Best Onions

Maya set six onions on the prize table at the Ashfield Allotment Show and stepped back. At home they had looked bigger.

The judge came down the line with a pencil and a clipboard. He didn’t look up.

“Are they any good?” Maya asked.

“Average,” he said.

Maya waited for the rest of the answer. There wasn’t one.

“It rained all June,” she said. “That’s why they’re small.”

“Everyone’s June had rain in it,” the judge said.

“Okay. So what’s your advice?”

“Calm down. You’re giving one onion far too much attention,” he said, and walked on to the potatoes.

Maya stayed by the table. The man beside her had carrots as long as his arm. Twenty minutes later the judge came back and put a small white card in front of her onions. It said BEST ONIONS.

“You told me they were average,” Maya said.

“They are,” he said. “So is everything else on this table. This year, average won the award.”