Courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
There once was a boy named Man-go who lived in Publix. His friends called him "Go" for short, and he was a sweet boy, with the most beautiful reddish-orange skin you've ever seen. One day, Go and his friends spotted a giant of a man roaming the place. At the sight of his dark, tanned skin and billowing white linen outfit, the little mangoes cringed in horror. So the stories are true, they thought. The man approached the frightened fruits and without hesitation reached for Go, saying, "Hi, my beautiful new friend. I'm fittin' ta take you to your family reunion. Didn't cha know it was this weekend?" And before he could protest, Go was lifted into the giant's shopping cart. Then he was moved onto a conveyor belt, shoved into a paper bag, and, finally, plopped into a big green pickup truck.
Although he was afraid at the thought of being away from Publix, the little guy was also excited. Soon the giant pulled the little fruit from the paper bag and laid him on the dashboard. He tried to set Go at ease by talking about how much fun Go would have meeting all of his relatives. He talked about how Go would meet his cousin Nam Doc Mai from Thailand and how they could get their faces painted together. Go got excited when he heard about the dinners and samplings held in honor of mangoes, but when he heard about the tree auctions, seed decorating, and mango puppets, his smile faded. He realized the tall tales about giants kidnapping mangoes were true. As the giant pulled into Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Go saw the huge sign that read, "International Mango Festival," and sighed. He saw all of the happy faces entering the gardens and knew he would be the only one not enjoying this day in the sun.