11

TOMATOES

Again the children brought their math books to St. Vincent’s.

Four books lay on the table. The children tried to hide their disappointment when they saw the letters B-I-B-L-E handwritten neatly across each of the handmade book jackets.

Ana’s face shone with joy and mischief. “I thought it would be nice if we could all read together.”

Dante began turning pages. Large colorful pictures of plants and trees, and things he’d never seen before, lay before him.

“Look!” he shouted. “My Bible has pictures!”

Lily and Clare were paging through their books. “Hey—wait a minute—”

The girls looked up at Ana, whose smile stretched tight the sagging skin around her mouth, and sent out wrinkles from the corners of her eyes like rays of sunshine.

“Never underestimate what you might find inside a plain brown wrapper,” she said winking. “It’s risky, but if ever you’re to see these books, I figured this would be our best chance. Though you must be careful when others come near. Now let’s get these math books of yours lying about.” She opened the two textbooks nearest her. “You never know what other people might think or do.”

The two girls exchanged glances. Ana’s tone was serious. Suddenly they were reminded of the man, who on occasion, still followed them. Meeting here, like this, had begun to feel normal, safe, like real after-school lessons. They had almost forgotten their course of study was forbidden. Yes, forbidden fruit, Clare thought, just like in the Bible.

“Clare, Lily, Dante,” Ana said. “Today I’m going to tell you about tomatoes.” The children opened their notebooks.

“Tomato: t-o-m-a-t-o,” Ana spelled. They copied down the word and waited for more.

“Put down your pencils,” she instructed. They stared at her in disbelief, clutching their pencils.

“Down,” she repeated. “First, I want you just to listen.”

They set their pencils down and looked at Ana.

“A tomato is the fruit of the plant, scientifically speaking. It contains the seeds. In terms of the old ‘food groups’ we’ll call it a vegetable. What I mean is—it’s not sweet like a dessert, a Sweetie, such as fruit from a tree.”

“Like a peach!” Dante interrupted.

“That’s right. But tomatoes do have many wonderful qualities like other fruits. For example, tomatoes can be eaten raw or cooked. They can be made into sauce and juice. They can be canned, frozen, or dried. Tomatoes come in several colors, but mostly bright red. They’re usually round and can be small or large. They are rather soft and very juicy. The seeds are easy to save.”

The children, with their limited experience, understood only about half of this, but seemed impressed. They hoped Ana would soon let them write it all down.

“Are they difficult to grow?” asked Lily.

“Not really,” answered Ana. “Quite easy.” She whispered, “And they can be grown indoors. Though they do get rather large. But oh, so much food, from one tiny seed. You see, unlike a carrot seed, a tomato seed produces a plant with many, many fruits on it.”

“Oh, I get it,” said Clare.

Dante bravely asked, “Do you think we could get one of those seeds?”

“You already have, dear, you already have.”

The children were terribly excited to finally discover that the first seeds Clare brought home were tomatoes. And soon they would be growing their own tomato plants. After Ana surprised them with the news, she surprised them even further by showing them pictures of tomatoes in the brown-papered gardening books.

The remainder of class trickled away as the children drank in the books, examining the many illustrations of vegetable plants and fruit trees.

Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words must have been thinking of them. Their hearts sang as they carried their treasures home.

They could almost taste the tomatoes.