Under Our Old Pear Tree

She was beautiful when she cried even if she was leaving me.

“I can’t live here with you in this fairytale anymore,” she whispered.

When she said to meet her at the pear tree, our pear tree, I knew something was up. I didn’t know how to be without her so I did what I always did and grabbed her hand and put it in mine. She pulled it away.

“I feel stifled and claustrophobic in this tiny town. Don’t you feel it? Don’t you want to run? Get out?” She was exasperated, her eyes searching mine for justification, an agreement I hadn’t made.

I grabbed for her hand again instinctually and pulled it away before our skin touched. “I want to be wherever you are. I can live anywhere with you. You are my fairytale. It’s always been you.”

She looked shock as if she didn’t know.

“I’m sorry, John.” She began to cry harder. “I really am. I…I…I just can’t shake this feeling like I need to get out, see the world, like there is more out here than this. I love you. I promise, I do. I just need. I think I need time away.”

“I’ll come with you. Where will we go?” I asked.

“There isn’t a we, John. That’s what I’m trying to say. Give me time, please. Please.”

I nodded with tears in my eyes.

She cupped my cheek in her hand and kissed the other one. She smiled weakly then turned around and put one foot in front of the other.

I continued to stand and stare. I waited for her to turn around, but she never did.

“I’ll always love you, Sophie,” I whispered into the air. The breeze took my words and blew them up toward the lone pear tree knocking a small ripe pear to the ground. It rolled until it got right beside me and then stopped slowly like it was checking to make sure I was alright.

I looked down at it and chuckled. I took a deep breath and watched Sophie walk away.

____

I saw her blonde toe head shining in the sun miles before she arrived at the pear tree. Just enough time for me to climb to the top and hide behind the leaves. She walked like a lullaby humming a song with the birds. She was enthralled in her thoughts and didn’t look up when she arrived, but sat at the trunk and opened her journal. She wrote feverishly then suddenly stopped and looked out into the vast green world below. I tried to make out the words on her pages, but couldn’t. I wished with all my heart that she was writing about her love for me.

I pulled the nearest pear off its branch and plucked it playfully at her head. It hit her harder than I wanted and I drew back, scared. Her hands flew to the top of her crown, looked up into the tree and said “Is that you John Gallagher? I will kill you!”

I snickered until she looked me dead in the eyes and she wasn’t laughing. She threw her journal down, pushed up her sleeves and started climbing the tree after me. I panicked and scrambled, looking left and right, deciding my next move. She was gaining on me. I took one false step and fell to the ground on my back hard. Three pears fell along with me.

“John! John!” she screamed. The blow hurt, but it wasn’t too bad. She didn’t have to know that, however. I played dead.

She was suddenly hovering over me. My eyes were closed, but I could picture her blonde curls draping her freckled face. Her shadow blocked the sun and cooled me. Then she touched me and my face flushed red. She said my name over and over, shaking my shoulders, lightly slapping my face. She put her head to my chest to listen for a heartbeat and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Her face came close to mine. I opened my eyes, grabbed her head and pulled it in for a big wet kiss. She pulled away quick and slapped me hard across the face.

“John Gallagher- you are an idiot! That’s what you are!” she screamed. She got up, dusted off her knees and stomped away with her arms crossed. I giggled at her cute red face and messy curls as she tried to look angry.

“I’ll always love you, Sophie,” I whispered into the air. The breeze took my words and blew them up toward the lone pear tree knocking a small ripe pear to the ground. It rolled until it got right beside me and then stopped slowly like it was checking to make sure I was alright.

I looked down at it and chuckled. I took a deep breath and watched Sophie walk away.

____

I stroked her hair as her head lay on my chest. My breathing was labored now and her blonde hair had turned white. It still shone in the sun like when she was a girl, all those years ago, coming around the bend to our pear tree.

She sighed. “What are you thinking about?” I asked.

‘I was thinking about that time I left you here at this tree,” she said.

“You were so beautiful that day,” I quipped.

“I was a bawling mess is what I was,” she laughed.

“You just had to leave and move half way across the world, didn’t you?” I chuckled.

She drifted back into memory. “Yes, I did, didn’t I? Chased my dreams around the world and ended up finding you here under this old pear tree.”

“I always knew you’d come back, even after I hit you good on the head with pears a few times.”

“I really thought I was going to kill you that day,” she said as she nestled into my chest.

I put my arms around her tight and kissed the top of her head.

“I could live here with you in this fairytale forever,” she said.

“I’ll always love you, Sophie,” I whispered into her hair.

Our old lone pear tree stood atop a hill overlooking a meadow. When we were kids the meadow contained freshly cut trees. An entire field filled with stumps, its old inhabitants shipped off somewhere for a new life. In our early twenties, the meadow became overgrown and life existed again, but it was raw and untamed. Now, old and grey, we looked upon that same meadow- a vibrant orchard with a ranch in the middle, hens in the back and flowers planted throughout.

We looked at the life we had created together from atop the little hill where the lone pear tree had stood all those years, our pear tree.