The Fresh Foods Company

None of the kids in Madame Beaulieu’s class could have said which was the bigger surprise: that shy, bookish Danny had asked one of the most popular girls in the school over for a study-date, or that she had accepted.

Accept, though, she had. After another F on the latest test while Danny got a hundred, Maggie was already rehearsing her promise to her parents that she was getting help from the best student in the class, even before they got to his house.

“Listen, Danny,” she told him, “I hope you don’t let what James and those guys say bug you. They’re just acting big.”

“Thanks.” Still feeling a bit shy despite having had the bravery to invite her over, he added, “Believe me, I’m used to it.”

“I feel like I ought to apologize for that.” Maggie could remember countless times her fellow jocks and cheerleaders had picked on him back in junior high.

“No!” He patted her on the back. “Believe me, I remember who picked on me and who didn’t, and you never did.”

“I know what they say about us,” Maggie went on, “That we’re a bunch of snobs. I don’t mean to be one at all.”

“Just like I don’t mean to be a nerd at all,” Danny said. “Never mind that, college will roll around soon enough.”

“For you it will anyway,” Maggie said. “My parents keep telling me if I don’t get my grades up…”

“Well, we’ll get your French grade up anyway!” He pointed at his house as they approached it, and hoped against hope his bratty kid sister, Heather, wouldn’t be home.

In this he was disappointed, for she was sitting at the kitchen table smirking when he ushered Maggie inside, while their mother was busy in the pantry. Ignoring her, Danny said, “Mom, this is…”

“Oh, hello, Margaret,” said his mother. “Are you here to help Danny with his homework?”

“Other way around, Mrs. Fulton,” Maggie said. “He got a hundred on the French test and I…didn’t.”

“You know each other?” Danny asked.

“You know each other?” mimicked Heather. “Don’t you know anything, Danny?”

“Heather, that’s enough!” Mom snapped. To Danny she said, “Margaret’s mother and I volunteered for Mayor Anderson’s campaign last year.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Maggie said. “Sorry, Mrs. Fulton, I couldn’t remember where I knew you from.”

“It’s okay, Danny never remembers anything about anything either!” Heather chortled.

“Heather!” Mom said in her not-to-be-trifled-with voice.

“It’s true! He’s stupid, Margaret, especially around girls. You should find someone else to – ”

“That’s enough!” Mom roared at Heather. She grabbed away Heather’s half-eaten snack and pointed at the stairs. “Go to your room! Now!”

While Heather was skulking away, Danny got a dishrag and wiped off the kitchen table, knowing his mother wouldn’t allow him to bring a girl to his room. “We’ll do our homework here, I guess, Maggie.”

“That’ll be fine,” said Mom. “And Margaret, I’m sorry about Daniel’s sister. She’s been an absolute wretch with everyone lately. I keep hoping she’ll grow out of it one of these days.”

“I wonder if she’s too old to send to the Fresh Foods Company,” Danny said. Then he remembered he had a guest and could have killed himself for saying what he’d said, but it was too late.

“Oh, Daniel, you and your silly dreams!” Mom said. “But yes, if that company of yours were real, I’d love to send her off there.”

“Me too,” Danny said, hoping he wasn’t blushing too brightly. “Um…I’d better go get my French-English dictionary. I’ll be right back.”

“The Fresh Foods Company?” Maggie repeated, settling herself at the table as Danny was off upstairs.

“Oh, Daniel had a very vivid dream when he was six or seven, about going off to live with some talking animals who ran a farm. I think for a little while he believed it was real.” She opened the refrigerator and pulled out two granny smith apples. “I don’t know about you, but no talking rabbit has ever offered me a job on a farm. But it’s funny, he really changed after that dream. He used to be even more shy than he is, you know.”

“I’ve heard.” Maggie had friends at school who’d known Danny back then.

“He still is somewhat, but that was when he began to come out of his shell anyway. He also used to be the worst sort of junk food junkie, but afterward I never had to push him to eat his fruits and vegetables again.” With that she presented Maggie with one of the apples. “Speaking of which, would you like an apple?”

“Thanks.” Maggie took it.

She was munching happily when Danny returned with the dictionary. “Thanks, Mom,” he said, picking up the other apple and following suit.

“Want to stay for dinner, Margaret?” Mom asked.

“If my mom says it’s all right, sure.” The longer until she had to face her parents about the 58% on her French test, the better.

Danny had the book open to that day’s lesson now, and his earlier embarrassment was almost forgotten – except for the healthy snack. As he went over the order of pronouns with Maggie, he couldn’t help but recall just how he’d fallen in love with the bittersweet apples. Of course it must have been a dream, as his mother said – no doubt at all about that. And yet, he could see as clearly as the textbook before him what the grove had looked like as he’d picked the green apples from the trees, alongside the cats and rabbits and bears, and the gorgeous landscape beyond the trees, blue above and green below. He remembered talking with them about their favorite songs and books, and how comfortable the hay in the wagon was for lounging in on the ride back to the farmhouse, and how they’d always arrive home tired and hungry and how Mama Duck and her team would take such great care of them as they sat down to a delightful supper.

He could even smell the fragrant air – or was that Maggie’s perfume?

Of course it must be her perfume. Danny prided himself on treating her like just one of the guys as they took turns at the practice questions, though in his imagination he was slow-dancing with her in a dark corner of the gym.

He didn’t dare believe the feeling might be mutual – at least not until Maggie checked the answers to the practice questions and saw she’d gotten all but one of them right. “Oh my God, Danny, thank you!” She jumped up and hugged him from behind, to his shocked delight. “Now I can tell my parents look, I’ll do better on the next test and I can prove it!”

“Any time you want to get together and study, that’ll be fine.” It was all Danny could do to choke out the invitation.

“I’d love that.” Maggie sat back down. “Now can we do the homework?”

“Of course.”

There was no further reminiscing about the farm as Danny got down to business on the twenty sentence translations. Once they were both finished, they compared answers. Maggie had different answers to three of them, and she insisted on changing her answers to his. “I sure hope I got those right,” he quipped.

“Me too.” Maggie laughed, having forgotten for the moment the trouble she was in for that night.

When they finished, it was nearly time for Mom to start dinner. She let them retreat to Danny’s room, with a polite but firm admonishment to keep the door open. On the walk up the stairs, Danny worried Maggie might find his antique car wallpaper childish, but she loved it. “That is so cute!” she said, running her hands over the Pierce Arrow just under the knickknack shelf he’d made in seventh grade shop. “Most boys just have football posters everywhere!”

“You probably guessed, I don’t like football much,” Danny said. He plopped down on his desk chair and waved for Maggie to help herself to a seat on his bed, which she did. “Never was any good at sports, you know.”

“Nothing wrong with that, Danny,” Maggie said. “The boys who are good at them, they get such a big head over it…you ought to be glad you’re not one of them. Now, if you don’t mind my asking, just what’s the story with that dream you had? The Fresh Company?”

Danny laughed and looked shyly at the floor. “The Fresh Foods Company,” he said. “Can’t believe I said that out loud. Yeah, like my mom said, it must have been a dream. But it sure felt real. Like, I swear I can still see the first view of the farm, the day I arrived. Like something out of a Richard Scarry book, you know? Bright colors everywhere, and cute animals, and there they were telling my mom and me about all the different fruits and vegetables they grew.”

“And they were fresh, of course,” Maggie said.

“That’s the first thing I remember! Standing there holding my mom’s hand while the talking animals said how their cherries and berries and carrots were all fresh. ‘Fresh!’ he squealed in a falsetto voice. ‘That’s why we grow apples, too!’” By now he was laughing. Seeing it was safe to do so, Maggie joined in. “And the crazy thing is, I was extremely shy back then, you know? I know I’m still pretty quiet now, but back then I could barely stand to be away from my mother.”

“But she was there with you, didn’t you say that?”

“Yes, but somehow I knew she was going to leave me there to work on the farm with the animals. And I wasn’t upset! You know how sometimes you feel so sad about something it actually feels good? I guess the word is ‘poignant’? I didn’t know that word then, of course, but that’s how it felt – like I knew I’d miss my mom, but it was a pleasant sort of loneliness.”

“Of course, you weren’t lonely with the talking animals.”

“Never.” Danny paused and waited for Maggie to tell him to grow up already. When she didn’t, he went on. “We worked together, and lived together, and we had a great time. I don’t really remember just what we did when we weren’t working, but I’m pretty sure we always had a really good time. The farmhouse was…well, I really don’t remember the details, but I’m pretty sure I liked it.”

“And your mom said, that’s how you learned to like fruits and vegetables?”

“I guess it must be,” Danny confirmed. “I can’t remember if I dreamed this or thought of it later, but there was something about them giving me a golden apple when it was time to come back to our world. Something to remember all my friends by.”

Once again he expected Maggie to burst into giggles, but once again she did not. “And I take it you woke up back here as if you’d never been gone?” She sounded absolutely serious, although she was smiling as she said it.

“Right, just like coming back through the wardrobe from Narnia, you know? Mom and Dad hadn’t missed me at all. I was so relieved at that. And after that, I always ate my vegetables and didn’t cling to Mom like a life raft.”

“That is one beautiful dream, Danny. What’s the French word for dream?”

“Rêve”

“C’est un très joli rêve!” Maggie looked like she wanted to kiss him, but the door was open and they were both aware of Danny’s father, newly arrived from work, yelling at Heather in the next room. “Sounds like your sister is still asking for trouble,” she said.

“I’m so sorry about her. It has been happening a lot lately.”

Danny’s father appeared in the doorway then, still in his work clothes but with his tie undone. “Hi, Danny,” he said. “I hear you’re joining us for dinner?” he said to Maggie. “It’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, Mr. Fulton,” Maggie said. She shook his hand and he was off to finish changing his clothes. Alone again, she said to Danny, “Mind if I use your bathroom before dinner?”

“Of course.” Danny pointed out in the hall. “Last door on the left.”

“Thanks.” As Maggie got up and took her leave, Danny got up as well and pushed the chair back under his desk. With a minute to himself, he went to the closet and pulled down the old shoebox he kept on the top shelf. He could still remember when he’d needed to stand on a chair to reach it; now it was still above his head but easily in his reach.

A quick look over his shoulder confirmed that he was alone, and Danny opened the box. There it lay, amidst a thatch of green leaves, just as brilliant and pristine as the last time he’d looked at it, whenever that may have been. Ripe and, of course, fresh, the golden apple seemed to glow in the dimness of the closet. As usual, he didn’t dare touch it, but he felt like he could happily gaze at it all night. But he heard his father and Maggie chatting in the hallway, and hastily he closed the box and slid it back onto the shelf.