Still more trees to explore! Fluffy's journey through the informal backyard orchard had not yet ended.
Admiring the substantial, oppositely oriented leaves of a mysterious tree, she leapt into its branches and was immediately alarmed to find a spiky creature awaiting her arrival. It appeared to be a green, airborne porcupine fish. Upon closer examination she determined that it was instead the tree's fruit.
She later confirmed it to be a soursop (
Annona muricata), or guanábana in the Spanish speaking countries of its tropical American origin. However, it wasn't until a couple weeks later that Fluffy really learned about the wonders of this fruit. Weighing in at 3 pounds or so, the fruit had recently fallen to the ground and burst its skin upon impact, causing rivers of juice to flow along the walkway below. Inside the skin was a thick, creamy pulp. Shooing little black ants aside, Fluffy dove in and loved what she found! Both overwhelmingly sweet and tart, it tasted like a combination of every other fruit Fluffy could ever remember having eaten. Pineapple, banana, apple, mango, guava -- the flavors were all present under the supple leathery spikes of it's exterior. She slurped through its custardy insides, avoiding the many large shiny black seeds. She would have to keep an eye on the other fruits in this tree. Surely a friend could help her harvest the next before it too would fall to the ground in a succulent and fibrous explosion.
