face of her son. "When he wakes up, and sees them then his face will at once cheer up again. Today he is going to be 10 years old, but he looks as if he is only seven..." she sighed sadly at her son who suffered from anaemia.



Then she took from the box a big оrange-brownish scaly fruit with a bunch of green narrow leaves on top.

Soon the boy appeared at the doorway of the kitchen.

"Mum, from where does such a huge, sweet-smelling fruit come from?" he asked, hardly able to hold the heavy fruit. "It is a pineapple, dear," answered Mum smiling. "Your uncle has sent it to you as a gift together with a note. Here listen: 'In this pineapple is hidden a power (strength) of the hot tropical sun. It will tell you about the wonderful southern countries'." "Can pineapples speak?" the boy was surprised. "I suppose they speak with their appearance and aroma," Mum answered. "Your uncle too has written the letter to me, and I wish to read it to you: 'Dear sister, you wrote, that my nephew is getting weak due to his illness, therefore I'm sending this pineapple. Pineapples contain a wonderful substance - bromelin. This bromelin is like a chimney sweep, it cleans each cell of our body. Pineapples helped me greatly - when I developed inflammation of my veins. It was at such a bad stage that even ulcers started to appear. At that time I worked on a ship and due to my illness they asked me to resign and leave the ship. And just then our doctor advised me to eat pineapples, and now I can run again like a young boy. Do not be surprised, sister, really you will see for yourself - one who has tried the curative nature of this amazing fruit on himself, never will forget it. Your loving brother'."

"Oh, this is really a very, very special fruit - this pineapple," exclaimed the boy with excitement after listening to his uncle's letter. "Perhaps pineapples are the fruits of tropical pine-trees that grow right up to the sky, and they have golden flowers?"

"My dear, what an imagination! Ok, I'll bring you a special book about pineapples so that you can read all about them. And for now - let's try your gifts," said Mum, tenderly petting her son on his head.

When mum cut out a couple of golden-yellow circles, the aroma coming from the pineapple filled up their room. The boy happily applauded. And for lunch his mother allowed him to eat a few pieces of pineapple instead of rice porridge. And, what a miracle! That day the boy surprisingly looked very cheerful and unusually full of energy.

"Interesting, maybe this is the result of the pineapple?" thought the mother. "Well, I suppose from now on I'll give him more fruit and fruit juices." In two days his mother brought him the promised book about tropical fruits. And that evening nothing could distract him from reading the book. "Mama, you know, pineapples do not grow on pine-trees. On the contrary, they are very small plants. On the short stem grow many hard greenish leaves which have sharp spines along the edges and pointed tips. Inside those leaves sits a pineapple!" the boy related with surprise. "Also the flowers of pineapples are not golden but bright red with a blue-violet raceme," continued the boy. Later on he sighed. "It is such a pity that we have already eaten up all the pineapple. We should have taken it by each spikey scales or its prongs. If one can take them out easily then the pineapple is ripe." "Go to sleep rather," laughed mother. "The ripeness of our pineapple is without any doubt - see for yourself how much energy it has given you!" "Oh Mama, why did you throw away the pineapple's top with leaves? We could have grown from it a new pineapple. It says in the book what kind of soil and what size of pot we need for that. And also it requires warm weather. Pineapples won't grow if the temperature is below 20 degrees."

"Verily, a very unusual pineapple my brother sent me," thought mother happily while looking at the pleasant blushing face of her son. One won't believe that just a few days ago this same boy was so pale and weak."

From that time the boy's health started to improve tremendously. His mother remembered everyday to give him fruits and juices. He grew up and became a student of agricultural academy.

Within 10 years in that small Siberian town, where the boy lived, a harvest of exotic fruits, from pineapples to pomegranates started to appear in the shops. People were very surprised to see these tropical wonders and asked the sales assistants how these fruits came to their shops. The shop keepers cheerfully replied that "A scientist grows all these in local hothouses. Moreover, this scientist gives lectures about the benefits of all these fruits. And whoever listens to his lectures will run straight to the shop to buy these tropical wonders".

Copyright (c) 2008 Lilia Parker