Aubrey Aubergine

“Mommy, there’s someone at the door!” cried Julie. She had heard the bell ring while she was painting a picture for her grandma.

“Yes, yes,” replied her mum, putting down the wooden spoon she was using to stir the soup, “I’m just going to open it.”

Julie carried on dipping her brush into the paints. She painted carefully, her tongue sticking out and her eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated. When she felt satisfied that her picture was finished, she looked up and saw that her mother was back.

“Who was it, Mum?” she asked curiously.

“Have a guess…” her mother replied, smiling and holding up a box full of fruit and vegetables, “our fresh batch of vitamins just arrived!”

Julie’s eyes lit up with excitement. She jumped off her chair and ran over to her mother. “Show me, show me! What is there this week?”

Julie grabbed one side of the box and helped her mum carry it to the kitchen table. Together they looked through what was inside the box and imagined where each fruit or vegetable had grown, who had grown it, and what it had experienced before it came to their house.

Julie picked up a large, shiny, dark purple vegetable. “Mum,” she said, sounding curious, “what is this strange purple pear?”

“Oh, that’s not a pear, Julie, that’s an aubergine. It’s sometimes also called an eggplant,” Mum replied.

Julie’s eyes widened. “Does it lay eggs?!” she asked.

“Oh, no,” Mum said with a laugh, “but when it grows on the plant, it starts off white and rounded, like an egg. Then later it grows longer and turns purple. Shall we give this one a name?”

“Aubrey the Aubergine!” suggested Julie. “Will you tell me a story about him?”

…