Apple in His Eye

Today was the day where thousands of apples will fall from their mother branches.

The wind knew. It was in the mid-September. The cold gusts bit against the hilltop small wooden house as fiercely as deepest winter, shaking the windows with their greetings and winding through the tiny living room with their warm regards.

I put my hand on the window, an outline formed by steam appeared on it. It was cold.

I looked outside for the view. Everything was as red as fire. Autumn has come so as the red treasure was waiting for someone to pick them up. Near to the forest is the Garden of Eden where we go to bring back baskets of apples. Sherry claimed the apples there were the sweetest. She was preparing to make some apple juice, jam, and pie with the upcoming festival less than 2 weeks away.

Also, as Peter revealed on the sly, Sherry needed fresh apples for the new cellaring of apple wine she would put up to replace the bottles that would be drunk at this year's festival.

Everything outside seemed so magical. Red maple tree swayed with the wind; birds dancing with maple leaves; windmills spinning with the rhythm of the wind. And I saw Peter, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, with two empty baskets in each hand, and a fruit picker tied on his back.

I tucked my shirt into the trousers, pulled on my boots and grabbed two empty baskets on the floor near the entrance then walked out the door.

My eyes met Peter's. We exchanged smile.

It was time to go apple picking.

***

Garden of Eden was aptly named. The apples on the trees reflected the warm morning sunlight and shined like rubies. My heart pounding as I was a hunting dog about to hunt down my prey right in front of me.

Peter blew a whistle, impressed by the stunning view.

I smiled. Put down my baskets and rolled up my sleeves.

"We will need to fill up these 4 baskets before dawn," Peter said.

Each basket is about the height of my waist.

"It shouldn't be difficult," I said, since there're tons of apple around us right now.

Peter dropped the fruit picker and his two baskets on the ground and turned back to me.

"Do you need help?” he asked.

“Nope, just take care of yourself. I’ll have a bunch of apple ro’in with me!” I laughed.

He walked closer and kissed me on my forehead.

"Yeah, let's work!"

We plucked the apples furthest from the base as those seemed more ripen from the inside of the tree towards the trunk. Some apples have damaged from their journey of falling. We divided these apples into 2 categories, perfect apples for Sherry and apples with some deficiencies for the food of donkeys.

The apples are bigger than the normal apples. They are sweeter and juicier. That's why the apple products especially the wine become the best-selling product among tourists in the festival every year.

I picked up a shining one, rubbed it on my sleeve and took a bite.

It tasted like heaven!

Peter looked at me, grinned while shaking his head.

***

When the baskets almost full, I thought it’s time to bring them back.

 I looked for white T-shirt and blue jeans in all direction. I saw him sat behind a big rock with small bushes around. It was a great place to hide when playing hide-and-seek but his white T-shirt exposed him.

"What is he doing?"

Curiously, I put off my boots and walked towards him slowly.

“Surprise!” I shouted.

With a loud “Whoa!” Peter dropped something onto the ground.

“What’re you doing here?” I studied him, thought he was even more of a puzzle.

He looked at me with great shock.

“You surprised me, Lia.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“In many ways.”

Slowly, he got up from the ground. Standing right in front of me. Getting down his left leg while holding a ring box and said the magic words that every woman dreamed about.

"Lia, I know it is so sudden. But… I just wanted to say this to you. When I saw the redness of the world, I can’t stop thinking of you. I start imagining myself living with you, building our future together. Autumn is your favourite season, same as I. And when I saw you smiling, laughing, enjoying in this Garden of Eve, I know it’s time for me to propose you, to the apple of my eye. "

With a pause, he opened up the ring box. The reflection of a shining silver ring entered my pupils.

“Will you marry me?”

I cried. Hugging him and kissed his cheek.

Of course YES! I shouted in my heart but what came out from my mouth are just some unrecognizable words. Tears of joy fall down along my cheeks. This was the moment when I become the happiest woman on the earth.

He wiped away my tears. Kissed me.

“Will you marry me?”

His dark eyes looked into mine. I saw my reflection in his deep brown eyes. I can see his love from his eyes. I can sense his temperature from his hands. No doubt he was looking at his own reflection from my eyes and feeling the same thing as I did.

Is him, I know. There is no doubt about it. It can’t be anyone else. Must be him.

“Yes.”

This moment, this timing, this space. Only us, in the Garden of Eve, with shining rubies as witnesses.

Have my heart, when he wore the ring on my ring finger, I saw the words engraved on the inner side of the ring. Together, were my name paired with his on the ring. He must be prepared long ago.

Today, 16^th October 2020,

in the Garden of Eve;

in the middle of apple trees,

where shining apples on trees like rubies on the wall;

where birds chirping and dancing around us;

with a single promise was made;

and thousands of dreams would be born;

I closed my eye,

feeling the warmth pressed against my lips.

That was the best autumn I have ever experienced.