Work Text:
Under the bright glare of the supermarket lights, Tomato rolled up against the side of the box and called out "Who's there? Are you a vegetable?"
A sour voice responded "No, you idiot, I'm Lemon! Don't you have better things to do than ask stupid questions?"
Tomato grumbled to himself "it sounds like someone fell off the wrong side of the tree this morning," but didn't dare respond to Lemon out loud. He wasn't looking for an argument today. He was looking for answers.
Who was he, really?
Tomato always thought of himself as a vegetable. He dreamed that he was destined for some savoury dish, and longed to one day become inseparable from olive oil, herbs, and salt. Perhaps he would get to enjoy the company of some friendly Cheese - one that complemented him nicely. Then again, maybe a hot Pepper or that popular bad-boy Garlic would come into his life to spice things up!
Yet Tomato had heard a few disturbing rumours on his long trip from greenhouse to supermarket.
Rumours that suggested Tomato was, in fact, a fruit.
Tomato didn't want to be a fruit.
The fact that they'd stocked him next to Lemon - a sour and bitter character, but unmistakably a fruit - seemed an ominous sign. Had he been placed in the fruit section?
Increasingly worried, Tomato rolled to the front of the wide produce box. Here the edge was lower and he could peek over into the box below.
Avocado stared back from her cardboard nest. "Leave me alone, I'm not ripe" she said a little too firmly. Tomato rolled away. Another fruit was his neighbour on that side! This did not bode well for his vegetable status.
As Tomato stewed in his tormented thoughts, a huge shadow fell over the box and he found himself seized and lifted into the air. He had been chosen! The hour of reckoning was nigh! Would he be treated as a fruit, or as a vegetable?
Preoccupied with his own thoughts, Tomato scarcely noticed as he was placed in a basket, dropped gently on a conveyor belt, lifted so the sticker on his backside could be scanned by a loudly beeping machine, jostled by other food items in a bag, and carried an indeterminate distance.
Tomato's reverie finally broke when he was removed from the bag and found himself in a kitchen. Other food items lay nearby, taking in their new surroundings.
Noticing Lettuce close to him, Tomato called out hopefully: "Hey Lettuce, do you think they'll put us in a salad together?"
"I'll be in a salad" Lettuce responded crisply, "because it's my destiny. I'm the head of the salad department! You'll be no more than a garnish - if you get in at all. Why, you're barely even a vegetable."
Hearing this, two nearby Potatoes rolled their eyes knowingly at each other. “More like a fruit, isn’t he?" one commented. The other added "What a softy!"
Tomato felt crushed. Was it true? Was he really a fruit? He tried to roll away from their taunts, and collided with the rustling immensity of a bag of snack crisps.
He looked up, and was suddenly transfixed by the sight of some words printed on the sides of the bag.
Tomato sat rooted to the spot for a moment, then proudly called out "LOOK AT THIS!" with such excitement that the other foods fell silent.
"Look at this! It says I'm a real vegetable!"
