The Apple That Fell Farthest From The Tree

“Come on, Ruby!” Jack yells in a playful tone. His eyes were wide open as he runs up the hill. Almost tripping over every blade of grass. The five-year-old finally made it to the top. “Ruby, come on! Come on!” Jack continued to scream. Ruby, his older sister was walking up the hill. He could see the top of her brown, curly braided hair bobbing up and down. Once she got into view he saw that her hands were holding onto two pales. Jack quickly tidied himself by brushing his hand through his short brown hair and straightening his vest. Ruby makes it to the top of the hill and runs to Jack.

“Jack, my dear, you are so fast! I could not keep up with you,” Ruby rustles Jacks’s hair which causes his face to burrow, and him swatting his sister’s hands away. Ruby puts her hands down and on his shoulders. “Are you ready to pick some apples for Ma and Pa?” Jack jumps up and down in excitement. 

“Yeah, Yeah!” He runs to the tree at the top of the hill and begins to look at all the apples on the grown and picked one up. An apple he looked at had a very old bruise on it. The divot made from the bruise had flies and worms coming out from it. He looks at the apple in his hand to see if it’s the same as the one on the ground. The apple in his had looked perfect on the side, not on his palm, so he turned the apple around to see his hand covered in the mush. He looks down at the apple to see it half gone with flys and brown spots falling out of it. He screams bloody murder and drops the apple running to his sister. 

Jack reaches his sister and races into her dress, trying to hide from the apples. “What is wrong, little one?” She asks the trembling boy shaking into her skirt. He looks at her with his big beady brown eyes and holds up his hand to show her the mush. She takes his hand and wipes it with the apron around her large skirt. “It is only a rotten apple, it is alright. You should never pick apples up from off the ground. You never know what could be on them. Now, let us go pick some apples. 

Jack and Ruby walk hand in hand to the apple tree. He squeezes her hand even tighter, for he is now afraid of the apples. “Ruby?” He quivers. 

“Yes, Jack?”

“Will all of the apples have the mush on them?”

“No, not all of them. Only the ones that have fallen from the tree. The good ones are still on their branches,” She looks at him and smiles. He loosens his hand and yearns to run to the tree. “Here is how to pick an apple, Jack. First, you find one that is a smooth color, and shiny. No bumps or bruises. Then you grab it and spin it around. This will loosen it from its stem.” She rips the apple down, leaving the stem on the tree. Jack is amazed. His jaw drops and his eyes open even larger than they were before. “And then we put them into the pale!”

“I want to try!” Jack starts jumping up and down to grab an apple, but he is too small to reach them. Ruby lifts him onto her shoulders so he can reach. He grabs an apple he sees right, twists it, and it fell off! He starts to shake his fist in excitement, but he ended up dropping the apple. It fell in slow motion, to Jack’s eyes. It was a beautiful apple, the most perfect one on the tree. How should he ever find another apple so round, plump, and firm at the same time? Every apple had one of those three things, maybe two, but never all three. Time went back to normal as the apple hit the ground. It made a “thud” and began to roll away. Instead of staying with the other apples that fell this apple rolled farther and farther until it started to roll down the hill. Jack began to scream, “Let me down. Let me down, now!” Ruby takes the fussing boy off of her shoulders and set him on the ground. He went racing after the apple.  

Jack ran as fast as he could, which was very fast for a five-year-old. He starts yelling, “Apple, come back! Come back, apple!” His voice getting higher and higher towards the end. Jack tripped on his feet running down the hill and began tumbling. “Jack!” Ruby yelled. She picked up her dress and began to run after him. Jack kept screaming until he stopped rolling. Ruby is by his side. 

“Jack, are you okay? Why did you go racing after the apple?” She began to brush all the debris off Jack. He begins to cry. 

“It is the perfect apple! It’s round, smooth, shiny, with no bumps or bruises! And I will never find another one like it! It’s ruined,” Jack starts to cry even more and snot runs down from his nose. Ruby looks at him with a soft face. Her arms grasp Jack and pulled him into a tight embrace. 

“Jack, it does not work like that. There will always be more apples just like this one. Not every apple is the same. Every single one is unique in its way. The best apples are always higher in the tree. That is why they are the best. This was a low apple. It’s alright,” Ruby smiled and ran her thumb against his cheek. He smiled and wiped his boogers away. Ruby wiped his tears. “Are you ready to go back up to the top of the hill and pick more apples?” She asked. 

“Yeah!” Jack got up and jumped up and down enthusiastically. “Come on!” He grabbed her hand and started running. She laughed and they began to run up the hill with him tripping over almost every blade of grass. Once they reached the top Jack demanded to get on her shoulders. She lifted him and he stared at every apple. 

“Have you found your apple?” Ruby says loudly. Jack pokes his cheek and sticks his tongue out to the side only a little. “Hm,” He looked around a little more and saw the next perfect apple. A bright red one with no bumps or bruises, and very shiny. “This one!” He points to the apple on the branch right above his head. 

“Alright, let’s get it!” Ruby stands on her tippy toes while Jack twists the apple until it comes off of its stem. Jack looks at it in glory and then sinks his teeth into the skin. The sweet juice flooded into his mouth as he tore the apple away. He began to chew and screeched in excitement. “Is it yummy?”

“Yeah, it is!” He smiled and began to eat more and more until he reached the core. He threw it and started to grab another apple. 

“Hand that one to me when you pick it, okay? We need to bring them to Ma and Pa!” Jack agrees and hands her apple after apple. After both pales were filled with the perfect apples chosen specifically by Jack, Ruby set him on the ground. The sun was starting to set and the wind blew cold. They began walking down the hill. Once they got home Jack began to jabber about the day they had. And soon it was bedtime. 

“I had a fun day today, Ruby,” Jack said as he walked past her in the kitchen. 

“I had a fun day, too,” She put her arms out for a hug and Jack went in for the hug. He never wanted this day to end.