Pineapple Wednesday

A lesson is learned that will change one man's life forever.

I’ll never forget the day I learned the greatest lesson of my life. It wasn’t something that wasn’t expected, but it still happened. There will never be enough words to ever describe what I learned and felt that day, but I sure can try. I guess I should start this story out by saying this: It was a completely normal Wednesday morning…

 

 

I sat in my normal coffee shop in downtown Idaho Falls like I normally did every morning. The coffee tasted the same as it always did, a little too sweet for my liking, but it was normal. The old man, with the scar above his left eyebrow, was a regular at this coffee shop. He ordered a vanilla bean latte with his morning sandwich. This man was often referred to as the town “creeper.” After losing his wife many years ago he seemed to find comfort in other people’s lives. Constantly you could see him around town, just watching. I guess it is kind of a creeper thing to do, but it was just him. I never introduced myself, why should I? I was just some college kid trying to go through my life just the same as him. He didn’t want to be bothered and either did I. It was best that he and I went on with our lives"separately.

This particular morning the business section of the paper was rather tiresome it didn’t hold my interest like it had every other morning. It seemed that maybe my life was becoming tedious, to say the least. This feeling was a little overwhelming this Wednesday morning. A deep breath filled my chest and I put my coffee on the table. Just as I did the bell on the door chimed. Coming in from the open space was a familiar face. Psych class, I thought for a moment. Her blue, green eyes jumped across the old faded walls of the shop. I’d seen those eyes before. The dark red hair, short and stylish, proved to me that I had, in fact, seen her before"but where?

My mind thought for a moment as I tried to retrieve her face among the hundreds that I constantly saw throughout the days. I watched her as she ordered. Multicolored galoshes came up to below her knee. I’d never seen such large boots on a human before, other than a fisherman, wearing galoshes. A green scarf stood out against a burgundy sweater. Fingerless gloves covered her hands where she was finally paying for her own coffee.

My eyes flicked to the paper then once back up to the girl. That’s when I saw why I recognized her. A pineapple top stuck out of her backpack. She’s the pineapple girl from my history class. Every week she would show up to class with a pineapple, by the end she was best friends with the person she gave it to. Let’s just say she’s not someone people choose to “hang out” with.

I huffed a little laughter and picked up the paper again. The coffee in the cup sent off a smell that excited my nostrils. “Hey,” I heard a voice say behind the sports section. I chose to ignore it. “Hey you’re in my history class aren’t you?” One more time I let the voice speak on its own. “You’re name is Robert right?”

The corner of the paper folded and I saw her multicolored eyes looking at me. A smile spread across the girls face and she looked down to the chair in front of her. “Yeah, I’m Robert.” The corner of the paper once again blocked her from my view.

“Well Robert, may I sit here while I wait for my coffee?”

I folded the paper and sat it in my lap. She pressed her lips together tightly as she waited for the reply. “You aren’t going to give me that pineapple are you?”

She shook her head with more energy than a normal person should have at this time in the morning. “This one isn’t meant for you.”

I took a deep breath and motioned for the seat, “then by all means.” Before I could finish the sentence her body was plopped into the seat in front of me. Quietly she started at me for a moment almost expecting me to start a conversation. I sipped at the coffee once more then put my view to the wall behind her.

“My name’s Amy.” I shifted my eyes to hers, and then back to the wall. With a nod I kept the conversation going. “It’s apparent that you’ve caught on to pineapple Wednesday?”

“Excuse me?” My attention was back on to her. “What did you just say?”

Amy smiled. She moved her body around until she was comfortable on the tall dark stool. She reminded me of a child, never being able to sit still. “Pineapple Wednesday,” she answered the question I had asked before. I pursed my lips together and opened my eyes wider to show her my confusion. “Every Wednesday I take a pineapple to school. While I’m there I find someone to give the pineapple to. Sometimes it’s someone I don’t know. Sometimes it’s someone who just looks like they need a friend.” Amy shrugged and tossed her green scarf once more around her neck. “I put my number on it so people can call or text me whenever they want. Truthfully,” she sighed, “it’s the greatest way to get to know people.”

I sat my coffee on the table, “so you just randomly walk up to someone and give them a pineapple?” she nodded enthusiastically like I expected, “what do they…“I paused for a moment and chose my word carefully, “…do?”

Amy started to laugh and she pulled her backpack around to the front of her body. She grabbed the green head and pulled the fruit of out of her bag. The yellow pineapple reminded me of Hawaii. I could imagine all of the pineapple delicacies in that vacation state. “How would you react?” My shoulders lifted and then dropped like a see-saw being run my children. “Usually people give me strange looks and don’t know what to say.” The fruit rotated in Amy’s small hands. “I think I would react the same way, truthfully. I mean, some crazy girl walks up to you and gives you a fruit. How strange is that, right?” She put the pineapple back in her bag and swung it over her shoulder again. “I just like to meet people and I feel that they remember me if I give them a pineapple.”

I nodded, “There’s truth in that.”

“Hey Amy your coffee is ready.” the young boy running the shop called from behind the counter.

Amy smiled back towards the boy and then looked at me, “you really think I’m crazy don’t you?”

“You could say that,” I answered sounding as uninterested as I possibly could.

“Tell you what, you come with me today to give out the pineapple and if I haven’t converted you to my…” she thought a moment then got an amused smile on her face, “fruity ways, then I will buy you a lunch and you are free to call me crazy all you want.”

I leaned back in my chair. A free lunch is always nice to a poor starving college student. “I think you have yourself a deal.” Amy floated off of her chair and walked over to the counter. I took the time to gather all of my things in my bag. Amy once again floated across the floor towards me.

“Ready?” She asked.

“You betchya,” I answered.

 

 

I followed Amy across town until we landed on our small campus. She chattered loudly the whole way. Truthfully I didn’t listen to a single word she said. Her hands held the doors of the main building open for me. Together we walked to the cafeteria. “We don’t have class for another hour so I figured I would introduce you to all the people that have benefitted from pineapple Wednesday.”

I shrugged, it sounded like a perfectly logical idea. Amy led me to the doors and pushed them open. Instead of stepping into a cafeteria I stepped onto a pirate ship. “The first person I ever gave a pineapple too was Landon Stout, also from our history class. He’s super funny and had this crazy addiction to pirates.” I couldn’t actually believe my eyes, was I actually on a legit pirate ship? I looked around at the light wood surrounding my body. Tables were spread out on the deck of the whole entire ship in the same formation as the cafeteria. I recognized some of the faces from my other classes. They talked and laughed as if they were sitting in the regular cafeteria.

“Amy, my lady!” I heard a voice cry out. I looked across the room to see a young man walking towards us. He was dressed in every day clothes, just like us, but something was strange"an eye patch. I scrunched my face and looked at him. “I haven’t seen your for awhile how have you been?”

Anytime a word came out of his mouth a thick pirate-like accent came from his lips. Amy continued her conversation with Landon and I looked around. The table next to me looked up at my face with a disgusted look on their faces. What was I doing that was so odd? They were the ones eating on a pirate ship. I heard Amy say in her high soprano voice, “this is my new friend Robert. Robert this is Landon Stout.”

Landon’s hand shot out like any civilized human’s would. I took his palm in mine and gave it one hard shake and separated my fingers. As I did everything in my eyes changed. The people’s clothes all around me started to change. With each second more and more people were changing in front of my eyes. I looked down to see that even my clothes had changed. Landon smiled at me and raised his thin, brown eyebrows an inch above his green eyes. I felt the earth start to shake and the sound of seagulls. “I need to find Beth,” Amy shouted over the roar of the people and waves.

The boat shifted and I fell into the lap of someone next to me. They glared and shoved me away from them. Landon and Amy walked to the back of the boat where the large vessel was being steered. “I believe I can take you as far as Brycen’s Island.”

Amy nodded and turned around, “we’ll find our way from there.” I held onto backs of chairs as I followed Amy across the rocking boat.

“Is there any possible way you could tell me what, in fact, is going on?” I called and stopped both Landon and Amy’s movement.

Amy gave me the strangest look, “I thought I explained this to you earlier. You’re getting to know the people I’ve given pineapple’s to.” Amy giggled and ran to the boat wheel with Landon. He spread his arms along the wooden contraption and turned the whole entire boat, forcing me off of my feet. I slammed into the wall of the boat and caught my face only inches from the blue ocean beneath. My fingernails dug into the side of the boat like a child holding on for its life.

Landon let off the turn and I let go of the edge, which was premature. Another turn sent me completely over the side and into the water. My clothes clung tightly to my sides, not helping the strokes of my swim. The water forced itself all around and on top of me. Air couldn’t come through my lungs and I felt the power of death at my toes.

A hand reached into the water and pulled me back up onto the deck. Amy and Landon both stood over me. I was soaking wet, I would have to go all the way home and change now. I rolled over onto my side and stood up. “I see you haven’t quite got your sea legs yet.” Amy giggled with Landon. I started to walk off towards where we entered. I could hear the water rushing off of my freezing body. As I turned the corner I saw a dark figure standing in the corner.

His dark hair ran slanted across his face and he looked rather depressed. I pinched my eyebrows together and looked at the boy for a moment. He couldn’t have been any older than I. In fact I think I had actually seen him before, but my mind was making it impossible for me to remember. Amy’s hand grabbed my arm and she started to pull me away. “Thanks for the ride Landon, I’ll be back later!” She called out and the pirate man stepped forward and saluted Amy.

She and I continued to walk until we reached a door into the cabin of the boat. She opened it and I stepped out into the park behind our school. I looked down to see that the clothes I was wearing were not wet at all. I lifted my head and questioned Amy with my eyes. She shrugged and skipped off towards the trees. “Beth!” She called out and spun around in the grass. I wrapped my coat tighter around my body. Who would be outside in Idaho"in October? I followed Amy past a tree where I saw a grove of flowers, tulips to be exact. I looked over her shoulder in amazement. Where there actually flowers this late in the season?

I never really spent time outside of the university, so I imagined that this could be real. “There she is,” Amy chimed happily next to me and she took off through the flowers. I followed, but slowly, I let the sweet aroma of the flowers fill my cold nose. Amazingly the temperature seemed to rise the closer we got to the center of the field. I let my hands hang low and ran my fingers through the flowers. There was an overwhelming sense of joy radiating through me with each tiny step. I watched as Amy wrapped her arms around a figure in the center of the field. They embraced for a moment then both started running back towards me.

The first thing I noticed about this young girl was her bright blonde hair. It flew behind her with great force. It flipped and whipped with the wind spreading behind her back. Blue eyes glimmered in the bright sunlight. “Robert,” she called before she stopped right in front of me. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you.” I’d never seen this girl before. Not here and never on campus.

“Good to meet you too"”

“Beth,” Amy helped.

“Beth,” I finished.

Beth flipped her hair out of her face and spoke, “I believe you already met Landon.” I nodded slightly. “He’s a good guy.” Amy double nodded and sat down in the flowers. Beth followed her down to the ground. Amy, with one hand, tugged at the bottom of my dark denim jeans. Carefully I lowered myself in between a row of pink tulips.

Beth pleasantly planted her hands in the center of her skirt, “So, how’d you two meet?” I noticed that Amy’s mind was somewhere else. I looked to see her multicolored eyes staring off into the distance.

Beth moved her eyes over to me, “we get coffee at the same shop.”

“Oh how pleasant!” She chimed louder than was needed.

Amy stood up, “Hey you guys talk about stuff. I’m going to check something out.” Beth nodded, completely content, but I wasn’t feeling the same thing.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked like a father would say to a child.

Amy continued to look off into the distance like she was seeing something nobody else could. “I’ll be back.” And with one sentence she ran off through the tulips until I couldn’t see her behind the small hill we were planted on.

“Did Amy tell you how we met?”

I shook my head, “I’m guessing it has something to do with a pineapple.”

Suddenly I felt the mood change and a few clouds started to roll in from the west. It was amazing how quickly the temperature changed here in crazy land. Beth silently thought for a moment. “I hated school. I wanted to go home and see my family, my friends, even my dog. Not a single person would smile at me. I am always that girl in the wheelchair that nobody wants to talk to.”

I tilted my head. There was no wheelchair around her. “People don’t want to deal with me because I take up too much time.” Beth took a deep breath and looked at the clouds. Just as soon as they came in the clouds disappeared. “Amy was the first person to actually have a conversation with me since I’ve been here. I think I was her second Pineapple, after Landon of course. After that things just got better. Amy introduced me to Landon, and every week a new person joins our new little friendship.”

“All because of a pineapple,” I said sarcastically.

“I know it sounds strange,” she said quietly. “But it really helps people.”

I could give her that. Perhaps the pineapple really gave people someone to talk to. Maybe the Pineapple could actually change a person’s life. Beth stood up and reached for my hand, “Run with me.”

Without thinking I put my palm next to hers. Beth’s fingers wrapped around mine and she and I ran through the flowers like two bunnies having a nice summer run. Beth ran with the same amount of energy that a child would use. She skipped and frolicked through each row of flowers like she was born between them. We started to approach a small grove of trees where I saw a person watching us. I stopped to see the boy from the pirate ship, the one with the dark hair covering half of his face. My mind yet again searched for the memory of him. Once more I couldn’t find anything at all.

His shoulder was leaned against a tree and he watched Beth and I run through the flowers. Beth ran back to me, “What’re you waiting for. We have to go find Amy.” Her hand grabbed mine and pulled me back with her. My feet picked up speed and I kicked up dirt the whole entire way to where Amy was. The whole time I thought about the boy. There had to be something significant in the fact that I had seen him in two of these “realities.”

Beth and I approached Amy in a large meadow. Trees surrounded it the entire way around. “Thanks Beth,” Amy said and she smiled up towards me. Beth nodded and patted my shoulder.

“Don’t be such a square, Robert.” I felt her hand leave mine and I listened for her footsteps behind me. She galloped off into the trees.

Amy smiled and I spoke, “Why’d you pick her?”

A shrug came from her shoulders and she started walking off, “I guess I just saw how unhappy she was. You could almost see the clouds hanging over her entire life.” I looked up and stopped. When Beth’s emotions changed the clouds started to come and darken her joy-filled reality.

“You’re a good person for doing that you know.” Amy turned around and looked at me.

She shook her head, “No. I’m just a person who loves other people and wants them all to be happy no matter who or what they are.” Once more she turned around and started walking towards the other end of the meadow.

I ran up behind her and slipped my hand into hers. A smile spread across her face, exposing her bright white teeth. “What’s next?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

She sighed, “Unfortunately it’s time for class.”

“When are we going to give out the next pineapple?” I impatiently asked.

Another smile appeared on the soft skin, “after class.”

The trees surrounding us opened up and I saw the outside of our school once more. I kept Amy’s hand close to mine and grazed my thumb over her knuckles. Together she and I walked into the classroom where I spotted the famous pirate. He waved at us and we slipped into the row and took the seats next to him.

Amy leaned over and started talking to him as I pulled out the books. I caught in the corner of my eye something metallic. The wheelchair creaked a little as Beth swung it towards us. I smiled at the young girl. Her blue eyes glittered under the fluorescent lights, the same as they had under the sun. “Hey, Robert,” She chimed and pulled into the wheelchair spot in front of us. I smiled and opened up my book to the designated chapter on the board.

The professor started to lecture and I leaned back in my chair. I suddenly felt darkness coming from my left. I looked to the corner of the room to see the boy from all the experiences of my day. I instantly recognized him, “The gay kid,” from my history class. No one ever sat by him, no one ever talked to him, and no one pretended to know him. My mind began to drift as the professors voice droned on in the back of my mind. I suddenly found myself running through dark alleys of some muggy, wet city. The professor’s voice was now calling out warnings of some kind above the city. My feet splashed through dark puddles which held my moving reflection. Water sprayed the sides of my pants and I ran towards this single solitary voice.

“You need to come down from there son,” the voice called out loudly. “For the safety of yourself and this community, you need to come down.” The voice would pause for awhile and continue, “Officers are coming to collect you.” The same warnings were shouted over and over again.

Finally I reached a large crowd standing at the side of a building. Each pair of eyes stared straight up into the dark sky. A large spotlight shone on one thing"the boy. I ran up to the man calling the warning, “Excuse me, but what is going on?” I asked with a tone of emergency.

Nonchalantly the man looked down at me, “we got ourselves another jumper.”

Officers were pouring into the building through one tiny door. I shoved my body forward and ran through the door with the officers. My hands pushed on shoulders as I forced my way to the front of the horde. “Let me talk to him.” I called and ran up, at least, twenty flights of stairs.

I busted through the top door of the roof. My heart pounded in my ears and my lungs gasped for air, but I had finally gotten to him. “Hey,” I called and I watched his face turn towards me. “What’re you doing?”

“What does it look like?” He yelled out. The spotlight lit up his face almost too bright for me to see his features. I could quite tell the emotion on his face. I would have to use my words. My heart choked up in the center of my throat.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Why would you even care.” he called out solemnly. “Why are you even here? This is my dream and I don’t want you in it.” So this is what I had been seeing all day. Everyone’s dreams, what they wanted, what they needed, how they felt. This was everything that they were thinking about at that moment. These dreams were them. These dreams were their most inner desires.

“Well I’m here,” I started to step forward. “Just come down and deal with it.”

The boy started to laugh a pained laugh, “yeah right, like you would do anything anyways.” He was probably right. I wasn’t skilled in this area. This boy needed a therapist or something. No, not something"someone.

“Hey, we can talk about this.”

“No, you can talk about this. I’m done talking about this.” The wind started to pick up and I felt the cool air nip at my nose and ears.

“Listen to me, it gets better alright. I know life may seem hard now, but it will get better.”

The boy snorted a laugh and he put his hands on his hips, “Maybe in your dream.” The sarcasm resounded in my mind as I watched him step off the ledge. As if gravity was mocking me he fell straight to the earth. I felt my heart rupture into a million pieces. I couldn’t do anything to save him. He had already made up his mind. My knees fell to the roof below me as I watched over the ledge.

My body jumped in the seat and I shook myself awake. Amy looked over at me and I squared my shoulders in the chair. I sat up and looked up at the professor. “How long have I been out?” I asked quietly.

Amy smiled, “class is almost over.”

I looked to my left to see the seats empty and the boy standing up to leave the room.. “Amy, who is that Pineapple intended for?”

She turned the fruit in her hands, “Bailey Johnson.” She nodded her head to a red-headed girl with freckles and glasses.

“Do you think you could hold off a week on her?” She thought a moment then nodded a few times. “Good,” I grabbed the pineapple from Amy. “We have something we need to do.” I grabbed her hand and started pulling her out of the classroom. Right after the professor dismissed the class and the aisle way filled with students. Rudely I shoved my shoulders through each person, pushing my way towards the door.

When we escaped the jungle of bodies I leapt towards the quad on campus. Only one person was crossing the cement square. “Hurry Amy, give me a pen.” She rustled around in her bag until she pulled out a dark marker. The seven digit number wrote out easily underneath my name.

I shoved away from Amy who gave me a strange look, “Hey!” I called after the boy. He didn’t stop, that’s when I saw the headphones. I started to run faster, “Hey!” I called one more time and grabbed his shoulder.

Dark brown eyes glared straight into mine as he spun around. He didn’t recognize me. I played with the fruit in my hand. “My name’s Robert.”

“That’s nice,” he stated and turned around.

“Wait,” I said and grabbed his shoulder. He turned around and cocked his hip like I was taking up his most precious time in the whole entire world. “I have this pineapple here. I mean, it is pineapple Wednesday.”

I don’t know if it was Amy or maybe the things that I had seen, but that day I learned that everyone deserves another human being. Whether it’s just a smile every day or a friendly wave in the hall. I realized that the world, or anything really, doesn’t revolves around me.  

“My names Eric,” the boy said and I handed the pineapple to him.

I smiled and spoke softly, “Eric, happy pineapple Wednesday.”

 

 

 

That next Wednesday I sat at my normal table, in my normal coffee shop, with my normal business page open in front of me.

The bell on the door chimed loudly, echoing in my ear canal. A high soprano voice cleared its airway behind the daily stock numbers. The corner of the paper folded and I caught the familiar multicolored eyes staring straight into mine. The dark pupils flicked downward and back up. My gaze followed the action. A hint of green caught my eyes. In Amy’s two pale hands were two new and ripe pineapples. This time they had two numbers pinned to them.

Author's Note

I wrote this about my best friend who is the most amazing person alive. I love her very much and every day she inspires me.

Reviews

[prettyboy]

I loved it. Such a gorgeous feel-good story. The concept of 'Pineapple Wednesday' is brilliant.

[Zachary_James]

Great write i loved it.