A farmer once planted two apple seeds on the side of a wind-blown hill. The first seed was from a nearby orchard that had stood for many years and the seeds from its trees were usually planted only on his farm. The second seed was from an orchard far away. Seeds from this orchard were planted in many parts of the land.
As the seeds began to grow they sent up shoots that sought out the sun and the moon. The first grew tall and slender. She would labor hard to grow straight and resilient, bending with the wind.
The second seed, because he was from trees that had seen the country, grew strong and stout. He would resist the wind and stand strong against all weather.
As these two seeds grew into trees they found themselves growing closer and closer together. The second grew quickly and spread his limbs above the ground casting shadows where birds would rest from the sun. The first grew in the light the second would not block. She continued to grow straight and slender. With time her limbs intertwined with the branches of the second. They grew so close, one could hardly tell them apart.
As the two trees grew side-by-side, they produced apples that were said to be the finest in all the land. They were large and sweet and had the reddest skin of apples anywhere. People came from far and wide to see the apples and remarked how good and special they were.
One day a storm rose in the west. Winds whipped the trees and rain fell and hail pelted them without mercy. The trees stood strong because they had grown together. She bent with the torrent as it lashed the two. He stood strong and let her bend against him as he protected her from the hail and terrible wind. Storm after storm rolled through the farm and beat their way up the hillside where the two trees grew. They stood strong against the tempests and lost not a single apple.
Then one day a storm came that brought not only wind and rain and hail, but lightning. Fierce bolts struck the earth and caused fires that raged along the countryside. But the trees stood together, hoping the lightning would keep away and move on. But alas, it would not. A huge bolt struck down at the trees, and they were split apart.
The first tree bent away from the second as the howling winds bowed her trunk so it would not touch the second’s. Smoke rolled around her trunk and small flames singed her bark.
The second tree stood firm, but his bark had been burned and torn by the thunderbolt. Smoke rolled from his torn skin and flames crackled up his trunk and licked at his leaves.
After awhile the rain quenched the flames, but the trees stood separated.
As they grew they tried to come closer again but the wind that howled up the hillside would not let them touch.
He spread his limbs far trying to reach her, but he could not bridge the gulf that stood between them. His wounds were deep and after a time his bark grew to cover them, but he would never be strong enough to grow limbs on her side of his trunk.
She, too, tried, but the storm had made her too flexible. Without being close to him her limbs were too supple to reach very far. The wind bent them so they would only caress his, but never actually touch.
Each time they tried, the wind would come upon them and separate their branches by the smallest of spaces, but it was enough to keep them apart.
One day the farmer saw that the trees were not coming together. He decided to move the second tree to another orchard where it might grow strong again. He dug the second tree out of its place along side the first and filled the hole in with soil taken from the orchard. The hole sunk just a little and left a mark where the second tree had stood.
The farmer moved the tree to a place in another orchard where others of his kind grew. Here the tree might thrive among his own.
After awhile both trees healed from their wounds. Their bark covered the burns the lightning had made, but the wood beneath would forever carry the mark of the storm.
The trees began to grow apples once again.
But people said the apples were never as sweet, and as good, and as red, as when the two trees grew together…as one.
