There was a boy who lived on a hill where nothing grew but rocks. Every morning he'd walk down to the town below, where the bakery smelled of butter and yeast and the shopkeeper's son played violin badly through an open window. The boy never spoke to anyone. He'd buy bread, a single apple, and walk back up.
One afternoon he found a seed lodged between two stones near his house. He didn't know what kind. He watered it anyway, carrying buckets from the well a half-mile down. Weeks passed. Nothing happened. He kept watering.
A girl from the town followed him one day. She'd seen him every morning for years, always silent, always alone. She asked why he climbed all the way up here when there were empty houses below. He said, "The quiet is different up here. It doesn't press on you."