Who threw the apple?

My family is an extra cool family – or so I like to think. I have a mum and a dad who are very different but are so in love it’s insane, and I have an older sister and a younger brother. The best thing about my family is that I consider them all to be some of my best friends. Other kids may think it’s odd to tell their parents everything or to be really close to their siblings, but I can’t imagine my life being any other way!

Now, although my family is the greatest family ever, we do have our moments…

There is a never-ending mystery in my family that began YEARS ago (around 2004 to be exact) and has never been solved. This mystery seems to be one that will be taken to the grave – and I mean that quite literally. The story behind it seems odd, but I will share a step-by-step analysis of this mystery as well as the conclusion I have come to over the years.

This mystery is one we call: who threw the apple?

One day, my family came home from grocery shopping. When the items were all brought inside and put away, my father stood in the dining room, staring out of our big glass windows that made up the walls of the entire first floor. He noted seeing something in the grass on the side of the house, and proceeded to go outside to find out what it was. When he returned, he held a beautiful red apple in his hand. We were all confused at first, wondering what in the world an apple would be doing in our backyard! We then noticed that there was a “Pink Lady” sticker on the apple, making it a store-bought apple rather than one from the imaginary apple trees in our backyard. I quickly ran to check the fruit bowl we had on the dining room table, and SURE ENOUGH – we had 5 new Pink Lady apples in the bowl, with the 6th one missing!

The mystery here may be easy to guess at this point – we had no idea who threw the brand new Pink Lady apple into our yard. There are a few conclusions we all quickly pointed to:

1 – While taking in the groceries, someone on the street decided to take an apple from our open trunk and toss it into the grass of our yard.

2 – One of the children thought it would be funny and threw the apple into the yard.

3 – Mum thought one of the apples was already bruised and gross, and she threw it out into the yard.

4 – Dad wanted to secretly start a pointing-fingers game, thought he was funny, and threw the apple himself before “noticing it” in the yard.

5 – A ghost did it.

As you can see, there are many ways this apple could have ended up in the yard.  Facts are facts, and the only thing we know FOR SURE is that this apple in our yard came from the new pack of Pink Lady apples we had just purchased and brought home. As for my conclusions, I have come to the following –

My mum – She is the opposite of someone who would waste food, especially if we just purchased it, and would never in a million years find it funny to create some sort of mystery. On top of that, the apple looked great and wasn’t bruised at all, so it shouldn’t have been tossed out. In my mind, my mum is the LAST person who threw this apple.

Next up, myself – Being the angel child that I was back in the day, I decided to run upstairs to avoid bringing in tons of groceries! I came back down when the deed was done and when my dad noticed the apple in the garden. Believe me? Up to you. All I know is that I was a little sneak and I ran away to avoid doing a chore.

My younger brother Steffen – I wasn’t the only angel child around, so this twerp ran upstairs with me! We were like Thing 1 and Thing 2 back then.. always trying to avoid doing the dishes or taking out the trash, so we went hand in hand up the winding stairs to hide from the heavy lifting. I can vouch for him here, and he can vouch for me! Done.

My dad – This is the tricky part, because on one hand I don’t think my dad would want to tick off my mum by throwing new food into our yard, but on the other hand, I have this “whoever smelt it, dealt it” thing going on in my head that makes me point to him! My dad saw this apple hidden in our grass before anyone else did. It also wasn’t the most obvious thing to point out, seeing as it wasn’t right next to the window, so how did he notice it so easily? Half of me thinks he did it to start a mystery, and another part thinks he’s just really inquisitive and wanted to know what was in our yard. Still up for debate.

Lastly we have my sister, Jenna – Jenna is my #1 suspect. Young angst at its finest, Jenna was left to carry in groceries with my parents as her two younger siblings ran away from the job, and she got m-a-d. I don’t know why she would do it, but all other things point to Jenna as being the apple thrower because no one else can be! She readily denies it, and will literally deny it on her death bed even if it was really her. This is the biggest problem, because I’m scared I’ll never know who the culprit truly is!

The question of who threw the apple often comes up at family gatherings, and fingers immediately begin to point one way or another. It has become such a crazy, ongoing mystery that the debates and accusations often get heated and people get upset really quickly. At the end of the day, SOMEONE threw that apple, and my whole family is determined to know who, even if it takes another 30 years.

So… who do you think threw the apple?