Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?

Every now and then, something peculiar happens to make you wonder whether there are dark forces afoot. Or whether you are beginning to lose your grip on reality. Such an event happened earlier today in our kitchen.

A few days ago, Hubs bought some of those "tomatoes on the vine" at the grocery store. He left them sitting on the kitchen counter. They were just ordinary tomatoes: smooth-skinned, deceptively red, and ready to eat (if you like the taste of polyester. Store-bought tomatoes lost their flavor years ago.)

Anyway, they appeared to be perfectly normal. Until this morning. As I was filling my coffee cup, I happened to notice there was something odd about them. Whereas previously they had been smooth-skinned, they were now covered with tiny bumps that looked like teenage acne. A closer inspection startled me even more: there was something emerging from one of them. I adjusted my glasses and leaned in for a closer look. It was a little green sprout! It looked exactly like a seedling you'd find poking up from the soil in a vegetable garden a couple of weeks after planting. Only this thing was growing right out of the tomato. A scene flashed through my mind of something alien emerging from Sigourney Weaver's pulsating torso. Frankly, looking at that sprout pushing up out of the tomato kinda gave me the creeps.

The alien tomatoes. Note the strange little bumps.

Ever seen anything like this? Me neither.

What would cause grocery store tomatoes to do this? Genetic engineering gone awry? A strange new tomato virus? I'm at a loss for answers. Maybe someone out there can shed some light on the mystery. Anyone???

Now I'm trying to decide what to do with these tomatoes. Out of morbid curiosity I want to observe them further to see what happens next. But I don't want them in the house. Just in case something with a vile personality pops out. One thing I do know: we are sure as heck not gonna eat them!

Text and images ©2014 Lynn Edwards