What’s Inside My Body: Digestion

Charlotte and her dad visited the orchard outside town today. Her dad guessed that the cherries would surely have started to ripen by now, and Charlotte really loved cherries. The freshly picked ones always tasted the best. They were cool, shiny and crisp. Yummy!

When they reached the orchard, they immediately noticed there were plenty of ripe cherries on the trees — her dad had guessed right. The branches of the massive cherry tree at the far end were sagging under the weight of those delicious red fruits.

They headed across to that tree first. Charlotte picked the cherries on the lowest branches. After tasting two lovely sweet ones, she bit into a third one and winced, instantly spitting it out: “YUCK, that cherry was super sour!”

“Careful that you only pick the cherries that are dark red, the others have to ripen some more before they’re ready,” her dad explained. He had brought along a ladder, so under his supervision Charlotte was able to climb up a little higher to where the sweetest ones grew. Eventually they had filled a small basket. Charlotte’s mum wanted to bake a cherry pie, so they needed to make sure they collected enough. It was soon time to head back home.

Charlotte was always happy to assist with the baking. While her mum weighed the other ingredients, she started pitting the cherries.

“There’s a worm in this one!” Charlotte exclaimed, throwing the cherry into the bin. But then she realised there was a worm in every second cherry, and was overcome with anxiety. “Mummy, I ate an awful lot of cherries this afternoon without looking inside them. What if they were wormy? What if there’s a whole family of worms swimming around in my tummy …