Bebop and Beezie lived in a tree. They were red apples that grew up together from the time they were tiny buds. You might think it would be fun to grow up in a tree, or maybe you think it would not be fun at all. Whatever you think, Bebop and Beezie had no choice. They lived in a tree and that was that.

It seemed like just yesterday when the weather warmed up and their buds opened and they each found themselves inside of a beautiful pink flower. It was the first time they had felt the sun. It warmed them up and made them feel special. They decided right then that living in a tree was the best thing in the world.

Little furry bees came to visit them with cellophane wings. The bees had six legs—two little ones in front, two medium sized ones in the middle, and two big ones in the back. Beezie giggled when a bee tickled her with his legs.

“Oh Beezie, don’t be so silly,” said Bebop. Then, he started to laugh when the bee tickled him.

“I wonder where the bees go after they tickle us,” said Bebop.

“I’ve don’t know for sure,” said Beezie, “but, a ladybug told me they all live together in a big, big house called a hive.”

Several days passed and the bees came every day. After being tickled and tickled and tickled by the bees, Bebop and Beezie felt a little funny. Next thing they knew, they got bigger, and bigger, and even bigger until they looked just like the bright red apples you see in the store.

 

“Wow,” said Bebop to Beezie. “You’re beautiful!”

“You don’t look so bad yourself, handsome.” Beezie said as she swayed back and forth on her stem in the breeze.

Just then Bebop and Beezie heard a strange voice.

“You two have no idea, do you?”

Bebop looked curiously at Beezie. “Who was that?”

“I don’t know,” said Beezie, “but the voice sounds very old.”

“You two are hanging from one of my arms. I am the tree from which you were born. I know all about you.”

“All about what?” asked Bebop a little annoyed.

“About what’s going to happen to you.”

Bebop spotted the tree’s two big eyes peeking out of the trunk.

Beezie looked nervous.

Bebop tried to look strong to reassure her.

“Don’t worry Beezie, I’ll protect you,” Bebop said confidently, but he was nervous too.

“I don’t believe you,” said Bebop to the tree defiantly.

“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen,” said the tree. “Pops Diddlyops is going to pick you off my arm and put you into a basket. Then he’s going to take you to his kitchen and turn you into something like applesauce or apple pie or apple spice cake and that will be the end of you.”

All the other apples in the tree looked terrified and started to scream.

 

“Oh, it isn’t so bad,” said the tree. That’s just what happens to apples. No way around it.  They don’t eat your seeds though. Your seeds might be buried in the soil and grow into new apple trees if you are lucky. I can’t make enough apples for everyone that wants them you know.  I need some help.”

Bebop and Beezie wanted to do something better than just be baked in an apple pie.

“I wish we could travel the world Bebop, like little boys and girls that go on vacation. I don’t want to be baked into a pie and end up in someone’s tummy. It would be dark and lonely in there.”

Bebop felt terrible to see Beezie so worried and sad. He knew he had to do something. He couldn’t stand by and do nothing, so he twisted on his stem and turned away. Just then a donkey pulled an apple cart under the tree. When he twisted and turned, Bebop’s stem broke loose and down he fell into the cart.

 

“Quick Beezie! Twist and turn and fall down here with me.”

Before the tree could say Diddlyops, Bebop and Beezie were both in the cart side by side, and off the donkey went.

“Oh, I love being so close to you Beezie! I think we’re safe now. I wonder where we’re going?”

The donkey yelled: “Hee haw, hee haw, hee haw!”

The wheels groaned: “squeak, squeak, squeak” like little mice running around in circles.

“Slow down!  Slow down!” Bebop yelled, but the donkey didn’t slow down.

“I don’t think anybody knows where we’re going,” Bebop whispered quietly to himself. He didn’t want to alarm Beezie.

An unfamiliar noise gurgled up from the bottom of the cart: “Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka … coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.” A little green cricket poked up its head.

 

“I can tell you where we’re going,” said the cricket. “Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

“You mean … we’re going to Coocooricka?” asked Bebop.

“No, no,” said the cricket. “I just say coocooricka all the time. I can’t help myself. We are going to the seaport. Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

“How do you know we’re going to the seaport?” Bebop had learned to be skeptical when talking to crickets.

“I know because we always go there. I live in the bottom of this cart and I’ve been to the seaport over and over and over … coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

The little cricket seemed pleased with himself that he knew more than the two big red apples.

Bebop scratched an itch on his back using a piece of straw from the bottom of the cart.

“Well now, the seaport sounds … umm … interesting,” Bebop said. “What will we do there?”

“Uh, well,” the cricket said, “you will be sold to a restaurant where the cook makes apple-goose souffle. I guess that’s where you’ll end up—cooked to a crisp in an apple-goose soufflé.  Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka!”

“Oh my,” said Beezie. She brushed back her hair and adjusted her makeup. This was not a time to look unkempt.

Bebop didn’t like the idea of being cooked into a souffle. He would have rather ended up in an apple pie. He rolled over onto his stem and sulked.

The cart picked up speed as it went downhill toward the seaport.

“Hee, haw, hee haw, hee haw,” hollared the donkey.

“Screech, screech, screech” shouted the wheels as they tried to slow down.

Bebop could see the restaurant near the dock. He was afraid.

Suddenly he shouted out: “Stop, you stupid donkey, you’re going to cause us to crash!”

They came to a sudden stop and everything flew out of the cart. Bebop and Beezie rolled onto the deck of a boat that was leaving for Belle Isle. They slid off the deck and into a large bucket of clams. The impact of their fall knocked the bucket off the boat, and next thing they knew they were adrift at sea.

 

They floated in the sea for hours and hours, and for days and days until they came to the land of ManyNuts.

When they arrived, they were very very very very thirsty because the sea was too salty to drink.

“What shall we do?” asked Bebop. “These clams stink!”

“We’re going to shrivel up and dry out and turn into prunes. I don’t want to look like a prune.  I’m an APPLE!” cried Beezie.

“I don’t know.  I don’t know, Beezie. I’ll think of something.”

Bebop rolled over on his stem and thought and thought and thought.

A big wave came and pushed them up onto the sand. They were surrounded by nuts that had arrived from all over the world.

“Wow! Look Beezie. Look at all these different kinds of nuts, so many different kinds of nuts I can’t count them.”

 

“We’ve floated here from all over the world,” said a large calabash nut.  “That’s how the trees and the plants disperse themselves all over the place.”

A big fat bearded coconut rolled over and opened his mouth exposing pure white gums with no teeth.

“Sheesh,” exclaimed Bebop. “Looks like Pops Diddlyops.”

“Don’t you laugh at me kid. I’m a giant compared to the little black seeds inside that fleshy body of yours. You look a little peaked.”

“My friend Beezie and I, we’re practically dying of thirst. We floated across the wide ocean for ages and ages.”

“That’s nothing. I’ve carried baby coconut crabs all around these islands here in the South Pacific.”

“So, that’s where we are, in the South Pacific?” said Bebop.

A familiar sound came from beside the bucket.

“Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka. Get me out of here! I wanna go home! Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

“I think you guys have a problem,” the cricket said. Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

“What kind of problem?” asked Bebop.

“Apples can’t grow in this sand and the water is too salty. Too salty. Too sandy. Too salty. Too sandy.”

“What are we going to do?” cried Beezie. “Oh, what are we going to do?”  Beezie’s tears smeared her mascara.

Bebop rolled over on his stem and put his mind to work. He thought and he thought but he couldn’t come up with an idea. Sometimes even the best minds need a little help.

It was the wind that came to the rescue.

 

The wind blew Bebop and Beezie and the cricket and all the nuts back to Pops Diddlyops farm in a flash. It wasn’t long until Bebop and Beezie had grown into new little apple trees. Pops Diddlyops had planted their seeds alongside the Old Daddy apple tree from which they had been born.

“Well,” said the old Daddy Tree. I see you made it back to the farm safely and now you’re growing up very nicely too. Where did you go on your trip?”

 

“Across the meadow to the ocean,” said Beezie.

“Over the sea to the land of Manynuts,” said Bebop.

“Just around the block and back,” said the cricket. “Coocooricka, coocooricka, coocooricka.”

The End

 

NOTE: All images in this post were made by CHAT GPT-4o