The Great Green Tomato
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a tomato in a garden. There were many tomatoes in the garden, but this one was different. As the summer went on, all the other tomatoes in the garden turned red. This tomato stayed green. Instead of turning red, this tomato got big. Very big.
The garden was behind the house of an old woman, and one day this old woman —Sasha Sashanova— noticed the green tomato. "That's odd," she said to herself. "This tomato is as big as a grapefruit, but it hasn't even started to get ripe. I wonder how big it will get?" The old gardener shrugged, then spat on the ground, then went about her business.
One week later, the gardener noticed the tomato again. It was still green, but now it was as big as a cantaloupe. "That's not normal," she thought, then she got distracted by a cat in an apple tree.
Two days later, the old lady was working in her garden again. She noticed the large tomato, defiantly green, in the midst of dozens of normal-sized, ripe red fruits. She pointed an angry finger at the tomato. "That's enough of that nonsense. Do your job, or I'll feed you to the goose!" This was an empty threat: the old gardener didn't have a goose, but the tomato didn't know that. As the old lady walked away, the green tomato began to shake in fear on the vine.
I don't want to be fed to a goose, thought the tomato. I'd better get serious. And the tomato did. It got serious, and it turned all it's attention to doing its job.
Overnight, the tomato grew from the size of a small watermelon to the size of a large pumpkin. When the old lady saw the tomato the next day, she shook her fist at it, swore seven times, turned and went back in the house. She returned a minute later with a big knife. "I told you to stop messing around! Now I'm gonna teach you a lesson!"
The old lady approached the tomato with her knife in the air.
The tomato screamed.
Then the old lady screamed.
Then the giant green tomato jumped off the vine. As he hit the ground he bounced into the old lady, knocking the knife out of her hand. The green tomato picked up the knife and ran out of the garden.
No one ever saw the giant green tomato again. No one knows what happened to him. Some people say he joined a pirate's crew and sails the seven seas. Some say he grew a moustache and got a regular job and settled down. Others say he learned black magic and married a witch.
Still other people say that he's hiding in a forest just outside of town, but every Green Tomato Day* he comes back... and he's still carrying that knife!
There is no moral to this story. Today is Green Tomato Day. Be careful.
This story was written for a class project based on a holiday we made up, "Green Tomato Day".