The sad demise of a watermelon that looked so good

Last week we bought three watermelons - I always tap them to make sure that they sound normal and these all looked fine. When we got home, one was feeling a bit wet, but I presumed that was just condensation from the cool day. I tapped each, as usual, and selected one to cut up for us to eat.

This morning, four days later, I noticed a patch of water on the counter below a watermelon. I rolled it and noticed that it was not as firm in parts as it ought to be. Upon further examination, I found that it was squirting juice - no putrid smell or anything, but it was soft like an underinflated football. There was a lot of liquid beneath is, and then I saw a patch on the chest freezer close by, and what looked like sticky spray.

So, I started to clean up and prepare to see if I could salvage any of the watermelon to eat. Sally warned me to not try it in the kitchen, but at the compost heap - that turned out to be very sound advice...

On the whole, the watermelon was looking quite normal. But there was this unmistakable evidence of something not being right.

I inspected the watermelon and found some patches where liquid may have escaped.

Then I saw air and liquid were bubbling out from was one small spot. 

I found that I could push in parts of the skin and it was like an underinflated soccer ball.

I cut into the fruit using a bread knife and out poured an abundance of liquid. 

It continued for a long time as can be seen from the large puddle on the ground.

The rind is brown and soft, and all of the flesh is like a smoothie. It was not smelling particularly offensive or anything - I thought of tasting it, but did not give in to the thought... 

I was glad to be working at the compost heap and not on the kitchen counter!

We found that the liquid had gone around the lid of the freezer and was getting inside. There was quite a lot of it! The watermelon had been standing where the rag is on the counter on the left.

I took this as an opportune time to defrost the freezer that I noticed a few weeks ago was approaching time for attention.

The moral of the story - beauty can be skin deep! Don't judge someone from outward appearances. Its what is inside that really matters.