An Apple a Day

Every year, my family and my friends’ families used to go apple picking up the coast, normally toward the middle of autumn.There’s one that I remember especially well. The day has come. We’re all set and ready to go. We get in the car and make our way there. It’s my favourite time of year. It brings everyone together. 

Two hours later

We arrive at the caravan park and park our van. I jump out of the car and look around for all my friends. My best friend arrives and parks next to our car. We run into each other’s arms and fall into fits of giggles. Everyone else slowly starts to arrive. Everyone is really excited to see each other. We fall out into little groups and the noise of chatter fills the park. We all slowly start walking down to the apple farm. Hay bales line the path down to the farm. We all run along jumping from one to the other. We all laugh and run so carefree. Autumn leaves cascade down around us as we approach the farm. We go off in fours and each choose a tree. One person goes up while the other three assist. I’m last to go up in my group. My group has my best friend Millie, George, and Jake. They all go up and pick apples. I go up into the tree. I get off the ladder and sit in the tree throwing apples down to my partners. I hear a crack. My eyes dart to the start of my branch. It has a massive slit through it. I’m going to fall. I look to the ground. I'm really high up. I look around, I can’t do anything. The branch goes and my scream echoes along with it. I fall to the ground as heads turn to look in our direction, I hear Millie gasp, and I see others cover their eyes. I shut my eyes tight so I don’t see the ground that is encroaching on my body. I hit what I think is the ground. I open my eyes and look around me. Jake caught me. We hold each other's eyes for a moment that seems to stretch into eternity. Our attention is drawn away from each other when my parents come rushing up to me. They kiss me on the head and check me all over making sure I’m not hurt. I feel fine. But my head spins taking in what happened between Jake and I. I push myself out of my parent’s embrace and say to them that I feel fine and I’m not hurt. They both sigh with relief. Then they start thanking Jake. They soon finish thanking him and scamper away back to the other parents. My group is staring at Jake and I. Millie comes up to me and starts whispering in my ear about Jake liking me. I stick my tongue out at her, she's just teasing me. Surely. But as I think about it more and more it all makes sense. My mind soon drifts form that as we rotate in our groups and go to different apple trees. We end the day by playing on hay bales and swimming in the pool nearby. Everyone is chattering away and enjoying the sunshine. The nagging thought at the back of my head breaks through. Does Jake like me? As the sun goes down behind the trees everyone heads inside. It’s movie time. We all gather in the biggest caravan and put on High School Musical, everyone’s favourite movie. We all snuggle down to it. Jake sits beside me. I have Millie on the other side of me. She sends me a wink and I smile and shake my head at her. She’s just imagining it. As we get further into the movie I become more and more aware of Jake’s eyes looking in my direction. I glance at him, his eyes change and look at the movie. Gabriella and Troy are singing together. Their classic, corny love song makes most of us giggle. I take my mind off everything and just watch the movie. The movie ends and we all groan, because it’s bedtime. We all go our separate ways and head off to bed. I say goodnight to Millie. And we walk to our caravans together. When I get there Jake is waiting for me outside my caravan. He says goodnight to me and walks away toward his caravan across the park. I follow him with my eyes as he becomes smaller and smaller. I shrug it off and go inside my caravan. I drift off to sleep inside my caravan, slumber enters my mind and everything goes blurry as I succumb to the darkness. I wake up to sunlight streaming through the caravan’s blinds. I sit up in bed and rub my eyes. Yesterday is a blur in my head. But tomorrow is here, bringing with it surprises and lots of fun. I get dressed and go outside. All my friends are waking up. There’s bacon, eggs, and sausages on the barbecue. Breakfast! All my friends line up at the barbecue to get their food. I slot in line next to Millie. We chat non stop until we reach the front. We get our breakfast and make our way down to the field. Everyone sits in a circle and we all eat breakfast together. We all eat up and head over to the apple farm again. I’m paired up with Jake again. Millie winks at me. I just shake my head and ignore her. Jake stands close to me as the other group members join us. We go to a tree and start picking the apples.  

As I remember all the little details about that certain holiday a smile forms on my face. They were good years. Jake comes in from another room. 

“Are you alright honey?” 

“I’m fine dear, don’t worry, just remembering the apple picking holiday,”

“Ah,” He sits down beside me and pouts his hands in mine “Those were happy days, weren’t they?” He smiles at me with his cocky grin, that I fell in love with. He kisses me on the head and rubs my hands with his. We sit there in silence reminiscing about the past and remembering all the holidays we had together. But most importantly all our apple picking holidays. I look to the farm that we now own. All the apple trees are still there. All the hay bales are still in a row next to the path. Even the apple tree that I fell from is still there.