Two Different Apples

Sunday, the best day to go apple picking in my opinion, quiet with the sun shining on the autumn leaves. First job of the day though is to pick up a new recruit or volunteer I should say, we have them come to the orchard every few weeks however its gone down to a few months, this is the first I’ve heard of in 7 weeks. ‘’So Samantha, whats the name of this volunteer you have to pick up?’’ my mum asks.

‘’I’m not sure, they never really say much about the person just where to pick them up’’ I reply

‘’well anyway they have a great teacher’’ she says putting her hand on my shoulder while she passes my lunch over with the other ‘’Have a good day and remember to ask if I can have some granny smiths, for a pie.’’

‘’mum you know they only have Mcintosh apples’’ I say to her as I walk out the door ‘’see you later.

A 3 mile drive isn’t bad especially under the autumn coloured sky, ‘’time to take the detour’’ I say to myself’’ driving down into a cul-de-sac ,a girl sitting on a wall looks up to my car and stands up ‘’ah this must be my fair’’. The girl wearing a bright pink jumpsuit, slumps into the passenger seat without a hello or nothing ‘’hello, my names Sam nice to meet you’’ I put my hand out to greet her.

‘’I was told that my pickup would be a guy’’ She says

‘’um well I’m a tomboy so im halfway there haha’’ I joked, but didn’t get a good response ‘’sorry is this a problem’’ I ask but she just shrugs, so I just smile and drive off to the orchard.

Not much for conversation our new volunteer but we finally pulled into the orchard carpark ‘’well looks like we are the only ones here today’’ I say smiling at her, she rolls her eyes and gets out the car. This just seems surreal, this girl seems so out of place to be here, looking like someone who works at River Island, but everyone has there reason so lets get to work. Fields of red and green spread across 3 fields, we carry weaved baskets to the rosiest tree ‘’oh look at them then, absolutely beautiful, theres a ladder in there could you get it please?’’ I ask her. She doesn’t speak but she collects the ladder and I notice the rings on her finger ‘’that’s some nice jewellery you got there, you may want to take it off as you might lose it.’’ I say.

‘’no, these belonged to my nan and I never take them off’’ she replied sharply

‘’ok ok no worries, lets get this ladder up then shall we’’ I say taking the ladder off her. Five steps up and your face to face with apple heaven, one by one the basket gets starts filling up with red, the girl picking up the apples that have fallen to the soft grass. ‘’careful you might get an apple on the head in a moment haha’’ I say to her from the top of the ladder, earning a slight smile from the mute.

3 hours later, it was the volunteers turn up the ladder and I just watch her work with curiosity ‘’so…I’ve been wanting to ask you all day, why are you here, you don’t seem to be happy here and to be quite honest not particularly dressed for the occasion’’ I say.

‘’you have a problem with my clothes?’’ she says annoyed

‘’no, I just want to know why your interested in apple picking because honestly you don’t seem the outdoors type’’ I reply. She gets down of the ladder slowly and drops two big apples in the overflowing basket. ‘’I don’t know you and you have no right asking about my business’’ she says, the seriousness not showing any signs of leaving her face ‘’ok ok I’m sorry alright, I just thought that you looked like a nice person to have a conversation with, if you want to finish this day without talking that’s fine’’ I say to her then walk over to the next basket to be filled and take it to the next tree. She followed behind slowly with a slight sign of guilt on her face then put the ladder up for me and begins picking from the floor. Silence filled the orchard for a while but suddenly she broke it ‘’I like it out here’’ I stopped picking and listened from the top of the ladder ‘’I ….I come from a family that’s fuelled on alcohol, every time I go through my front door its either people shouting or passed out.’’ I turn myself round to look at her holding the basket half full. ‘’The other day my dad got so drunk he forgot who I was, then my mum followed that behaviour and they were shouting at me to get out ‘’GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE!’’ they said, I of course said no I live here and my dad hit me’’. She stopped for a second with a deep breath and a hint she was about to cry. I climbed down the ladder and put my hand on her shoulder ‘’its alright’’ I say, giving her a soft smile and she gave a smaller smile back and turned to me ‘’I saw this advertisement for working out here and thought it be peaceful and far away from them, so I signed up, I didn’t know that you had to wear flowery dungarees’’ she says pointing at my clothes.

‘’Not all girls like the dungarees, so don’t worry about it, pink jumpsuits are definitely your thing and maybe you should talk to somebody professi-‘’ I was quickly interrupted by a hug that surprised and somehow slightly scared me, she cried over my shoulder as if she had held the tears back for years. ‘’You ok now?’’ I ask her still smiling, trying to imagine what she’s been through, but it was impossible ‘’yeah thanks…sorry I didn’t mean to do that’’ she says quite embarrassed

‘’No worries’’ I say making her feel calmer

‘’Thats the first hug I’ve had in years…. feels so nice ,oh I’ve crushed some of the apples’’ she lifted her shiny boots up to find squished apples between the grips. ‘Haha don’t worry about that now we have plenty, are you alright?’’ I ask her while picking up the one basket and she picks up the other.

‘’yes thank you’’ she replies with a wide smile ‘‘You know even though we met just this morning and I was miserable to you for half the day, I don’t think I need a professional to help with my life because I have just met a someone right now who I can talk to every day.’’ Even I felt a small tear in the eye after that ‘’whats your name?’’ I ask her

‘’Taylor…. Taylor Russell’’ she replies, we smile at each other then walk towards the pickup.