10, 000 Words Part Four: Competition

There was an orchard tended by two gardeners.
The orchard’s owner knew little about trees, and wondered why they only produced apples in autumn. Blaming poor motivation in his workforce, he gave one gardener from January to June to produce apples and the other from July to December, planning to sack the loser, and guarantee a year round harvest in future.
On the 30th of June, the first gardener, angry that her colleague would take all the credit for her work, gathered every single one of the tiny, unripe fruits, dry, bitter and green, and presented them to her employer.