Eat Your Vegetables!
    
Max rubbed the bump on his head, groaning. Stiff hospital sheets cradled his body, and a glaring fluorescent light pounded his eyes. Wasn’t this just dandy? But, honestly, this situation was his fault.
    
It had started on a night seemingly like any other. Max and his brother had been gathered around the table when their mother plopped an extra helping onto each of their plates. Green beans. Disgusting. Max had slid them into his palm, planning to feed them to his dog, when his plans were thwarted. Dismayed, Max had watched as his dog happily chomped on his brother’s vegetables and snubbed his owner’s hand, the traitor. For lack of a better option, Max had stuffed the vegetables into his pocket. Disaster averted.
    
That was until his mother made the call for laundry.
    
Thinking quickly, Max had dug the green beans out of his pocket and plopped them on his shelf, which was thankfully above his petite mother’s eye level.
    
Sensing a new routine to avoid eating his vegetables without getting his dog sick (again), Max kept up with the plan. He had felt himself a genius. So really, he should have seen this coming.
    
Shelves can only hold so many vegetables piled on top of each other before the inevitable happens, and they fall to the ground. Max had managed to save an entire week’s worth of vegetables before they splattered across his floor while he was at school. Distracted with his new pack of baseball cards, Max hadn’t realized what had happened until he was falling, painfully cracking his head on the floor. And here he was.
    
Shaken back to the present by his mother’s entrance, Max did his best to look weak and pitiful.
    
“Oh, Max, sweetie, you poor thing! You must be famished after your little ordeal!” his mother said, grinning. “Thankfully, I took the liberty of going down to the cafeteria for your favorite snack!” Procuring a small container, Max couldn’t help his whimper at the sight of pureed carrots.
    
“Here comes the choo-choo!”
    
And that, folks, is why you should always eat your vegetables.