Earth

Mama!”

This can’t be good. Where are the leaves? The flowers? It was like Tyler blinked, and now the tree is…empty? He doesn’t even know what to call it. All he knows is the tree had leaves, and now it doesn’t.

“What is it, sweetie?” Tyler’s mama doesn’t look up from the dishes despite the current crisis.

“Our tree! What happened to it?”

With one quick glance out the window above the sink, Tyler’s mama chuckles, “What do you mean what happened to it?”

Tyler’s face and hands are plastered to the glass sliding door that leads to the backyard, not understanding why his mama isn’t worried. “The leaves! And flowers! They’re just gone, there’s nothing on it anymore!”

“Oh, honey, that’s just what happens when it starts getting cold out. That’s why the leaves turned brown because they were getting ready to fall off. They’ll come back in the spring when it’s warm. The tree is just resting right now.”

Oh. Tyler is pretty sure he knew that but just forgot for a second.

“It will have all those nice flowers and later lots of apples for us to pick.” With the dishes done, Tyler’s mama is now standing next to him and looking out at the tree in their backyard.

Tyler smiles up at her. “Oh yeah!” He loves those apples.

Brushing a hand over his hair, she says, “It’ll be back. Just need to wait.”

******************

Alyssa realizes it’s an apple tree. It doesn’t exactly look like the ones she’s seen before. This one has flowers that bloom with the apples.

It’s beautiful. A nice addition to the backyard.

But she’s never had a garden or anything like that before. She’s never had any plants to really look after. Does the tree need any upkeep? Is there anything she’ll have to do for it so that it stays this beautiful?

Suddenly, she’s overwhelmed. By all the responsibilities she will have if she buys this house. She thought she knew what she was getting into when she decided to start looking for her own home. Yes, it would be up to her to take care of everything, including a yard. Before today, she thought she was ready for it. She even has her friend Charlie who has helped her so much. He’s the one who found this house. Maybe her hopes have been too high. Maybe she isn’t ready.

It will just be me, is the thought she is hit with. Just me with all of this. It will all need my attention. All the time.

But maybe that’s fine. As Alyssa still looks at the tree, she wonders if it’s really so bad. To have something so beautiful to look after. Yes, it’s work, but it’s worth it if it means having it around.

Not taking her eyes off the tree, she hollers, “Hey, Charlie?”

From just inside the back door to the house behind her, she hears, “Yeah?”

She turns around.

Charlie is there in the doorway.

She smiles. “I’m ready.”

******************

The sun has just started to dip below the horizon. With the weather now fully shifted into autumn, there’s a bite to the wind now. That’s okay, though. Lewis doesn’t mind at all.

The house looks the same, but it certainly doesn’t feel the same. It’s like the air is too still. Maybe it’s just him. Lewis thinks a lot of places are to quite these days.

Though this house isn’t his, he has spent a lot of his days here. Lewis’s best friend has lived here for years now. He almost can’t remember a time when they didn’t. There are so many memories. But those memories are too far away from him now. His life has felt frozen for the past almost 20 years. Actually, it’s been 19 years, 14 months, and 3 days. Since the incident. A “mix up” as the police have now decided to call it. As if Lewis didn’t just spend all that time behind bars for another man’s mistake.

Now, here he is. At Jimmy and Evelyn’s. As if no time has passed and nothing has happened. He has only just walked in the door and made it into the kitchen. Jimmy and Evelyn are being too quiet, too careful. Lewis can’t take it.

“Um… I’m just gonna step outside for a minute,” Lewis barely gets out.

“Sure, Lew,” Jimmy says, as casual as ever.

Just as he makes it out the back door and shuts it behind him, Lewis exhales and relaxes his shoulders. The chill out here is nice, or at least it’s better than the air that felt too stagnant inside.

He really did only mean to come out here for a minute, but the apple tree catches his eye at the edge of the yard.

The apples are ready to be picked and clearly have been for some time. The branches are full, and there’s a good amount scattered on the ground at the base of the tree. Before he knows it, Lewis has wandered over to it. He stares.

It’s been here all these years. The world has moved and changed around it, but it continues to fulfill its purpose. It rests, it blooms, it ripens, it rests again. Over and over. Despite what people do to each other. Despite the hurt and the anger that permeates through the world. It’s been here.

Lewis rests his palm on the bark, and he weeps.