Once there was a little tomato which was just starting to grow. It looked like a fat green pebble which hung happily from the tomato plant, bathing in the rain and enjoying the sun.

The tomato grew a little each day. It got rounder and bigger, but it stayed green. It noticed that some of its friend were red and large, and it asked them how they came to be that way. “Don’t worry,” the friends assured him. “You’ll see.”

As the weeks wore on the tomato began to be unhappy because it was not red. The tomato no longer enjoyed the sun and the rain because it worried, knowing that time was running low, that it must turn red somehow. One day a squirrel approached the tomato plant and eyed each tomato. Finally, the squirrel fixed his eyes on the tomato which was worried about turning red.

“Little tomato,” said the squirrel, “I want to eat you.”

“No you won’t! Please don’t eat me,” pleaded the tomato.

“Oh yes I will,” countered the squirrel. “You’re so stupid and green, I could eat you right up.” The squirrel began to creep towards the tomato.

“Don’t eat me!” screamed the tomato.

“Such a silly green tomato.”

“I’m not silly!” cried the tomato.

“Everybody knows that all silly tomatoes stay green,” reasoned the squirrel. “Green tomatoes are always up to no good.”

At this, the tomato began to be very angry. The squirrel must be wrong. The tomato’s anger grew inside of him. Then, slowly and surely, the tomato began to turn red with rage.

“I,” the tomato shouted, “am a red tomato!”

The squirrel began to back away, but the tomato was still upset. It got bigger and redder over the next few days. Its insides became sweet, its outsides became taught with the juices of a ripe tomato.

And all the people who enjoyed that tomato, and every tomato before and every tomato after, didn’t realize the struggle tomatoes face to turn red.