In the middle of an apple tree orchard, there was a tree. Not just an ordinary tree though, this tree produced apples that people like us only dream about eating. What also made this tree out of the ordinary was that it reached so high into the sky that most children mistook it as a peek of a mountain.
Perched on this tree were tons of red apples, ripe and round they hung like strands of cherry colored Christmas lights.
Most apples were in groups of two or more, this tree was no exception.
Although many apples were as close as can be, none could compare with Frieda the Fuji and {the oddball} Mandy the Granny Smith apple.
Now Frieda and Mandy as can be, they went together like peanut butter and jelly, like crackers and cheese.
Giggling, joking, and playing, these two were inseparable.
Until one day.... A man walked up a ladder that was leaning against the tree. His feet ascended up each step as he plucked apples unmercifully from the tree.
“It’s coming toward me!” Screeched Frieda. “Now what will become of us, we’re being torn apart!” Yelled Mandy. Replied Frieda, “remember you’ll always be close to my heart.” Instinctively, the hand reached out, brushing leaves aside until it grabbed Frieda.
He tucked the poor apple deep in the truck and took her far, far away; away from the trees, away from the birds that chirped merrily, but worst of all the hand had taken her away from her best friend, Mandy.
The man put the basket
in the bed of his truck and away he, along with the apples went. Off to a place, a land, foreign to her own.
Frieda felt like she was in a black abyss; a sense of insecurity in the pit of her stomach. “Nothing could be worse then this,” wailed Frieda, hoping to see the situation as an opportunity however impossible it might seem.
The darkness quickly cleared as the driver pulled over, as the apple turned over; the driver had stopped. Frieda rolled around in the basket, as she was harshly being lifted up and dumped into a cart full of a variety of fruits, being carried away to a grocery store, being placed in the fruit
cart down the isle. Frieda stuck out like a sore thumb, there were just so many different fruits! Some were as green as grasshoppers, others as orange as the fur on tigers. They were all complex; having many different sizes and shapes, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they belonged to a circus.
After hours of sitting in the cool breeze,
Frieda glanced around, leaves shivering as she lay amid the fruits. A teardrop, icy and wet trickled down her cheek as she sang herself to sleep with the blues.
“Crash!” went the cart as it hit the tile after colliding into a nearby speeding cart. The fruits toppled over and out of the cart left and right rolling as fast as racecars; they were wheels around the tile floor. Frieda was the fastest of these wheels.
Leaves rattling, Frieda woke up in shock as she realized she was about to skid under one of the biggest shelves in the grocery store! She struggled trying to escape her fate as she kept rolling. As she was rolling she kept felling this tug on her, she figured it might have been a piece of trash left over from yesterday, but no, as she turned her head around she saw a lemon right behind her, trying to stop her from going under the shelf.
“Ouch,” yelped Frieda
as the Lemon, yet again tugged on her. “ I got you, don’t worry everything will be ok if only you just hold on tight to me, I can promise you I won’t let you fall under the shelf.” Yelled the lemon as he turned Frieda around he passed her a wide smile. Frieda couldn’t help but smile back.
As she lay there in a state of gratitude Frieda remembered a time when she was young. Back at the place; the tree where she used to hang on, Frieda recalled the time when the tree was going to have his limbs cut off. “It’s alright” he told the nervous apples “when life gives me lemons I make lemonade.” Shortly after, when the tree’s limbs were cut off he just smiled saying, “look over there, I have a sprout growing in place, pretty soon I will have another limb.”
What was Frieda thinking? She wasn’t in a horrible situation {as she had thought of it} actually, “This could be a great opportunity!” Frieda thought, looking over at the lemon lying on the ground. This lemon really cared about Frieda, as Mandy had. “Instead of losing a friend, I have met a new one”, gleamed Frieda as she held tightly to the Lemon.
As they awaited to be picked up off the ground, Larry {the lemon} and Frieda lay there, talking for what seemed like hours, maybe a lifetime, Frieda didn’t really care how long it was, she didn’t feel alone anymore.
Finally they were scooped back up {washed, of course} and placed back into the cart full of the fruits again except, this time the man had piled on more fruits from the bed of his truck.
Beaten and red, there, in the corner of the cart lay an apple. Not just any ordinary apple though, this apple was unlike the others, it was familiar.
Tilting herself over slightly, Frieda met the eyes of the apple, it was Mandy! Frieda quickly raced toward Mandy, hugging her tightly.
“ I thought I would never see you again,” Cried out Mandy, her leaves shaking from the shock.
Larry looked over at us, winking at Frieda as she hugged Mandy.
“This is Larry, the lemon” Frieda began saying as she introduce Larry to Mandy, together, all three of them were a complete set; Larry had been the last piece in the puzzle; now everything fit.
Once in a grocery store much like
yours, there were 3 {not two} friends, bright and close they were always together, like 3 peas in a pod, nothing would be able to break their friendship.... But, just in case something ever did come along their way, they all knew that they could make the best of it.
Just by looking at the brighter and better side of
it, all could be overcome. And on the 3 fruits lived, always waiting to make more lemonade.
DO NOT COPY THIS PIECE, THAT MY FRIENDS WOULD BE CALLED PLAGERISM
