• He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.

    Emmy Pendon lay in her bed, in a deep sleep, completely unaware of what was growing inches from her face. About ten hours later, she awoke to a bright sunbeam shining through the window. She quickly became aware of the large green plant growing out of the book Random Facts.

    “Darnit.” Emmy muttered. “I’m still asleep.” The 12 year old tried pinching herself in an unsuccessful attempt to wake herself. But when her mother banged on the door and shouted
    “Breakfast, Emmy! Wake up!” Emmy realized this was no dream.
    “Mom!” she yelled. Mom?!?”
    “What is it honey? Is something wrong?!” her mother asked.
    “Well um…you might wanna come in here. There’s a…a…a situation...” The door creaked open.
    “Oh dear! What is that thing?!” Mrs. Pendon shrieked.
    “Well uh,” Emmy slowly explained, “I’m not quite sure what it is, but I’m pretty sure it grew out of a…book.”
    “A book??? I don’t believe it.”
    “Mom! It grew…out…of…a…book!!! How hard is that to understand?!” Emmy sighed. “But what are we going to tell dad?”
    Emmy’s mother rushed downstairs and returned shortly with Mr. Pendon.
    “Holy cow!” he bellowed. “What in the heck is that thing???”
    “Dad! Chill! Geez. I think it’s an apple tree.”

    Right as Emmy said ‘apple’, 2 bright, large, red apples popped into place on the lower branches of the plant.
    “Oh my word…” Emmy mumbled. “Apple?” she said tentatively.
    One more piece of fruit appeared.
    “This must be a magic tree!” Emmy’s mother said with more than a hint of sarcasm.
    “Andy, Emmy, let’s all go back to bed.”
    “But what about the tree? What do I do with it?” Emmy asked.
    “What does it matter? Clearly we’ve all gone insane, or we’re still asleep and I’m having a wacked dream!”

    Slowly, Emmy crawled back into bed and tried to fall asleep. But sleep didn’t come. This can’t be a dream, Emmy thought. It’s too real! She carefully crawled out of bed and picked up the book. The tree growing out of it was now quite large, and it’s branches scratched the ceiling of Emmy’s room. Carefully, Emmy moved the tree out her bedroom door and, with great effort, down to the end of the hall. It was much to far to carry, so Emmy set the plant down and dug around in the hall closet until she found a vase. Awkwardly, she yanked the plant out of the spine of random facts, and set it in the vase and turned the whole thing on it’s side. Emmy listened for a noise coming from her parents’ room. The house was silent, except for the muffled sound of Mr. Pendon’s snoring. Emmy gave the vase a slight nudge and the tree rolled slowly and roughly down the stair case. It thumped and bumped all the way down, before it crashed into a side table near the bottom of the steps.
    “Oops.” Emmy whispered. She tiptoed down the stairs and picked up the tree.

    She carried it up to the front door, and stepped outside into the bright warm sunlight. Setting the tree on the grass, she punched in the secret code for the garage door. She fetched a heavy silver shovel, and began to dig a hole in the middle of the yard. Emmy dug up shovelful after shovelful of earth, and dumped the dirt into a growing pile. Finally, when she felt the hole was big enough, Emmy carefully lifted the tree out of the vase and placed it into the ground. Then, she shoveled the dirt back into the hole, holding the tree in place. Next, Emmy used the bottom of the shovel to pack the dirt in around the tree. She pulled the garden hose to the plant and turned it on. After a fair amount of water had been absorbed, Emmy turned the hose handle to the right, and the flow stopped. As she was heading back towards the front door, Emmy heard Mr. Linden’s voice.
    “I warned you about the book. Now it’s too late.”
    Startled, Emmy rushed back into the house, where she found her parents eating breakfast.
    “Hey Em!” Mr. Pendon said. “Come have some waffles!”
    Emmy sank into a chair at the kitchen table and forked a stack of waffles onto her plate.
    “So, what do you want to do today, hon?” Mrs. Pendon asked as she scooped fresh strawberries out of a glass dish in the middle of the table.
    “Uh…we could go shopping?”
    “Hm. Maybe. Or we could bake. Or cook. Do either of those sound like fun to you?”
    “Oh. Sure. Sounds cool. What do you want to make?” Emmy asked her mother.
    “We’ll make apple pie! Apple cider! Apple crisp! Caramel apples! Apple juice!” was Mrs. Pendon’s reply.
    “Wait a minute.” Emmy said, confused. “Do you mean the apples from the er...book tree?”
    “Sure! What else?” her mother said.
    “Oh. Okay,” Emmy said.
    The family finished breakfast in silence. Emmy placed her cup and plate in the sink and headed for the door.
    “I’m going out to harvest apple I guess.”
    “See ya later.” Her dad said. “They need me at the factory today.”
    Mr. Pendon worked at a frozen pastry factory. Emmy hurried out the door and sat down next to the tree. Testing to make sure it still worked, she said, “Apple…?”
    Sure enough, a round juicy apple appeared.
    “Apple.” Emmy said again, now more confident.
    “Apple,”
    “Apple,”
    “Apple,”
    Soon Emmy discovered that she could say “3 apples” or “7 apples” and more efficient results took place. All afternoon, she “made” apples, and harvested them. At 2:30, Emmy wearily walked inside carrying two buckets of apples.
    “These are the last 2 buckets.” She sighed.
    “Okay hon. What next? Cider? Or we could make more crisp.”
    Emmy plopped herself into a chair and said “It really doesn’t matter.”

    The next morning Emmy woke up and went downstairs to find that several shop owners and many townspeople were in the kitchen purchasing apples. A little girl was holding a caramel apple. Mr. Zelowski, the grocery store manager was making a huge order. Children and adults were everywhere, eating, buying, and talking.
    “Emmy!” Mrs. Pendon said, delighted. “Business is booming! We’ve made $400 already! Come and have a piece of pie.”

    Over the next few days, more and more customers came. Soon, the Pendons’ apple products and foods were in all the shops. When Emmy went back to school that fall, all the kids were talking about how good the apples were. The Pendons made so much money, Mr. Pendon quit his job! But not before introducing a new line of pastries. Mr. Linden never ate any apples from the tree, and always warned Emmy about it.

    Emmy parents soon found themselves shopping for houses in Hawaii. They found a beautiful mansion on the beach of Oahu, and purchased it immediately. Emmy was so happy, she thought she would burst. They had the tree transplanted, and soon the Pendons were living in a mansion with maids, a butler, a cook, a driver for their limousine, a pool, and sauna. Emmy was delighted. The Pendons continued with their business, and became even more successful. Emmy wondered why Mr. Linden had warned her about the book. Maybe he was crazed.