Thanks to the wind-maker's burst of speed the apple rolled along just fine until he noticed the lights of another town underneath a wide eyed moon keeping watch over the apple protecting him from the night.
As the sun's waves began to wash ashore the night sky, tucking the stars in for sleep, the light exposed a leafless tree with a bunch of yellow apples littered around the trunk.
"Hey you are just like me!" The apple said with gusto
"Whaah? Nuh-Uh! You a green fool!" Sounded out from the group huddled round the tree
"No, I am ripe! So are you, you wouldn't have fallen if you weren't!" Returned the apple
"Wut you call us?? Get out of here you not-yella!"
"Not that I have a choice, but if I did, I would still keep rolling!"
"Good riddance!"
The apple kept on a rollin' down the road, forwards towards the next town.
As he rolled through the town, the apple noticed piles of dead leaves collected along the sidewalk curbs.
"Leaves! Finally, it's quiet, I can hear your answers!" Joyfully exclaimed the apple.
... only silence did the apple receive, "Come on! I know you are there, you can't hide from me!" The apple said with a little panic not-so-behind the scenes. He looked from pile to pile, pleading silently for an answer, a direction, a reason. But there was nothing the apple could do to evoke a response from the leaves.
"Didn't ever help me anyways," pouted the apple, due to his focus being stuck on the oddly quiet leaves the apple did not notice the tiny something-else's trunk in his path.
Boop.
Little Ben turned and looked down to see what hit him on his leg, the green apple was laying next to Ben's flip-flop. He picked it up and looked up just in time to watch the little man in the box light up at the thought of pedestrians receiving safe transport across a street. He followed along with his family on their way to a day in the sand.
As the family reached the beach the apple finally got the courage to talk.
"Hey who are you? I'm Ripe Green," the apple said to his new best friend. Though Ben was blissfully unaware of the apple's attempt at an introduction and thus remained silent.
"Hey, buddy, you just gonna pick me up and ignore me?" Sassed the apple, Ben looked down at the apple, but not due to any sort of exposure to soundwaves.
"Oh so you can hear those words," the apple continued with his crusade for justice, but Ben had already stopped looking down.
"Don't you look away from me! I demand answers, you owe me something, I was rolling along just fi..." in the middle of the apple's verbal smack-down Ben's mother noticed the apple in his hands.
"Oh, gross, honey, where did you get this?" She asked her 3 year old child, who just sort of shrugged and blankly stared back.
"Here, let's leave this here, and we will come back for it later, okay sweetie?" She said cunningly as she threw the apple into the sand.
"What is this? You stop me from rolling and you just dump me in this desert? The cruelty!" The apple yelled to the windy day.
When off in the distance wisping through the sand were 5 something-elses that walked with the wind. The apple had yet to see a something-else that moved like the leaves. Their movement was erratic, they jumped around, ran away, but they never stayed apart for too long. Ever getting closer to the lonely apple, who was becoming more and more excited by the moment.
"Hey! How do I get out of here?" The apple opened up the floor to communication when he felt they were close enough.
"Which of you could throw this apple farther?" One of the something-elses said to some of the others in the group.
"I am Ripe Green, it's nice to meet you," the apple continued.
"I bet Tyler can," a different something-else said.
"I don't know, maybe," the one that was called Tyler said
"You throw first, then I'll try" the something else said to Tyler as he picked up the apple and tossed it to him.
"Oh thank you so much, maybe you could take me back to the road?" the apple asked Tyler
But before the apple got a response he was behind Tyler's head in mid-throw.
Whooosh, the apple was flying through the air before he even knew what was going on.
"What kind of sick twisted existence do you lead??" The apple yelled back at Tyler
"Oh my wind I am going to die! I just asked for some help! You could have just put me..." as the apple was finishing his sentence he landed in the soft sand with a phump.
"Well that wasn't too bad I guess, better than sittin around in this sand all day," the apple thought to himself. He looked behind him and saw the Tyler-supporting something-else running up to him.
"My turn!" He yelled back to the group as he picked up the apple and got ready to throw
"Oh yay round two! I'm ready!" The apple said with excitement dripping from every word.
The something else raised his branch and threw the apple into the wind.
"Hello?" the apple asked after hearing something whistle a whisper
"Leaves? are you there?" The apple pleaded
"No, it is just the wind," faintly whimpered the air
"If you can talk, then why have you been leaving me to fend for myself?"
"I am always talking, you just don't always hear it, it's easier to use the leaves to communicate with you," the wind was becoming easier to hear as the apple got higher, farther from the noisy beach.
"Well you haven't helped me at all, why should I listen?"
"You got this far" the wind was growing weaker as the apple began to fall
"Yea but that was all a fluke"
"Call it what you want, our time here is almost at an end, I tried telling you earlier, but I get cut off often, remember that your attitude is the only thing you can control," the wind whispered just as the apple hit the sandy ground.
"Wait! Where am I supposed to go from here??!" The apple yelled into the wind
"Who are you talking to?" The apple heard from behind him, "And why did you have to get sand all over me?"
"Oh I am sorry, I didn't mean to, those something-elses over there threw me, it was a load of fun," the apple apologized sheepishly.
"Well it wasn't any fun for me, hello I am Valencia and who might you be?"
"I am Ripe Green, it is nice to meet someone in this desert that has the manners to talk back,"
"Well back in the store, manners was the only way to get to the top and break out, are you sure you aren't Granny Smith? You look just like this fella I met back in the store,"
"I don't think so what is this store you keep talking about?" asked the apple
"It's the place you go after becoming ripe, all of my friends, and all the oranges from my farm go to the store once we are ripe," explained Valencia.
"Well I'm ripe, and I never went to no store"
"You must have been defective, I had a couple friends that didn't make it either,"
"I'm not defective! I'm perfectly fine! You are the one that is stuck out here in the desert" The wounded apple attacked.
"You are stuck here too!" shot Valencia
"Yea, but my friends that threw me are gonna come get me, you'll see!" the apple said in defense
"Well... until they come, would you like to wait with me?" Valencia whimpered after a moment or three of silence.
"Maybe! If the wind doesn't blow me farther away from you," as the apple finished speaking a small gust of wind pushed the apple into touching the orange.
"Well, I guess that answers that," Valencia said sort of trying to hide the victory in her voice.
"Fine, I'll wait with you," the apple said with a little embarrassment
"I hope your friends never come, I like waiting with you," Valencia said without realizing that it was out loud
A little shocked the apple didn't know what to say at first, "I guess waiting here isn't all that bad," he finally let out, "at least until the wind picks up..."
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