Under The Apple Tree

Prologue.

Tears rolled down her face. She didn't understand why her friend had to leave, though the day had started out like any other. Hot cereal cooling down stairs, Dan snoring in his bedroom, and her ma clicking around the kitchen. The smell of her morning meal filled her soul as she remembered Esa's words, playing on repeat within her mind.

Perhaps she'd shed a few tears, perhaps she hadn't. Esa, though Julie knew, was sniveling in her bedroom close to a book and dimming her kerosene lamp. Esa was always the soft type, taking things personally and feeling for those in need. It wasn't a bad characteristic, honest, it wasn't. Julie was always one to protect Esa from all the bad things that came her way, making Esa a push over, and Julie her aide. Julie was stronger, smarter, and quite honestly, no one really knew why they were ever friends in the first place.

I'm considering now you would've thought Julie as the bigger, essentially known as the motor in the truck (or the brains of the process). Though, I would encourage you to think again. Defend, follow, and help, all to be a good friend to Esa. This, in turn, made Julie her exclusive deputy, and in these ways evened them out. However, this beautiful, and truly unique friendship had become all too twisted when both Esa and Julie's odd friend had left across the country. Julie watched with saddened eyes as their friend left, terribly depressed and hardly bearing to be apart. Losing a friend, in reality, is a very depressing subject.

Though, even before this fate begun, I will take you to a different time. A time when it all started, a simpler and less dramatic scene; just only to get you up to speed. It's hard to imagine it started with a simple leap from her bed sheets, leading onward into the day, but it's true. This is where Julie's story begins.