Apple Picking

The red buckets were stacked neatly just outside the barn store, we climbed gingerly onto the flatbed hitched behind a tractor. My jacket was open as it was only drizzle that fell and I could just fit my bum on it so as to prevent any water from seeping in. Sammy stood for a few moments, surfing, until the driver turned around to tell him it wasn't allowed.
He dropped us off amidst rows of apples. We watched and listened as he pointed where to walk and what we'd find. Warning us against the macouns, telling us at least 3 times about the bulletin he'd received to let them sit another week. We walked through grass slick with water, avoiding the muddied tractor trail. I reached up and grabbed the rounded apples easily, placing them in our red buckets and biting in to them to ensure the flavor was right.
Sammy reached up to grab branches, yearning for the better apples that waited above normal picking arms. Matt took pictures until it was too wet to let the camera be out in the rain. We tried the Golden Delicious and they were divine. The farmer returned to pick us up, "How are they?"
"Delicious" We yelled down to him.
"Well, you just have to try 'em, right?"
This time with my jacket zipped up against the rain my bum got wet and muddy as I climbed back on to the flat bed.
I imagined what it was like on a crisp clear sunny day, how many bodies would be trying to fit on these flat beds and how many Mother's would be yelling, "Hold on tight!" Not only to their kids, but to their husbands who would be in charge of the red buckets they'd now filled.
The farmer easily drove us through other fruit trees we couldn't identify before parking back at the barn and wishing us farewell with another reminder of the late bloomer macouns.
We picked out pumpkins, Sammy a 25 pounder, me a small and dainty one and Matt a tall and oval one.
With those and our apples hauled on to the counter, Sammy wandered around the store picking up soda, donuts and fudge.
"He's like a kid in a candy store" I declared to the young woman at the register.
"Oh, I used to work in a candy store," she confided in me, "So I know what it can get like."
I smiled and laughed about the remark with Matt and Sam later in the car ride home.
We drove quickly over old tarred roads surrounded with trees just starting to turn. Their bright reds, oranges and yellows caught all our attention and the rain and our wet behinds didn't even matter anymore. We passed around a bottle of rhubarb soda all declaring our love of the crisp and sweet flavor they were able to bottle.
We made loud declarations of how delicious and warm the cider donuts were.
We listened as the pumpkins moved in the trunk of the car, and laughed about day, letting the rain fade away as the crisp fall air moved through the open sun roof.