Mr. Norris is the only Black man allowed to work in a small grocery store in town, and he takes great pride in being one of the respectable men of his community. One day, while a customer is inspecting a stack of watermelons, they begin to tumble out before him. He tumbles backward, trying to get a grip on something to steady himself but instead he finds a pane of glass that cuts his arm clean off. All the patrons and bystanders are panicked, alarmed at the severed arm as well as the stream of blood spouting from the man's arm. Luckily, someone in the crowd begins to tie a tourniquet around it, so that even though he loses the arm, at least he walks away with his life. The entire time, Mr. Norris watches in shock, immobilized by his fear of blood. When he is recalling the story later with a friend named May, she informs him about an older story from way back in slavery times. Reminded by the watermelon, she thinks of a couple named Rebecca and Isaac. Living their whole lives enslaved, they only wanted one thing: a baby. They would pray constantly, but approaching old age, it seemed more and more like their prayers would go unanswered. Until one day, while combing through the fields for a watermelon for their master, they find a miracle instead. Inside a large watermelon is a small, brown baby boy. Mr. Norris criticizes the current generation, saying that if a miracle like that happened today, people would be too suspicious to accept it as God's grace; instead, they'd have questions for the police and the parents. Still, Mr. Norris admits, that not all of God's blessings are perfect. Though the couple got the baby they desperately desired, their living conditions remained the same, all three sleeping in a shack, shivering into the night under a single quilt. Although the end of her story is unhappy, May finishes it: despite the couple's faith, the Spirit took their baby back without reason, leaving them more wounded than before they had a baby. May says that sometimes God gives people more gifts than they can use, so he takes them back, and you just have to go on persevering with what you have left.