Apples Read online

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  Fredrick the bullfrog sat on his favorite lily-pad knitting a pair of socks for his friend William the mole. His birthday was coming up and Fred hoped it would be finished in time. He looked around. The water lilies were already starting to open. Carp were swimming around him, and a turtle was stately sitting on a log. Surrounding the pond was a lush forest. Past that were green grassy hills, and beyond them were snow-capped mountains.

  Fred was alerted by a rustle coming from the bushes on his left. A couple seconds later, Alice the snow rabbit appeared from the undergrowth and hopped down to the shore.

  “Hi, Alice,” said Fred.

  “Hi, Fred. Oh, beetles and butterflies, you have to come see this. It’s totally amazing. It’s a long story but I’ll tell you all of it anyway. As I was going out for a hop in the forest, I came across a log cabin, and on the porch, there was a large basket full of the most beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, red, scarlet, ruby, crimson, bright, radiant, shiny, exuberant, almost glowing apples. Oh, and the smell, the scent, the aroma, the…it was just amazing! It made me feel more…almost…alive! And I stood there for who knows how long just smelling them? And then of course I couldn’t resist taking a bite, and it was delicious. And when I say delicious, I mean absolutely amazing! Better than anything I’ve ever tasted in my life. Too good to explain. And then when I came back to tell you, - I knew you’d be here, you always are, - I didn’t seem to ever get tired or out of breath. It feels like I’ve just woken up from a good long, rock solid nap.

  “Oh, please Fred, won’t you come? You have to! Oh, Fred, you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted it. Don’t tell me you won’t come! Please? They’re simply amazing!”

  All the talking suddenly became just too overwhelming for him. “Woah, woah, Alice! Slow down! First things first. No-”

  “What do you mean no?! Oh, Fred, you have to come! Just, please, come on! Just one bite! Plea-”

  “Alice! Slow down! I’m answering your first question: No, I don’t know who knows how long you stood there. Now for your second question: Yes, of course I’ll come. This thing seems amazing, I don’t doubt you.”

  “You will? Oh, Fred. Thanks! Come on!” said Alice, relived. Fred left his knitting needles on the lily pad and hopped into the water.

  He swam to the shore that Alice was hopping on and they both started toward the forest. Almost immediately Alice got way ahead of Fred.

  “Wait up!” called Fred. “I can’t hop as fast as you can!”

  “When you taste the apples you will!” Alice called over her shoulder.

  “Yes, but I meant now you should slow down for me. After, I’ll probably be able to jump into the sky considering how well you described the apples,” replied Fred.

  “Okay, fine. But still go as fast as you can,” said Alice. “There’s absolutely no time to waste.” She slowed down to hop beside Fred.

  They hopped on for quite a long time with Alice constantly urging him on.

  Finally, they emerged into a large clearing to see a small log cabin, and on the porch was a large basket full of the most beautiful apples Fred had ever seen during the twelve years that he had lived. They were just as Alice had described them. Almost immediately, he hopped toward them. It almost felt like there was a gust of wind blowing him right into the basket. He suddenly stopped short and strained to keep his legs from moving any farther when a series of thoughts came to mind. What if the apples are poisoned or something? Or maybe they could transform me into a huge, ugly, warty toad. Maybe they could make me disappear or something. But when he glanced at the apples and caught a whiff of them, he could not resist such a temptation. The imaginary gust of wind blew him again toward the apples. Oh, come on! Just one little nibble, probably not enough to harm me at all,

  He heard Alice’s voice from beside him. “C’mon! What are you waiting for?”

  “Are you sure they won’t poison me or something?” He asked, feeling like a coward.

  Alice laughed. Fred’s face turned red, and he blushed.

  “Of course not! What has it done to me? I’m no different than before,” said Alice.

  Plenty of things, Fred thought. First of all, it has made you way more talkative than before, and I remember when you came to tell me about the apples, you mentioned that you didn’t feel tired at all from that long run. However, it could have worse effects on me.

  After a few long seconds of silence, Alice pleaded, “Please do Fred, come on!”

  Fred took a deep breath, and this time, he had to force his legs forward despite his dread. He hopped onto the edge of the basket and reluctantly took a small nibble out of one apple. Immediately a huge wave of energy zinged through him. He jumped in surprise. He was full of unbearable energy and he felt so much happier and almost giddier than before. Immediately he began jumping around in joy.

  “I love this!” He exclaimed. “It’s awesome!”

  Alice chuckled. “See what I mean?”

  “Yes! I see everything you mean!” said Fred, though he didn’t know exactly what he meant by that, but he didn’t care.

  “C’mon!” she said. “Let’s go tell the others!” Fred bounced after Alice. Before he knew it, he was jumping about four feet high in the air and about six feet far – much farther than he had ever been able to jump before. He now was laughing uncontrollably while wind surfing after Alice.

  They arrived at the hollow in what felt like almost a split second after they had left the apples on the porch. The hollow was at the base of a very large oak tree where the interior had rotted out. The four of them had lived there for as long as Fred could remember. It was nice there, for a group of friends – a frog named Fredrick, a snow-hare named Alice, a mole named William, and a hawk named Katherine. Whenever the temperature was undesirable, the tree would always insulate them to keep them just the right temperature.

  Alice and Fred crashed through the undergrowth. Katherine opened her eyes to find Alice and Fred bouncing excitedly in. The crashing noise soon got on her nerves and without thinking it over, for hawks are very deep and slow thinkers, and always think before acting, she said,

  “Hey! Stop that crashing noise! What’s the panic?” she immediately regretted that she had been so impulsive. To her surprise, Fred answered,

  “Everything’s the panic! Oh Katherine, you have to come check this out! It’s absolutely amazing! C’mon!”

  This time, Katherine took the time to think deeply. Fred and Alice have an unusually excessive amount of excitement today. No doubt what they have espied has made them so animated and dynamic. Surely I don’t want to become that way too. I prefer to be…myself. Finally she said,

  “I have decided: no, thank you.” that was all she could say before Fred started up again.

  “Oh, come on! At the least, you have to come smell them,” he pleaded.

  Well, so much as a whiff of the aroma of whatever they’re talking about, can’t seem be harmful.

  “Okay, just a whiff,” Katherine agreed. Alice and Fred cheered and immediately hopped off. Katherine followed.

  “Here, you can ride on my back,” she offered. The two excitedly climbed on her back, and they all took off. This was the first time in their lives that Alice and Fred had ever flown before. The feeling was wonderful, though only for a short time. Generally frogs prefer to stay close to the ground.

  By the end of the ride, Fred was thoroughly worn out from all that flying. They alighted on the porch of the house, and as soon as Katherine caught a whiff of the apples, she did jumped in surprise, which is not normal for a hawk to be so impulsive. A split second later, Katherine merely dove into the basket of lovely red apples. Once she had demolished all that she could, she did a couple of flip-turns in the air and rocketed back and forth faster than she had ever flown before.
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  “See what we mean?” said Alice once again.

  “How could I not?” said Katherine in a single zip. “C’mon! Let’s get William!”

  William was the only other animal that lived with them. He was a rather small mole – about the size of a rat.

  For William, the process of persuading for him to come was no different than with Katherine. Only once they had got him zipped off to the porch, it was much different. It seemed like it was nearly impossible to persuade him to take just a nibble. He was even worse than Fred. They finally got him to taste them by showing him how it affected all of them and that they would be very sad if he hadn’t tried just a nibble. Finally he decided not to let them down and he took just a molecule. His reaction was the same of that of all of them. He soon found out that from the apples, he could dig so much faster than he had been able to before. He could dig nearly as fast as Fred could power-hop. (It may seem funny to us, but digging is the pride of all moles.)

  Eventually, they all got a zipping ride home from Katherine. By the end of the day, they found out that all their powers had completely left them. They weren’t completely disappointed, because they knew that the morning after, they could always go back and get some more.

  In the morning, Katherine flew over and brought an apple back in her talons and they demolished it all in a couple bites and their powers had been renewed. Every day for about a week continued like this until…

  Alice’s ears flapped in the breeze as Katherine landed in front of the hollow. Fred noticed that she wasn’t carrying anything at all.

  “Where are the apples?” he asked.

  “The humans must have noticed us taking them. They aren’t there anymore.” Katherine replied.

  “Awww,” Groaned William.

  For the rest of the day, the four of them sat around sulkily wishing the apples were still there. The same way the spent the night, and the next morning.

  Finally the thought became just too much for Fred, so he hopped down to the pond, and swam to his lily pad. He noticed a pair of knitting needles and a rather damp, nearly finished sock just sitting there on the lily pad waiting patiently for someone to start knitting again. He sat down on the lily pad and picked up his knitting needles and continued knitting. After a couple moments of knitting, Fred caught an inner glimpse of the wistfulness of the time before Alice had come to tell Fred about the apples. Now that he was knitting again, he noticed that he preferred sitting on his same old lily pad and knitting a pair of socks, just out of kindness for his friend than power hopping four feet up in the air for no reason whatsoever. He put down his needles and thought about it for a couple moments. Then, all of the sudden, he jumped off the lily pad and swam back to tell everyone else. He told the them all that had happened in his brain for that couple moments and encouraged them to think about how useless the apples were anyway.

  After a long pause, Alice said,

  “I agree. I think we’re better off without the apples. We were getting kinda addicted to them for no reason. They won’t do us that much good anyway. It’s already nice to be my plain old self again,” And the rest agreed.