I’m walking down a paved road on a desert highway dressed in a blue cotton blouse and a knee- length white skirt. On my back is a pack that seemed to be full, but not too heavy. I eventually reached a town and walked right through it without stopping. I thought it was strange that I felt so light on my feet, but it never occurred to me that I was dreaming. I never even wondered where I was traveling to.
As soon as I entered the next town I was hit with a crippling bout of hunger. I stopped in front street vendor who was selling apples, and frantically dug through my pack. I looked in my shoes and bra but couldn’t find even a penny. The hunger was almost unbearable and I was sure that I would not be able to continue on without food.
The only option I had left was to try and trade something. I looked up and down the street for a vendor that was selling something else, but apples seemed to be my only option. I have always had a great dislike for the taste of apples, and here I was about to beg for one!
When I approached the vendor I had a moment of recognition, but could not think of where I had seen him before. He was tall with light brown hair and clear, mocking, blue eyes. He was smiling as I approached his cart. I told him that I didn’t have any money, and asked him if I could maybe trade something for an apple. He laughed and said that he would be willing to trade. I went through my things and he rejected them all. I asked him what he would take, and he looked me up down and smiled. My shoes for three apples.
I hated the idea of handing over my comfortable boots for two dollars worth of apples, but the hunger was consuming me more and more. I reluctantly made the trade and continued on my way in my socks.
I ate the apples while I walked and was pleased that they vanquished my hunger completely. On a whim I put the apple cores in the pocket of my back pack. The road that had once been paved progressively became more and more rural until it was nothing but packed dirt and sharp rocks.
My socks did little to protect my feet as I slowly walked down the path, and were soon soaked in blood. I stopped walking and sat down on a small grassy patch that I spotted from the road. My black socks peeled off of my feet when I removed them, and were dark with my blood.
I laid down on the grass to rest while I thought of what I could do, but the sun had reached its peak and it quickly became unbearably hot. I looked around for shade but the dusty, flat, plane had no trees.
Then, as if he had been sitting next to me the entire time, I turn to see the apple vendor. He smiled at me in that mocking way, and asked me how the journey was going. It was then that I remembered him as the sandy haired boy that had been in the background of many of my dreams. In all of them he had helped me in some way or another. Filled with a new found hope; I asked him if I could have my shoes back.
He shook his head told me that he couldn’t trade back because I had already eaten the apples. I pulled out the cores from my pack and wondered if it had really been a good trade. I sighed and asked him what I suppose to do. If I waited here I would pass out from the heat, If I kept walking I would damage my feet even further, and if I had not trade my shoes for the apples I might have starved.
He took the apple cores from me and began to wipe the blood from my feet with them. Then one by one he pressed them into the ground behind us. A great apple tree sprouted from the ground and covered the grassy patch with shade. He reached up and plucked some green leaves from the branch above his head, and handed them down to me. He smiled and told me to make new shoes from them.
I woke up