Fruits

“Peach!” Hannah squealed, reaching up to grab the fruit from the bowl.

“Please don’t,” Hannah heard a voice say when she prepared to take a bite. She looked around.

“Who said that?” she asked suspiciously.

“Down here.”

Hannah looked down at the peach.

“Did my peach just...talk?” she asked.

“Yes. Now please don’t eat me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to be eaten.”

“But you’re food.”

“How would you feel if some giant beast picked you up and tried to eat you?”

“I’m not a beast!”

“To me you are. I mean, to me, looking like I do is normal. You look like a beast.”

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Peach.”

“Peach?”

“Yes?”

“That’s your name?”

“Of course! What else do you expect? Violet? Though I do have a friend called Pink.”

“What is she?”

“A raspberry. And Purple is a grape.”

“Oh.”

“Do you want to meet them?”

“Can I eat them?”

“Of course not!”

Hannah sighed.

“Fine,” she groaned. “I won’t eat you guys.”

“Pink! Purple! Come on, I want you to meet someone! Wait...what’s your name, human?”

“Hannah.”

“Hannah? What kind of name is that? Not Tan or Brown?”

Hannah glanced at her tan skin and brown hair.

“Naming is different for humans,” she said. “They have names like Hannah or Joel or Mia, not colors.”

Just then, a grape and a raspberry bounced onto the floor at Hannah’s feet. She glanced down at them and smiled.

“Hi! Are you Pink and Purple?”

“Yeah! And that’s our friend, Peach! What are you doing with her?” asked Purple.

“I was going to eat her, then I found out she was alive.”

“Oh.”

When nobody was paying attention, a huge dog came into the room and licked the fruits up off the floor.

“Pink! Purple!” Peach screeched. “My friends! That mutt ate them!”

“No, Jeff! Bad dog! Spit them out!” Hannah scolded, wrestling the dog’s mouth open. There on his tongue sat Pink and Purple.

“Quick! Climb out! I can’t hold his mouth open for long!” Hannah grunted as Jeff the dog whimpered. Pink and Purple leaped out of his mouth, and Hannah released his jaw. Jeff smacked his lips and padded away.

“You guys go hide,” Hannah suggested. “I’d better go feed Jeff—dog food, don’t worry.”

As the fruits went to hide, and Hannah went to feed the dog, they each thought in their minds that the four would become very good friends in days to come.