Secret Guests

Bonnie and Matt hopped onto the sweet-smelling hay wagon, eager to pick apples in Grandma and Grandpa's orchard. They started a hay fight and soon looked like scarecrows with hay stuffed under their knit sweaters and stuck in their tangled hair.

Grandma perched high on the tractor seat, next to Grandpa. "Guess what?" she asked. "I've just discovered something in my orchard that's been living here all along. I've had some secret guests!"

"Where, Grandma?" Bonnie asked.

"They stay hidden most of the time," Grandma said with a twinkle in her eye.

"A mystery!" chorused Bonnie and Matt.

"Give us a hint," Bonnie said, leaning forward to hear the clues.

"They live in a red house," Grandma answered.

"That's easy," Bonnie said. "Your house is white, but the barn is red."

The wagon bumped along a trail to the barn among rows and rows of apple trees. In each section, different types of apples grew, but Bonnie and Matt were too excited by the mystery to notice their surroundings.

Finally they reached the old red barn. "First put all the hay back on the wagon," Grandpa told them. "You two look like ragamuffins!"

Bonnie pulled hay out of her fuzzy, red sweater then ran inside the barn. It was empty.

"No 'secret guests' here," Bonnie yelled.

Matt poked around some dusty machinery stored in the back, but he didn't find anyone either.

"They must be out in the orchard," Bonnie announced.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Grandma asked, forcing an innocent face. "The red house has no windows and no doors."

"That's still easy," Bonnie said. "The only other red building in your orchard is the cider mill, and it doesn't have any windows or doors. It just has a big opening to walk in and out."

"We'll stop there on our way back," Grandpa said. "After we pick apples."

Bonnie and Matt picked all the apples they could reach from the ground, then Grandpa set ladders up in different trees. Matt picked as fast as he could, but Bonnie picked only the reddest, most perfectly shaped apples.

When the baskets were overflowing, it was time to visit the Cider Mill. This time, Bonnie and Matt sat right behind Grandpa's tractor, dangling their legs over the side of the wagon.

Bonnie sniffed the strong, tangy scent that filled the air. "This is the best place in the orchard," she yelled, hopping off the wagon.

There were plain apples, caramel apples, candy apples, and apple cider. There were fresh doughnuts too--plain, or covered with cinnamon or powdered sugar.

They dunked their doughnuts in cider and listened to the whir of the water wheel supplying power to the apple press. They watched apple pulp get slowly squashed into cider. Bees buzzed around, trying to get at some cider of their own.

Mr. Johnson was working the press, and other workers were selling doughnuts and cider--same as every year. But Bonnie couldn't find anyone that would be living in the orchard.

Grandma sat beside Bonnie and Matt on a picnic bench, holding a knife and a couple of apples.

"I couldn't find any new people here, Grandma," Bonnie said sadly.

"Well, I never said I discovered people. Actually, my discovery was stars,"

Grandma explained.

"What kind of stars? Movie stars?" Bonnie asked, really curious now.

"Or stars from the sky?" Matt questioned.

"Neither," Grandma said. "I discovered some stars that have been living in my orchard. They live inside red houses, with no windows or doors."

"Red houses..." Bonnie thought aloud, tossing one of Grandma's apples from one hand to the other. "Apples! They could be red houses in your orchard, with no windows or doors--but they don't have stars living inside. Do they, Grandma?"

"If you look in the right place, you might find them," Grandma said with a smile.

Matt took Grandma's knife and quickly cut an apple in half, but all he found was a core and some seeds inside.

Bonnie took the knife and another apple. "She said to look in the right place, and that means a different place than usual."

Bonnie lay the apple on the table, with the stem pointing out to the side. She glanced at Grandma, who gave her a quick wink.

With the apple on its side, Bonnie carefully sliced it in half from the top. When she pulled the halves apart, there was a star!

"Look, Matt! Stars do live hidden in apples!" Bonnie exclaimed. "These are Grandma's secret guests."

** Try it yourself! Get an apple and cut it in half with the stem pointed to the side--see if you have your own 'secret guests.'

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