Midnight Snack

It was midnight when Kate woke up. And I was starving. Starving.

I’m Tammy, Kate’s stomach. I have been through a lot of pain.

Kate has Oral Allergy Syndrome and avoids her trigger foods like a good girl. Listening to me whenever I am upset.

There is a problem though. We are running out of food. Everything hurts. Except turkey, and rice. And salt. Also water. That's it. Except rice hurts me too, but it's the least painful.

“I am hungry!” I said.

“Wha? What?” Brain awakened. “What’s wrong! Was that real! Did we actually fall off the moon! Are we dead!”

“I’m hungry!” It was the only thing I could think to say.

“Your hungry?” Brain whined. “But we just ate six hours ago!”

“No wait….” I said. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

Brain relaxed.

“I’m starving!”

Brain yelped. “Okay, okay! Let me call on our reserves….” Brain concentrated. “Uh oh.” He said. “We don’t have any.”

That frightened me. “Wake up Kate!” I said.

Brain sent signals to the rest of the organs . While I informed Kate of how hungry she was.

“What’s going on?” Tongue asked.

“Yeah,” Nose cut in. “what’s with code red, I have never seen a code red before.”

“HUNGRY!!!!” I yelled.

“Tammy’s hungry.” Brain said.

“That would explain the weird vibrations that woke us up.” Teeth said, a choir of small voices. “We did a lot of work today and need to rest, so can we go back to sleep?”

“UUhhhh...” Brain said. “Well, we have a problem.”

“So hungry!” I yelled again. I hurt from the hunger.

“Yeah,” Tongue said to Brain. “I can see that.”

“Tammy are you sure you want to eat?” Brain said. “Remember last time we ate in the middle of the night?”

I hesitated. I remembered. It hurt. It hurt really bad. But this hurt too. And it was making me insane.

“Food!” I was so eloquent when I couldn't think.

“Okay.” Brain turned to the other organs. “Everyone, we have no more reserves.”

“What!” Every organ exclaimed.

“How can that be?” Teeth said. “We have chewed a lot of food.”

“Its because of Tammy.” Tongue said "Isn't it."

“No it isn’t.” Brain said.

“Yes it is. Tammy is the reason all we eat is turkey and rice!”

“And salt.” I squeaked.

Tongue wasn’t impressed. “Yay salt. Why can’t we eat what I like for a change! Why doesn’t anyone listen to me!”

“Hey, we have avoided things you didn’t like.” Brain said.

“Cause I knew it would hurt Tammy!”

“No,” Brain said. “You complained it made you itchy!”

“So did cantaloupe! But we ate that anyway!” Tongue said.

“Guys, guys!” Nose said. “Do this later. Tammy is in a lot of pain. Brain make Kate go eat.”

“Okay. I will make her joints hurt. Maybe then she will listen.”

After three torturous hours of Brain making Kate overheated and her ignoring it, then Brain making her nauseous so she watched a movie, at last she stumbled her way downstairs for food.

It was four thirty. Kate was frantic as she yanked the fridge open. She plowed through the food looking for rice. Next she raided the freezer for turkey, and turkey broth. These she put in a pan. With a lot more rice than normal. While she waited for her soup to heat up she ate half a cantaloupe. Then her soup.

But I was still hungry.

Next she tore through the fridge and found celery, and green beans. She ate a lot of those and the rest of the frozen peas.

I was still hungry.

She consumed pumpkin seeds. I knew I might regret this later. But at that moment I couldn’t think straight.

“We need something that will add weight.” Brain said. "So we can make more reserves.”

“Kate just researched this.” Nose said, calm. "When you were trying to convince her to get out of bed."

“Avocados,” Brain recited. "Are a good source for healthy fat.”

“Yup!” I said. “We’re gonna go grab that and we’re gonna eat that!”

Kate had lost a lot of weight when she was last sick. She dropped to one hundred and twelve pounds. Her energy was at one or two percent every day. She needed weight. She needed energy.

Kate took the other half of her mother’s avocado out of the fridge and ate half of that.

“Let’s eat the rest!” I said, hunger making me sound crazed.

“But.” Brain said “This is mother’s…” “So, she wont mind.” I said. “In fact she would be glad we ate it.” It was true. Mother was great that way. "Plus she can buy more."

That appeased Brain.

So we ate the rest.

Yet again I was still hungry.

A whole bag of sugar snap peas was next. It was devine. I was getting filled.

It was six thirty four. Kate had been eating for two hours.

Kate’s little brother Joshua came downstairs.

“Are you going to join me for a midnight snack.” Kate grinned.

Yeah, she sounded insane. And her brother thought so too, his expression said it all.

She told him of her attack on the fridge and how she wanted to sleep but was too hungry. I was glad she couldn’t sleep. We were not done yet.

Jicama was her next target. I liked Jicama, It was like an apple and a potato mixed, I just wished it was easier to digest. I accepted it though. She ate pecans and almonds then wanted more pumpkin seeds. But they were all gone.

“We need more pumpkin seeds!” I said.

“Doesn’t father have some in his office.” Brain said. "I’m sure he wont mind.”

“Yes your right! Let’s go!”

With a frantic, deranged look in her eyes, Kate searched her father’s office till she spotted the pumpkin seeds. She grabbed the bag then sank to the hard floor of the breakfast nook, exhausted.

She lay there, eating seed after seed, till at last I was satisfied. Every organ calmed. It was quiet. And I was full. After three hours of eating, I could rest.