There was a drought in the land, and the owner of the apple orchard was sad. His orchard seemed doomed. He said to his partner in the business, "I must go away for a while. If I don't return you may have my share. I can't bear to see the orchard die."
The partner of the owner tended the orchard as best he could, and sometimes he made a profit but mostly the money just covered his expenses. Once, customers had come from miles around to buy the apples, but not now. Across the valley and to the north other orchardists were raising similar fruit, but their fruit had no flavor. But the apple imitations were cheaper, so customers went to them.
In the Spring, when the apples of the previous year still lay rotting on the ground, the bare apple trees began budding and blossoms formed as they always did, but this year there were more blossoms, like in the former years. And then the gentle rains came, and the sun shone, and the blossoms fluttered like snowflakes on the warm wind. The partner and his wife and children danced between the trees and lit candles, and their breaths rose upwards to the miraculous bounty of apples that began growing at the end of every branch.
The former owner had died on his journey, and his soul went to a barren place where the sky was perpetually gray. There were no trees there, and the crops were cut low to the ground. Brittle, pale yellow stubs made dull whistling sounds in the perpetual cold, dry wind. The owner sat in the gaps between the rows and prayed for rain or sun, or anything that would change the monotony of his new existence. But this was not a place where prayers were answered quickly. One day was like the previous day, and there was no sleep.
One day the old farmer lay with his face to the ground and felt a small something in the trouser of his overalls. He sat up and found an apple seed in the pocket, and his ghostly face widened into a smile. It had the same rich brown color it had had in the land of the living, and it glowed with life. He planted the seed in the fallow ground, and for moisture he used his own ghostly spit, and for sun he used the light of his own soul, and the seed grew into the most lovely apple tree he had ever seen. It budded and produced perfect apples. He gathered seeds from apples and used the same process to grow more apple trees. Ghost spirits came from everywhere to admire the orchard. In the gray land the bright apples were visible from far away and glowed against the grayness of the sky.
Seeing the old farmer's success, the Lord of All opened the clouds and a beam of sunlight pulled the old farmer heavenwards. The Lord let the old farmer travel back to the land of the living to see the wonder of his former orchard. For now, customers were coming to his former orchard in droves to buy his fruit, and paying his former partner and his family premium prices.
The ghostly former owner stood and smiled at the bins overflowing with apples. The bins were loaded onto the bed of the partner's truck, and when his partner got in the truck to drive to town, the former owner sat in the passenger seat. They drove the long straight dirt road to town, and as they drove the former owner noticed the smile on his partner's face. "You have done well," he said to his old partner. "This is a miraculous crop."
The partner sensed his former friend beside him and said, "Ah, if only you had stayed. If only you had stayed you would have been able to help me expand our crop. Now I must rely on other partners who were not with us in the beginning. It was so much better when it was just you and me."
The former owner said, "I will watch over this apple orchard, and the one on the other side. I changed things there, and I will help you change things here. As long as you remember me, I am always with you."
The End
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