Madeline took a bite of her ruby apple. Times like this, during summer days at the park, Madeline was glad she eschewed creamy sugary treats and instead found delight in the simple pleasures of an apple. Sometimes, she would picture herself as the title character of Snow White, seconds away from meeting her fate when encountering an ominous apple. Other times, like this one, she remembered the old adage that an apple day kept the doctor away – something she wished her mother listened to three terrible summers ago. Maybe if she did, she would be there that day with Madeline in the park.
Madeline sighed and continued chewing. Just then, her burly brother smacked the delicious apple out of her hand. As usual, whenever he and Madeline had any type of sustained contact, he laughed and Madeline cried.
The amputated apple quickly started rolling down the hill gaining in acceleration until finally it crashed into a rock at the bottom of the hill. The apple’s journey was halted. The bruised apple rested. Suddenly a curious dog stumbled upon the apple. The dog was a bustling, messy, drooling Golden Retriever. He sniffed the broken apple with his cold nose and cautiously licked it. Suddenly, he had a bright idea. He decided to forego the stick he was commissioned to bring back and decided that the golden item to retrieve would be the apple. He clenched it in his jaw and brought it back with his tail wagging and presented it to his owner with all the pomp and circumstance he could muster.
His owner eyed him suspiciously and asked, “What do you have there, boy?”
“Eww!” he said as he pried the once ample apple from the retriever’s tight clench. “Let’s get rid of this.” He threw the apple a disgusted look and then threw it as hard and far as he could.
The apple went on yet another journey. This time it was flying, and found itself on a parallel journey with the birds that hovered not far from land. The apple then landed “kirplunk” in the river. The ducks in the lake ascended upon the apple and soon found themselves in a fight for its affections with the birds of flight that descended upon it. Soon, both parties realized that the apple was of no use to any of them. Between their insistence that the useless thing leave their territory and the assistance of the accompanying tide, the apple was pushed out to the muddy shore.
The apple could now rest. Just then, an ant noticed the resting apple, and precariously climbed it. He inspected it carefully. The ant then looked around and yelled “Charge!” An army of ants, hiding behind the thickets of grass, appeared. The helpless ruby colored apple shook to the core. The ant army ambushed the apple and feasted on it. Before the apple knew it, hundreds and then thousands of ants covered it and hid its true identity.
Just then, a chubby boy with glasses and a malicious chuckle waddled over to the battle scene. Wait, those weren’t glasses. It was a magnifying glass. With the sun at the 12 o’clock position, he positioned the magnifying glass and waged war against the militia of ants. The apple was relieved. The ants soon rushed off the apple, and the few that made it sought solace once again behind the thickets of grass. Once the ants were all either dead or out of sight, the maniacal boy got up and turned around. The apple could finally rest. Then, as if he had forgotten something, the boy turned around, looked squarely at the apple, pulled up his pants, sucked in his stomach, and… the apple winced… the boy kicked the apple as far as he could. The apple rolled and rolled and found itself in the middle of a double dutch game. The apple’s presence stymied the game and an angry girl shouted, “That doesn’t count! It wasn’t my fault!”
Another girl, with an ice cream cone in hand, said, “Yes it does. Now move, its my turn.” The unkempt girl’s ice cream was melting and sliding down her hands. The sticky cream then found itself landing on the now wet, bitten, slobbery, infested apple.
The girl whose turn was lost shouted, “Fine” and then kicked the apple out of frustration.
The apple then found itself on the big bad streets of the Big Apple. Could it now finally rest? Not quite, as just then, a yellow taxicab came rushing by, ran over the apple thereby smushing it, flattening it and breaking its core. The apple was done for.
Inside the cab, Madeline, sitting in between her burly brother and nagging nanny, clutched her stomach and thought, “I’m hungry. I wish I could have finished off my apple.”
