The Apple Tree Adventure

Granny’s not lookin’! Good.” Five-year-old legs and feet flew across the yard to the picket fence. Nomie pulled up on the bottom rail then looked over her shoulder at the house. “Granny’s still not looking.” Nomie pulled herself from the bottom rail to the top of the fence post. She didn’t remember the ground being so far away. She closed her eyes and jumped from the top of the post to the ground three feet below. Tumbling to her knees on the gravelly path, Nomie wanted to cry from the scrapes but if she cried, Granny would hear her…. And then she would be in trouble. “I’m not gonna’ cry. Only babies cry and I’m no baby.” She picked herself up and started across the alfalfa field. Ole Jim, Uncle Tom’s black collie, limped after her on his three good legs. She spotted a four leaf clover and stopped to investigate. A bumblebee buzzed nearby. Nomie did not like bumblebees.

She looked up the hill at her Daddy’s house. Daddy of course was not home. He was at work driving his big yellow Kentucky Power Company truck. Nomie knew that if Daddy didn’t work, lots of people would have no ‘lectricity and they would be calling 117 and asking for Harry. She didn’t like it when Daddy had to go back out to work at night just ‘cause people didn’t have ‘lectricity. Up ahead here was a nice place to sit under the walnut tree and if she sat there, Granny couldn’t see her and make her come back to the house. Nomie didn’t want to have to come back to the house…not yet. Ole Jim laid down in the alfalfa next to her and she put her chubby arms around his neck and hugged him. “Good Jim…you’re my favoritest playmate…. except for Nancy and Sue…and Paul…but I can’t go to Daughtry Hollow by myself. Anyway…I’m scared to walk by the graveyard…even with you. Some ghost might jump out the grave and get me!”

Nomie wondered if her stepmother was home. Having a stepmother meant that Daddy had a new wife but she guessed that was okay…after all her momma was in heaven…had been gone to heaven a long time. Granny had explained all that and after all…Granny was her Momma’s momma. Still Nomie didn’t feel right about the stepmother. She didn’t know why…she just didn’t …but she didn’t have to worry…she had Granny and Uncle Tom, and Uncle Carter, and of course, Grampa.
Her eyes wandered to the field by the creek where the well house stood. Then she looked up the hill toward the Daddy house and saw the apple tree. Daddy had sawed a limb off the apple tree but he didn’t quite cut it all off. Sticking out was a piece of limb with a sharp point . It sure looked like a good limb to turn a flip-flop on. Could she do it? Maybe if she held on to the pointy limb and the one next to it…that would work? Nomie headed toward the tree. Ole Jim stayed where he was, his tongue sticking out as he panted for breath. He laid his head on his paws and continued to watch the little girl.

Nomie looked up at the tree. It wasn’t very high so she started to climb up so she could reach the pointy limb. Now how could she turn this flip-flop? She turned around facing the tree trunk and thought of a way she could try. As her body turned, the sharp point of the limb caught the waistband of her shorts and tore a hole in the seat! There Nomie swung …stuck on an apple limb …bobbing from her shorts. She yelled for help. There was no answer. Finally her stepmother came out of the basement door with a dishpan full of water that she threw in the garden. Her father’s new wife did not look Nomie’s way and then she turned and went back in the house. What could Nomie do now? She yelled for help again and again and nobody came. The bees kept buzzing from blossom to blossom in the tree and….still, nobody came. Nomie waited. . Granny couldn’t see the back of Daddy’s house…. and besides, Granny didn’t know where she was. Nomie hung in the tree bobbing like a big apple. She didn’t like this…. Not a bit.

What could she do? Nomie reached out and grabbed the trunk of the tree and pulled herself closer. She heard the rip in her shorts. Granny was going to be mad…real mad. Nomie wiggled and her shorts ripped further She kept on wiggling and finally fell half way to the ground. How could she get out? Maybe…..if she pushed backwards? Nomie pushed away from the tree and fell backwards toward the ground….her feet caught in what was left of her shorts legs! She kicked harder and …one foot came out….she kicked again and….at last…she was free!

Her legs hurt…..Granny would be mad…..Maybe she ought to get her torn shorts from the tree…Nomie wanted Granny. She grabbed the torn shorts and ran through the alfalfa field toward the fence gate and her Granny. Nearly there…she started crying and screaming at the top of her lungs ”Gran…nee……..Gra…nee…Gra..neeeee!” Tears rolled from her eyes as she screamed and ran across the field…through the hay grass…toward the house…toward her Momma’s Momma screamin’ and …cryin’. Ole Jim limped along behind her his lame hind leg tucked up.Climbed down the wet creek bank, slid under the woven wire fence at the back of the garden, ran through the peanut patch all the way to the back door, Nomie screamed every step of the way. Gran…….nee, Gran….eee, GRANNEE!