The Tangeremon

Sneaky Scartoe, giving our second book at His Words - Not Mine a title and not telling me! It was up to him, as per our rules, and the name stretches all the way back to an incident in the opening chapter:

"Hey, Fran, is that an orange tree over there? You’re just letting ‘em hit the ground. Let’s pick some oranges.”

“Be my guest. Take as many as you like.”

He didn’t seem interested in leaving his post until the dinner bell rang.

I picked one of the citrus fruits off the tree and noticed the aroma immediately. It was definitely tangerine, but these were too big to be tangerines. Was I holding a tangelo? A tangelo would be fantastic. Maybe this trip wasn’t a bust. I peeled the fruit and took a healthy bite. And then I spit it right back out across half the yard.

“Bile of Satan! What the fuck is this, dude?!”

I’d never heard Fran laugh such maniacally unbridled laughter.

“I got you good, didn’t I?”

“You sure did, asshole.”

“We call them tangeremons. I’m not sure what they are, but they taste like pure hell. That tree was there when we moved in.”

Mel opened the slider and was instantly appalled at the site of me spitting out the remnants of the juice.

“Fran, you didn’t! How could let him take a bite of that nasty fruit?”

“It was worth it. You should have seen his reaction. Priceless.”

There's a lot to say about his choice, and what I think it means regarding the story and characters -- but perhaps we'll have a discussion after you've all read it...