Horse Apples

From Wikipedia:

Maclura pomifera, commonly known as the Osage orange (/ˈoʊseɪdʒ/ OH-sayj), is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, native to the south-central United States. It typically grows about 8 to 15 metres (30–50 ft) tall. The distinctive fruit, a multiple fruit, is roughly spherical, bumpy, 8 to 15 centimetres (3–6 in) in diameter, and turns bright yellow-green in the fall. The fruits secrete a sticky white latex when cut or damaged. Despite the name "Osage orange", it is not related to the orange. It is a member of the mulberry family, Moraceae. Due to its latex secretions and woody pulp, the fruit is typically not eaten by humans and rarely by foraging animals. Ecologists Daniel H. Janzen and Paul S. Martin proposed in 1982 that the fruit of this species might be an example of what has come to be called an evolutionary anachronism—that is, a fruit coevolved with a large animal seed dispersal partner that is now extinct. This hypothesis is controversial.

Maclura pomifera has many names, including mock orange, hedge apple, hedge, horse apple, crab apple, pap, monkey ball, monkey brains and yellow-wood. The name bois d'arc (from French meaning "bow-wood") has also been corrupted into bodark and bodock.

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Jacob opened the fridge to get a bottle of water out and turned and looked at his wife. He shook his head and said, “I don’t understand. That old horse apple tree is in the field by itself, but its fruit is all over the yard. How in the world did that happen, huh? Do you know?”

His wife, Glennette, shook her head and said, “We have had kids here this weekend. Maybe they had something to do with it. You know how kids are with horse apples.”

“All the horse apples? That’s a lot of fruit to be tossed around. Surely, five kids didn’t do all of that,” Jacob grumbled as he went back outside to finish mowing the yard.

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Earlier:

Five boys were sitting on the porch. Each in different poses of boredom.

“This is boring,” one of the boys says.

“Shut up, Tommy,” the skinnest boy there says.

“Make me, J.J., you dork,” Tommy shot back.

“Will you both shut up,” the darkest-haired boy said to Tommy and J.J.

Sticking their tongue out at the other boy, they both said in unison, “Oh, suck it, Rodney!!”

“Will all of you guys hush? Jake has an idea for us,” the smallest boy said, pointing to the only redheaded one in the bunch.

When they had all settled down, Jake began, “Well, as Peewee said, I have an idea. Let’s have a horse-apple war.”

All the boys were for it. So they spent most of the morning chasing each other and chucking horse apples at each other. They chased each other over five acres, and when they were done, they were entirely out of breath and tired. So they went inside and played video games for the rest of the day.

That is how the horse apples got scattered all over the yard.