Paranoid Potato Meets the Gardener

Chapter 1

The cave was very dark. So dark that Mama Potato couldn't see the light.

Sometimes children think that their parents are perfect, like superheros, but sometimes they fail. Paranoid Potato failed. Tearfully, she kissed Baby Spud and went to her corner of the garden, Grandma and Grandpa Cauliflower taking care of Baby Spud in Mama Potato's absence.

Mama Potato was very sad, but she didn't know how to make things right, to do things better. The only thing she knew was how to dig a hole. A lot of dirt wedged under her fingernails, but she didn't care, burying deeper and deeper before jumping inside the hole she'd made.

"Alright, Mr Toad, you can put the soil on top of me," Mama Potato called to the Garden Helper, wrapping her arms around her knees as the dirt began to pour back into the hole she had created.

Mama Potato spent an entire year turning moldy as she cried in her hole. She wrote letters in the darkness to Baby Spud and began to inch her way to the surface, but she would remember she had made a big booboo, and would go back deeper into the dirt. Even the worms scooted by her. She told them they could munch her, but they wouldn't even do that. Mama Potato was very much alone and sad.

One day, Mama Potato couldn't take it any longer. "Father Gardener," her voice squeaked. She wasn't sure if He could hear her all the way down in the pit she had created. "If You can hear me, can You forgive me? I made a very bad booboo and I don't know how to make things right. I know I have been even a bad vegetable in Your garden. Really, Father Gardener, You can dig me up and toss me into the compost. I'm gross and awful anyway and I know that I have hurt You. I'm very sorry, though, Father Gardener, I don't know if You can forgive rotted potatoes like me, but I sure would like to have a second chance."

Mama Potato curled into a little gnarled potato, full of moldy eyes and big cuts from dehydration. She had buried herself so low that even the raindrops had a hard time giving her water, though Father Gardener made sure that she got some. Bad vegetables or good vegetables, Father Gardener was a good Gardener to them all.

Suddenly a big light appeared in her potato cave and Mama Potato squinted. "Who's that? Who's there? Leave me alone, I'm a gross potato."

No one answered, but a warm feeling filled her, she inhaled deeply the pollen and the smell of fresh cut grass and after her eyes adjusted, she could see a big blue sky. "Father Gardener?"

Father Gardener didn't answer, but the hole became so big that Mama Potato was able to climb out. She was so tired and gross, the dirt underneath her feet had to help push her up to the surface.

One by one, Mama Potato put her fingers on top of the topsoil. Giving all her energy, she popped out of the hole she had made and looked around.

Four Brussel Sprouts looked at her with big smiles, "Hello Mama Potato!"

"Who, me?" Mama Potato looked at them with surprise. She had felt invisible, too bad to even look at or speak to. "I'm so dirty and moldy, you can't be talking to me."

"Yes, you!" They chorused.

One of the Brussel Sprouts looked at her shoes, then at the sky. "Brand new, brand new!"

"Hmm?" Mama Potato skewered her nose. "What are you saying?"

"He'll make you brand new!"

Mama Potato didn't know what to do, but it amazed her that filthy with mud, mold and smushy parts of her could be possibly be made brand new, so she followed the singing Brussel Sprout towards the end of her part of the garden. She hadn't seen it before, but when she turned her back to her hole, she saw the feet of the Gardener and she stood there quivering as with love, the Gardener washed off her wounds, smushy parts, mold and filth. Mama Potato looked at herself in surprise. She wasn't as smooth as Baby Spud, but she felt brand new, like when she was first born! "Oh, Gardener! Thank You!"

The Gardener smiled at His potato. "Keep clean now, Mama Potato. I've made you brand new!"

"Brand new! Brand new!"

Mama Potato opened her mouth and she took up the chorus, "I'm brand new! Thank You! Brand new!" She was never so happy that even with all her faults and ickies, the Gardener loved her, and gave her new friends to walk alongside her.

Mama Potato knew she wouldn't likely see the Gardener again so close and personal in the garden patch, but she couldn't... wouldn't... ever forget the day she met Him!

The Brussel Sprouts waved and danced around happily, but Mama Potato walked back to her hole. She kicked some dirt inside it, then some more and some more. The Gardener had lifted her out. She wasn't going back. From the corner of her eye, she saw some paper and ran over to it. It was time to share with Baby Spud and the Cauliflowers what had happened when she met the Gardener! Would they be happy? Would they think that she had changed? Mama Potato was excited to tell them, but she didn't care if they saw a difference right away or wondered within themselves. She knew what had happened! She ran a hand over her smooth face and smiled. She was brand new!