I had the wonderful experience of cutting into a tomato from the farmer's market the other day that had a worm living in it. He had apparently eaten into the tomato much earlier; the fruit had then healed around him, and he dined to his hearts content one of summer's greatest blessings. He's quite possibly the most blessed worm in the world; not only had he chosen a cherokee tomato, but my knife did not injure him. As I threw the portion of the tomato he was still living in into the trash, I couldn't help but wonder what his life would be like from then on, or what it had been like before...
Hi, I'm Terry the tomato worm, and this is my story. I was crawling through a garden one day. I saw the perfect meal. It was a nice, big, juicy, purple and green tomato. So, I crawled up the vine to help myself to some of it.
Just as I was taking my first bite, this great big scary creature loomed overhead. It had big eyes, made strange noises and wore funny flowered skin. I was really scared, so I crawled all the way inside the tomato. It tasted so good that I just kept eating. And eating. And eating. Pretty soon I was lost, but I didn't care. The tomato was too yummy to leave.
Finally I was full. Really full. I had a horrible tummy ache, and I couldn't get out of the tomato. I thought that I was eating it, but I was beginning to feel like the tomato had eaten me. I couldn't find the hole I had chewed in the skin anymore.
Then the tomato started shaking. I got really scared again. I could hear the giant creature's strange noises. All of the sudden, the whole tomato started spinning and then jumped really hard. Then it got really dark. Something kept bumping my new home, like things were being set on top of it.
After a while we started moving again. This time it was a rythmic bobbing up and down, up and down. Then that stopped too. Everything became very still and I could tell that it was nighttime. I started to get sleepy...
I was rudely awakened before dawn by a very loud bang. The next thing I heard was something I had never heard before. It was a rumbling noise. My tomato home started moving yet again. This time the rumbling got louder as we moved faster. And when we slowed down, there was a loud squeeling noise.
We stopped moving just about sunrise. It was quiet for a while. Then something picked up my tomato and carried us a short distance. After a while it got really loud, but this time it was the strange noise of the giant creature. It sounded like there were hundreds of them.
The tomato was picked up. And put back down. Then it was picked up, and put back down again. This happened several times. I was very confused. Sometimes the tomato would land right-side-up, other times I would be up-side-down.
Then we were picked up and put inside of something. All I could here was a rustling noise, and we were on the move again. The tomato and I were swinging back and forth. The rythmic movement would stop abruptly every once in a while.
Then it stopped suddenly, I heard a loud bang, and it got darker again. After a second loud bang I heard a grinding noise and the rumbling started again. The rumbling got louder as we went faster and softer when we slowed down, but this time there wasn't any squeeling.
Finally we stopped. The rumbling stopped too. I heard the noise of a creature I had seen before I moved into the tomato; it is furry all over, has a wagging tail, and says "WOOF! WOOF!" Then we moved again. The rustling sound got louder and then stopped. It was really light where we were.
There was a thud as the tomato landed somewhere. And it got quiet. Really quiet. Every once and a while I would hear strage noises, more "WOOF! WOOF!", and the language of the giant creatures. It got dark. I got sleepy. This went on for several days.
Then, one afternoon, the best thing happened to me. Something really shiny came straight through the tomato. I was really lucky, it almost cut me too. I was free!!!
I saw the giant creature, but it didn't look the same. This time it had eyes for its eyes and striped skin. It frowned when it saw me. Then, it dropped me inside a big can. It was like falling into heaven; the can was full of food! I was a little sick of tomato, so I started in on some carrot greens.
After a while, someone picked up the can and took the bag inside it outside. It got dark again and I got sleepy again. After several days of eating from one bag to the next, I heard a loud "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" noise. Then all the bags went up and up and UP! Next, we fell and bounced around. It got really dark and I heard more rumbling that got louder when we went faster and more squeeling when we slowed down.
After a lot of rumbling and starting and stopping, I heard more beeping. Then the bags started going up and tumbling down again all at the same time. After we stopped moving and everything got quiet, I chewed a hole in the bag. Yuck! The bag tasted gross!
There were lots and lots of bags just like the one I was in. They were all different colors, but all the food inside of them was gross. I really wanted a nice, fresh, tomato. I could see some green plants way far away, so I started crawling over apple cores, bags, and wilted lettuce.
I crawled and I crawled and I crawled. For several days I crawled. I saw huge yellow creatures that pushed the bags around. At night, it got dark and quiet and I slept. During the day there was lots of flies to talk to.
Then one day, I finally made it to the green. Not far away I saw a row of tomato plants. When I got to them I saw a nice, big, perfect, red tomato. So, I crawled up the vine and took a bite...