Many years ago there was a young boy who was playing outside. It was hot out and the boy saw an apple tree nearby. The young boy approached the tree and asked, "hi there Mr. Tree can I sit underneath you?"
The tree looked at the little boy and said, "Sure come sit beneath me and I'll protect you from the hot sun." So the little boy sat beneath the tree, and relaxed, and the tree was happy.
A couple years later the boy returned. "Mr. Tree I'm so hungry can I have some of your apples?" the boy asked.
The tree responded, "sure." The boy picked some apples and ate them, and the tree was happy.
Several years passed and the boy returned. "Mr. Tree I'm building a fort with some of my friends, and I was wondering if I can have some of your branches that fell off to build them with?"
The Tree responded, "Sure you can have the branches that fell off." The boy then took the branches and left, and the Tree was happy.
When the little boy left the tree sent a pollen message to its friend Oak and its wife Cherry. "I really like that boy he's so nice."
Several years passed, and the boy now a man returned. "Hi Mr. Tree, I need to build a house for my family and I was wondering if I could cut off all your branches so that I could build a house for my family."
Now the tree was pissed, "why the hell would I let you do that? You know I use these branches and leaves to make my food. That's like me asking you if I could cut off your arms so that I can make more apple seeds. Besides I'm a fucking apple tree, I'm not that big, what kind of shit-head are you to build a whole house out of just me? If your going to have that kind of shitty idea then you shouldn't have a family in the first place." The man left and the tree was pissed.
Cherry sent apple a pollen message, "what's wrong honey?"
Apple responded, "you know that little boy that I liked so much?"
"Yeah I remember you telling me about him," Cherry said.
"Today he came up to me and asked if he could cut off all my branches."
"Oh my God that is so fucked up, what gave him the idea that you'd be ok with that?" Cherry said.
"I have no fucking clue. Well he's gone now I guess there's nothing left to do but rest. I just need to rest." Apple replied.
"That's probably for the best, just forget about it. I'm sure everything will be ok. I love you Apple, goodnight."
A few years passed and it was 2006. Apple and Oak were communicating. "Hey Apple, you seem really happy."
"Dude I totally pollinated Cherry last night."
Oak laughed, "awesome high branch."
Apple replied, "high branch, but seriously I pollinated her so hard I think every animal in three miles got hay fever."
"Ewww, gross, you fruit trees are so nasty, I mean don't get me wrong I like it when a squirrel nibbles on my nuts once in a while, but you fruit trees take it to a whole other level. Anyway how is Cherry I haven't communicated with her in a while."
Apple paused for a moment, "That's a good point I haven't heard from her since last night."At that moment the man came walking over the hill. "God damn it Oak, guess who just came around."
"Don't tell me its the boy who turned out to be a total douche?"
"One in the same, I'll get back to you let me see what this little fucker wants."
The man walked up to the tree and spoke to it, "hi Mr. Tree I have a job in construction, the housing market is booming right now. Anyway I was wondering if I can cut you down so that I can build a McMansion and flip it. You know property values in the United states never go down. So I'll make a nice little profit off of it and then I can live like royalty."
"We've already been over this boy, I'm an apple tree, I'm not that big."
"Oh I know that that's why I have cut down several trees already. We just cut down a whole bunch this morning."
"What do you mean by we?" The Tree asked.
The man turned around. "Come on guys we have work to do." A whole crowd of people came up over the hill. Most of them held chainsaws, and others had axes. A truck followed the men and in the bed of the truck there was Cherry tied down and lifeless. The man turned back to the tree. "So as you can see, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you."
The tree felt rage burn within him. This boy who was his friend now just murdered his wife. How could he have done such a thing. The tree screamed so loud that it overcame the noise of the chainsaws and all the flora and fauna for miles around heard him. "You motherfuckers! I'm going to kill you all. How dare you kill my wife!" The tree threw apples at the men. One of them got hit in the face and lost control of his chainsaw and sliced his own hand off. As more men approached, the tree started to swing its branches. The tree managed to knock one of the men over, however another man came up and when Apple swinged his branches again one of them got sliced off. Apple screamed in pain.
The man saw that his former friend was going to put up a fight, went to the truck and made a Molotov cocktail. He hurried back to the battle and yelled at the tree, "Hey Mr. Tree, I have something to lighten your mood." He then lit the Molotov and threw it at the tree. The Molotov instantly shattered and flames engulfed the tree. The tree started to swing its branches around trying to put the fire out, but to no avail. While the tree was distracted the man yelled, "alright everyone chop it down now!" Instantly several men ran to the base of the tree and sliced straight through it with their chainsaws. Apple fell to the ground and the man walked up with a fire extinguisher, and put out all the flames. "Great job guys, now lets load it up and get it out of here."
Apple was now staring to feel weak. The men came, picked him up and loaded him on the truck next to the body of his wife. "Cherry I'm, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't there to protect you. Some husband I turned out to be. I really should have never let that boy sit underneath me all those years ago. If you blame me I won't hold it against you. I just want to let you know I've always loved you. With his last bit of strength Apple sent a pollen message to Oak. "So it turns out that the boy chopped cherry down and then chopped me down as well. Things are starting to fade. I hate to say this but I think I'm going to go away for awhile, take care my friend."
The uninjured men wasted no time taking the trees to the construction site. Before slicing Apple and Cherry into planks of wood, the man took one of the tree's apples and bit into it. "You know its a shame really, this tree's apples were really good."
One of the workers spoke up, "fuck that tree and fuck its apples! Didn't you forget that thanks to that tree, Frank got his hand chopped off? Let's hurry up and slice this bastard up so that we can finish this house."
Another worker spoke up, "well screw this, I'm taking some of these apples home."
Soon all the other workers were speaking up. They all wanted to take apples home with them. The man replied, "fine you can all take apples home with you, but we need to get back to work."
Apple and cherry were completely sliced up. The workers then fashioned cabinets out of them. The house that was built looked nice, however it was built quickly and with sub par materials. Many other homes were built in that area in the same way. Those who built them did not care, all they cared about was making as much money as possible.
The workers took apples back to the homes in the area. All of them tossed the cores and seeds on the ground when they were done with them. Soon the seeds disappeared in the ground.
Winter came, and in March the snow melted. In April the plants came alive again, grass started to grow and flowers started to bloom.
On the last Thursday in April 2007 The residents of the newly built residential area noticed that their foundations were starting to crack, and sprouts were growing out of the cracks. The residents gathered outside the man's house in protest. The man assured them that everything was alright and he would fix any problem with the homes. The crowd left.
Later that night one of the homes collapsed everyone inside was killed. Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, however before the recovery efforts could begin a massive thunderstorm came through the area, halting any progress.
The next day news spread about what happened the night before. Everyone in the area blamed the man for his shotty construction practices. Everyone demanded their money back. The crowd got so riled up that the man had to call the police to get them off of his lawn. Everyone left and the man went back inside.
Soon after he went inside he heard a loud crashing sound. He quickly ran to the window and saw that another house he built collapsed, and then another. He rushed outside and saw someone impaled on a tree branch right next to the wreckage of the collapsed home. The branch was coming straight from the ground, and blood was dripping from the wound. Then in a flash the branch retracted back into the ground. This one image stuck with the man despite all the chaos happening around him. And it was a sight of pure terror. Children were crying, people holding the deceased remains of their loved ones in shock and disbelief. Then broken gas lines ignited underneath the wrecked homes, setting off explosions.
The Man, fearful for his own life, ran back inside his house. When he got inside, he noticed that there were vines growing into his walls and floor, and they were moving, fast. Soon a vine grew around his ankle, then up his leg and then all the way around his waist. The vines then ripped the wall off and dragged the man outside.
The man fought the vines with all of his strength, but it was to no avail. Once he was outside, the ground started to bulge, and a plant rose from beneath. It grew taller, and taller, and taller still, until it was higher than the tallest building in the area. "Who, what are you?!" The Man asked in sheer panic.
The massive plant responded, "It me your old friend Apple the Tree."
The Man was taken aback, "how, how is this p,p,p,possible? I killed you."
"Yes you did, but before I died I put my essence into all of my seeds, and thanks to you humans my seeds were spread all throughout the area. it took a year for my roots to spread all over town, and now, I'm everywhere, and now I'm fueled by a large root system and pure rage!" The vines tightened their grip around the man's body and throat.
"Please, please have mercy on me!" The man begged as the life was being choked out of him.
The tree then loosened its grip, "fine there is something you can do for me."
Tears were streaming down the man's eyes, "sure anything, just name it."
"Bring back my wife you son of a bitch!" The tree's grip then tightened again, but then he stopped. "Little boy there's just one more thing."
Gasping for air the man replied, "what's that?"
"Happy Arbor Day," with that the tree thrusted his branch into the man's heart like a sword. The man's body went limp. The tree's vines then dragged his corpse underground. The town was completely destroyed, and on fire. And the Tree was happy.
Epilogue
Several years passed and the humans never tired to rebuild the town again. Life returned to the former planned neighborhood. Wild trees and flowers blossomed; deer, squirrels, foxes, and chipmunks scampered around the newly regrown forest, and on the edge of the forest stood an average sized apple tree, an apple tree that was good friends with an Oak, that lived in the middle of the woods.
"Hey Apple, how are you?" Oak asked.
"I'm fine," Apple replied.
"Hey there are these squirrels living on me that want to talk to you, I'm not sure about what. I just wanted to give you a heads up."
"Thanks Oak, I'll make sure to look out for them,"
Later on that day two squirrels approached the tree. "I'm sorry to bother you, but are you Apple the Tree?" one of them asked.
"Yes that's me," the tree replied.
"I'm sorry I just thought that you'd be bigger, I've heard stories about the tree that saved the forest form the humans, I have to say you're much less intimidating than I thought."
The tree replied, "after I got rid of the humans, I decided that I didn't want to live the rest of my days as a monster. Cherry wouldn't have wanted it that way."
The squirrel then spoke up, "actually we're here to talk to you about Cherry. Several years ago when she was cut down, she left some seeds behind. My mother discovered these seeds and hid them until we were sure that the humans wouldn't come back. After you destroyed the humans and they didn't return, we planted them on the mound where you put all the dead humans. That was a year and a half ago, in fact if you look over there you can see that she's starting to grow."
The Tree looked over and saw a sapling growing out of the ground. Tears of sap ran down his trunk. "So you're telling me that she's alive?"
The squirrel replied, "Yes it'll still be a few years before she can talk to you again, but we're going to take care of her until she's big enough to defend herself."
The Tree was awestruck, "how can I ever repay you?"
The squirrel responded, "Its our honor, you saved us all, we're the ones who should be thanking you. Anyway we have to go it was good talking to you." And with that the squirrels left.
The sun set on the forest, a sense of peace washed over the tree for the first time in years, the forest was safe, and the tree was happy.