Part 2

When she woke, she awoke to the sound of a dove who coo-ed at her on the window-sill outside. She sat up with a start and looked up to the window. There stood the dove she heard, looking at her, gazing at her intently, before Maria blinked and it had gone.

‘That’s odd,’ she mused, for she had never seen a dove sitting on her window-sill before. But she thought no more of it and tried to go back to sleep. At that moment her father knocked on the door. “Maria,” he said, “I’m just going to the store to pick up some bread. Get up soon, dear, as I need you in the orchard for me this afternoon.
‘The orchard!’ she thought, and suddenly she remembered yesterday’s events.
“Um…okay father….um…will be up soon.”

Maria nervously got dressed and walked downstairs. She looked out of the window and saw her father walk down the passage-way by the side of the house onto the street. She waited for him to go before going out into the garden and deciding to sit on the grass. She looked up from the ground, still puzzled and anxious. ‘What on earth happened yesterday? Why did I feel so awful?’ She felt a sickness in her tummy. ‘That apple tasted so good, yet now I feel so bad.’

Suddenly she saw once more the dove, just out of the corner of her eye, perched on the fence, gazing at her intently once more and coo-ing at her. She got up and walked on a little into the garden and heard a whooshing sound as the dove flew over her head and disappeared.

Now standing in the middle of the garden, Maria felt a drop of rain splash onto her forehead. Then another fell as she looked up, onto her chin, and then another fell on her left cheek, and another onto her right cheek, before the next thing she knew, she was soaking wet. It had been such a beautiful sunny day, with not a cloud in sight and yet suddenly the Heavens had opened. She ran back to the house and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open. It had closed behind her and she was left in the garden all alone in the rain. She ran over to a nearby tree but it was no shelter at all, even though it had many leaves. She ran to another but that was no better. Then, just then, she saw once more the dove, and heard it’s gentle sound, coo-ing at her, louder even than the pitter-patter of the rain. It was hovering above the apple tree that had frightened her so much yesterday and appeared to beckon her towards the tree. She nervously approached the tree and the closer she got, the more afraid she became, but she felt drawn and compelled to move nearer and nearer, until, finally, she crept under the furthest branch. She edged closer until she was fully covered by the branches of the tree.

‘This is the only tree that gives me shelter!’ she thought, astounded. She sat beneath the tree, in the centre where the ground was dry and leant up against the trunk. Within minutes, though the rainstorm continued, she was dry again.

It was just then that she heard a voice say, “Do not be afraid. This storm will certainly pass.” Bewildered, she looked around her in search of someone, a man, who could have spoken those words, for it was a strange voice, kind and gentle, yet knowing. At that moment, the rain stopped, and the sun crept out from the dark clouds and shone all around her, shedding light onto the rain-soaked plants, trees, flowers and grass,

“Hello!?” she shouted. But nobody was answered. “Who is that?!” But still there was no sound. ‘How very strange,’ she thought.

Dry and restored, she began to walk back to the house and just at that moment her father returned with a loaf of bread.

“Thank God! You are up at last!’ exclaimed her father.
“Yes, I thought you were gone an awful long time to get the bread, father. What a terrible rainstorm we just had!”
“Rainstorm?” her father replied, “What rainstorm? I’ll admit it’s a bit cloudy but there’s been no rain, child.”
“Really?” said Maria.
“Are you okay, Maria? You’ve been acting very strange since yesterday. You didn’t even come down for supper last night. What’s gotten into you? Silly girl, you’ve got your mother’s head! They always said she was one apple short of a tree!”