The Apple Tree

One of the most endearing traits of nature is finding it in unexpected places. A bunny rabbit in your boxwood hedge. Deer grazing on the Garden State Parkway. Cosmos growing wild in a highway median. I was able to catch nature at her stealthiest on a bus, no less. All throughout New Jersey run little buses that shuttle passengers from the garden state to New York and back. These buses are labelled "community transportation" and are usually run by someone of Latin descent. I call them Merenge buses since they blare loud Latin music and are used by members of those communities.

One fall day we idled in Union City, the city closest to the Lincoln Tunnel. For those of you familiar with Union City, it's not a place you wish to idle for a long period of time. But I was at the mercy of traffic and the bus driver, a man intent on squeezing as many passengers as humanly possible in the 20 seater. I happened to look outside the window and what did I see? Not bumper to tail light traffic vying for a spot in the Lincoln Tunnel. Not an accident nor a police incident. I saw an apple tree - 10 feet tall and bearing green apples that would shortly be blushing pink and crimson. Don't know about you but that thrilled me to my bones - unexpected nature.