After taking the apples to sell in the market to help provide for his family, the boy hadn’t returned to me for a while. I started to lose hope that the boy would ever return again. Made me wonder if I had done the right thing by providing for him after all these years. Trying to constantly resupply me so that I was healthy and the boy to have everything he needed, only for him to never return. Then suddenly I saw him approaching me, but something was different. The boy looked about 10 years older, worn out, but well dressed. I began to wonder what had happened to him all this time. He immediately started apologizing and the boy began to answer all of my unanswered questions.
He told me that times were harder and I was no longer able to provide all of the money that he needed for him and his family. With working constantly there was no time left for me.  Since no money was often the problem for the boy, the boy had no house. But the boy wanted a house. So I told the boy to cut my branches and build a house, so he cut them off. Seeing him walk away and know that he would be in the house that he wanted, with the family that he loved, made even the pain drift away.
On the outside I was happy, for the boy knew that I was the only thing that was always there for him. I knew my branches, nor trunk would ever grow back, and that each time the boy returned some part of me was being taken away, and I knew that every time he approached. But I had no problem with that, for I always wanted to provide for the boy, and the boy always depended on me for the support. We do the unthinkable for the ones who we believe love us, but often times, one is quite successful and the other is left trying to survive with what is still remaining.