From the first she wouldn't eat vegetables. They just didn't taste good to her. Her parents were tolerant.
``She eats plenty of fruit,'' they said.
Then one day when she was three her elegant, etiolated mother turned nasty.
``You must eat some broccoli. I insist.''
``No no don't do it!'' a little broccoli tree cooling on her plate cried out.
``What?'' said the girl.
``I said eat some broccoli,'' her mother said.
``No! Don't eat me!'' The broccoli called out.
The girl looked at the piece of broccoli. It had been cut from its roots and immersed in boiling water - surely it was no longer alive. If she swallowed it it might shut up. So she swallowed it but it did not shut up. She heard it crying in her stomach. In bed that night she could still hear it sobbing, especially if she opened her mouth.
``What are you fussing about?'' she said very quietly because sometimes her mother still turned on the baby monitor.
``Fussing about?'' said the broccoli, now digested and distributed about her body.
``Are you lonely?'' asked the girl. The broccoli did not answer but sobbed weakly.
The girl wondered what she could do. She decided to try eating more vegetables so the broccoli had plenty of company.
The next night at dinner she surprised her mother by asking for vegetables. Her mother was amazed. She raced to the kitchen and microwaved a bowl of Western Family mixed vegetables. She dabbed soft margarine on top and gave it to her little daughter. The girl selected an orange carrot cube.
``No no!'' it called as she slipped it down her throat.
``Oooh!'' cried a green bean and a pea as they followed the carrot. She ate three corn kernels all at once without listening to their cries for mercy.
That night in bed there was much perturbation in her stomach as the strangers were accepted in an environment that had seen so few vegetables before.
By the next night things had settled down. The vegetables were now singing in harmony. Joy prevailed in her toes, her ears, her liver. lungs, heart and brain.
She smiled a little and fell asleep.