Finn & The Mystery of the Rotten Tomato
I wanted to relay my deepest thoughts in line with work and life in general. May this short story provoke insights and understanding. Let me know what you are thinking…
Once a long, long time ago in a humble and lively town of Hampsheer lived a diligent farmer named Finn Sebastian. He lived across the town in their Sebastian Hacienda growing beautiful tomatoes. The Sebastian family is known for their quality produce and is famous all over town for their tomatoes. However, as years passed by, Finn and his family are having a hard time growing them, it started with an unusual number of produce to only a few pieces left to sell until there were no more tomatoes that grow in their vast field. This has caused Finn’s family dilemma and before his father passed away, he willed the land to Finn and made him promise to bring back the once glory of their tomato field.
A year had passed, without tomatoes growing, their Sebastian Hacienda was slowly being taken away by town bankers as Finn was unfortunately left with a huge debt. The poor farmer was only spared with a little piece of land akin to a little backyard.
Living with his promise, Finn tirelessly continued to plant in his backyard until he learned that this last piece of land will already be taken away.
He was about to lose hope when one day he woke up with a piece of good news. In his little backyard, one tiny tomato had sprouted. Hearing about this, the town began looking forward to their tomatoes and bankers spared the poor Finn one last chance.
Each passing day, there were no other signs of the plump fruits sprouting but only the red tomato growing bigger and bigger each day.
Finn was getting hopeless but to his surprise the following morning, his tiny tomato turned into a giant one. It amazingly grew as big as his house in just a day. People flocked over his tiny backyard and soon in no time became the talk of the town.
This has reached the authorities and in no time, the town Mayor declared the Giant tomato a “Miracle of Hampsheer”. Finn was bestowed an honor and duty to protect and preserve the giant fruit.
In no time, Hampsheer became famous for the oddity and amassed wealth from the curious neighboring people. Because of the massive success of fame, Hampsheer created a “Finn Tomato Day” celebrated with so many festivities. The Sebastian Hacienda was even returned to Finn for the glory he was able to give. The young farmer was so pleased to finally be able to fulfill his father’s wishes.
Every day, the tomato is growing bigger and bigger than ever but still without any more other tomatoes growing in their hacienda.
It was starting to worry Finn as he noticed how months have passed and the giant tomato remained as it is without any signs of decay. He also began to discover how every time the tomato gets bigger, a portion of his land gets withered, the neighboring trees falter. Could the tomato be the cause of the parched hacienda?
He brought the concern to the town’s mayor but was unbelievably brushed off. He refused to believe Finn and demanded him to take care of the Tomato instead. He ordered several of his men to guard the miracle worried about what Finn might do.
Despite the alarming distress, townsfolk even from neighboring towns continued to crowd the hacienda to see the miracle fruit.
One day, Finn tried to talk to the Giant tomato.
“How could you still be so plump and red after years have passed?”
Then as he touched the giant tomato, the ground began shaking and unbelievably cracked the already lifeless land. To his dismay, Finn found the nearby farm animals dead and barns have collapsed.
Finn nearing his conclusion took time to re-examine and stare at this creep and finally was resolute of a discovery.
He went to the Mayor, to the authorities but none of them listened. Finn took the courage to voice it out in the Hampsheer market and exclaimed:
“We need to put down the Giant tomato. The Tomato is starting to decay…”
“That’s not true” the crowds murmured.
“How could you be so sure? It’s still red and plump and gigantically beautiful” The old man shouted.
“I have been thinking about that too, but the truth is, the tomato has long been rotting, instead of physically decaying, it’s taking it all out from all the beautiful things Hampsheer has, land, livelihood let us not wait for it to totally destroy us” Finn tried to convince them.
The crowds grew ballistic “You ingrateful man!”, “What is wrong with you?!”, “Unappreciative and arrogant!”
All Finn received was hatred, disappointment and was sentenced to imprisonment.
Years have passed and true to it, famine swept the land, created diseases among townspeople. They continued living and unfortunately infected neighboring towns with evolving diseases the tomato brought upon.
Amidst Hampsheer turning into a wasteland, stood the most beautiful tomato the world has ever seen.
Despite the sorrow it had caused, everyone in Hampsheer never brought it down and continued to proclaim the rotten tomato still a miracle of the town. Never did they know, they were harming themselves from a deceitful truth of an unlearned lie. Finn might have fulfilled his father’s dying wishes, bringing a seemingly endless glory-but the kind of glory which is the most dangerous of the kind.
The End.