Don’t let this happen to you! A true story of Tom the tomato.

The tomato seed cost about five cents and was planted in the dirt.  It grew into a mighty tomato as it bathed in water and sun.  One day the tomato is sunning itself and minding its own business when it hears a noise.  All of a sudden the ground starts to shake and the tomato tumbles over.  All at once it is scooped up by a metal arm and dropped on top of a thousand other tomatoes.  Smoke fills the air and the tomato can’t see the sky.  Finally the smoke clears and clouds move by.  The tomato travels far from its home, jostling and crowded amongst countless other tomatoes.  Shortly after the motion stops there is a great scoop that reaches in and picks it up.  It is set on a belt that takes it far within the inner workings of a large factory.   A human hand picks up the tomato and eyes inspect it.  The tomato feels exposed and uncomfortable in its new surroundings.  Once inspected, the tomato is put into a crate and loaded on the back of a large truck, it goes dark and the tomato gets scared.  After what seems like forever, light shines once again and the tomato is moved with a forklift into a cool space.  Just when it thinks its adventure is over it is taken into the produce section where it is carefully shined and polished and placed on top of many other tomatoes.  The tomato waits. 

Finally a hand touches the tomato and squeezes it gently.  It is placed into a plastic bag and wheeled around.  Once at the checkstand the tomato is scanned and costs $1.07--marked up over 20 times its original cost.  The person hands over a credit card that she knows she can’t pay and leaves the store.  Now, the tomato travels to the home to be made into sauce for the family dinner.   The bag that the tomato rests in is picked up by some hands and placed on a counter.  Another person comes in with a different bag and knocks into the tomato with great force and the bag falls.  The tomato is crushed by a carton of white liquid and melts to the floor.   There are loud noises as the tomato falls into a great sleep and everything goes silent.  The tomato is scooped into a bucket and carried to the trash--never to be heard from again. 

The moral of this story is:  If you’re going to put charges on your credit card you need to make sure that you have a plan on how to pay them back, otherwise your spaghetti sauce will be lacking in flavor.

 The Debt Lady says, “Buy my book so that this doesn’t happen to you.”