MidReal Story
apple
Scenario: apple
Create my version of this story
I looked at him in surprise.
I’d never heard of any enchantment before, but what Alex said made sense.
There was something about this place that felt magical and otherworldly.
We all knew the stories about the old woman who had been burned as a witch here over a hundred years ago.
And even though nobody came here anymore because of the curse that supposedly affected anybody who set foot in the orchard, we couldn’t resist coming anyway.
That’s how much we’d been drawn to this place.
"It’s just a stupid old apple," Sarah said, giving me an apologetic look.
But I could see that she wanted it too.
It felt like it had been waiting for us to come along and find it, as if it were calling out to us from across the centuries.
"Maybe we should take it home with us," I said, even though I knew it was a crazy idea.
But there was something about this apple that made me feel like I’d been waiting for it all my life, even though I’d only just discovered its existence.
"What if it’s cursed?" Sarah asked.
She looked worried as she glanced around at the trees looming over us on all sides.
"What if we take it home with us and some kind of supernatural shit starts happening?"
"It’s not like anything bad has happened to me since I picked it up," I pointed out.
I could feel Alex staring at me, his expression thoughtful behind his glasses.
"Supposedly, anyone who picks anything from the orchard is supposed to be cursed forever."
"That’s just an old wives’ tale," Sarah said quickly, but her voice didn’t sound very convincing even to herself.
I bit my lip and stared down at the apple cradled in my palm, feeling torn between my love for Sarah and my respect for Alex’s intellect and knowledge of local folklore.
But then again, maybe none of that stuff mattered when you were talking about magic . . .
"I don’t care. Something is telling me we need to bring this apple home with us."
My friends stared at me in surprise, but I knew what they were going to say before they even said it.
"Fine," I said, trying not to sound too defensive or too angry that they didn’t agree with me right away.
"We can leave the apple here if you want. We can always come back and get it later."
I doubted that anyone else would find it if we left it there, but I found that the thought of leaving this apple—this magical apple—behind made my heart ache with longing and regret.
Carefully, Alex reached into his backpack and pulled out a small package of tissues, which he handed to me without a word.
"Maybe."
I kept my voice carefully neutral, but deep down I knew that burying the apple here would make it harder for us to find later if we needed or wanted to—and something told me that we were going to want this apple with us, at least until we figured out what was so special about it.
With a nervous glance at the trees all around us, Sarah shook her head.
"I don’t know. It’s weird enough that the apple is here in the first place, but buried? This place gives me the creeps."
"It’s probably always been here," Alex said thoughtfully as he examined the apple more closely, turning it this way and that so the sun could hit its surface just right.
It occurred to me then that he had a point: how else could you explain how perfect this apple was?
It wasn’t like an ordinary apple at all—it was a flawless sphere of red and green in a swirl pattern, like something you’d see at an art exhibit rather than growing on a tree in an abandoned orchard.
And yet somehow this extraordinary creation had ended up right in our path—just waiting for us to discover it?
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like this apple was meant for us.
I couldn’t explain why I felt that way; I just did.
There was something special about this apple, and I knew that we had to take it with us.
Clearly Alex and Sarah felt the same way too, because they weren’t trying very hard to talk me out of my decision.
In fact, they seemed just as curious about the apple’s origins as I was.
"It’s so weird. How could an apple like this be hanging from a tree with all these other apples and not have a single mark on it?"
Sarah crouched down beside me and reached out a finger to touch its skin as if she were afraid it might vanish into thin air if she handled it too roughly.
"It’s perfect."
"I’ve never seen anything like it."
Alex leaned in even closer to examine the apple through his glasses.
"What kind of tree is this anyway? I’ve never seen an orchard like this before."
"It must be hundreds of years old," I said softly, running a finger over its surface.
"And yet look at how many apples are still growing on it. And most of these trees are still covered in leaves . . ." "It’s like nobody has been here to pick them."
Sarah shivered slightly and pulled her jacket around herself more tightly.
I had a sudden mental image of an old woman appearing out of nowhere and striding down one of these paths with a basket over her arm.
But if that was true, where did she get her food?
Surely no one could survive for very long on nothing but apples.
