Drifting into Darkness (7 page)

I woke up to the shrill sound of my alarm clock at five thirty the next morning. Reaching over, I pressed the snooze button as I groaned into my pillow. Getting up this early was pure madness, but I knew once my body got used to waking up at the early hour, I’d be fine.

I sat up in bed and rubbed at my forehead. I could feel the starting of a headache. Going to bed earlier than usual probably wasn’t the best idea. If I got too much sleep, more than my body was used to, then I always woke with a headache.

Throwing the covers off, I stood and went to the bathroom to take a hot shower, smelling the fresh brewed coffee along the way. I was so glad I remembered to get it ready last night. I was hoping the steam from the shower would help alleviate my head, but if not, it wasn’t something a little caffeine couldn’t fix.

After the shower, I went back to my room and got dressed in a pair of old jean shorts and a white t-shirt with a picture of my little pony on the front. When I was done filling out forms in the office yesterday, Lisa told me that they all wore white shirts because they were the easiest to clean. At the end of the day you could just throw it in the wash with some bleach and you were done or I could wear t-shirts that I didn’t mind destroying. So I opted for white.

I brushed my hair and put it into a messy bun on the top of my head. I’d probably be wearing it like that on a daily basis. There was no way I’d be able to handle my hair sticking to my neck and face if I left it down.

I sat down on my bed and put on a pair of socks, and then reached for the box I had sitting next to my bed. Instead of going straight home after leaving the farm, I went to the mall and got a pair of boots. Lisa said I’d need them working around the farm because you never knew what could be dropped on your foot. I wasn’t looking forward to having my feet sweat all day, but I didn’t really have a choice either way. It was boots or tennis shoes again.

After the boots were tied I was ready to go. I knew I didn’t look my best. I actually kind of looked like a bum, but I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I normally always had on makeup if I was going to leave the house too, but I was following Lisa’s suggestions. Makeup just melts off and runs down your face with your sweat, so there really wasn’t any point in wearing it and I agreed.

With my travel mug in hand, I was ready to go in twenty minutes. I walked toward the door to leave, but my head was still hurting so I grabbed a few Tylenol and took them with my coffee. Hopefully they would help because being out in the sun would only make it worse for me if it didn’t. I grabbed my purse from the table and stuffed the bikini that I placed there last night, into my bag. When I headed out the door, I had just enough time to get to the farm.

~*~

I pulled up to the office at the Johnson’s farm right at six thirty and saw Nan sitting in a rocking chair on the porch. It reminded me of those old movies when you always saw the old ladies sitting on the porch breaking beans or shelling peas. I didn’t have a lot of experience with the grandparent types, since I didn’t have any of my own, but she seemed really nice. She was rocking and drinking from a coffee mug, looking out into the cornfields. She looked lost in a daydream.

Deciding it was time to get out of the car and get the day started, I noticed that there weren’t as many cars as there were the previous day.

“Good Morning, Nan,” I smiled, as I stepped onto the porch.

She looked startled for a moment, but gave me a warm smile. “Good mornin’, dear. Are ya ready for your first day?”

I nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine. The boys take care of the strenuous work. Ya just need to worry about staying hydrated in this heat. Make sure ya drink plenty of water. Did Lisa show ya the little fridges we have everywhere?”

“She showed me the one in the stables, but I don’t know where the others are.”

“No worries, dear, there’s one in the bean house and the corn house. We keep waters and Gatorades stocked in there. So get whatever ya need. We don’t need anyone faintin’ from dehydration.” She smiled again.

I smiled back at her and then turned as I heard the door to the office open. Lisa came out with Derek following behind her.

“There ya are,” she said as she and Derek parted ways. She walked toward me and looked down at my shirt, as she got closer. “Are ya sure you’re not going to mind getting that shirt dirty? I’m sure it won’t look the same after it’s bleached.”

I laughed. “No, it’s fine. It’s old.”

“Okay, are ya ready?”

Nope.
“Yep, let’s get this party started.”

I followed her off the porch. “Oh, don’t be sayin’ stuff like that around here.” she smiled. “Marco might hear ya and think it’s an invitation to sing to ya all day.”

I looked at her with wide eyes and laughed. “I’ll pass thanks.”

“Oh, wait, did ya sign in?” she asked as she turned to me.

Crap!
“Nope. I forgot. Hang on and I’ll be right back.” I turned to run up the steps, but Nan was there shooing me away.

“Don’t worry about it, dear. I’ll sign ya in today. Just don’t forget to sign out at lunch.” She turned and headed inside.

“Thanks,” I said to her retreating back.

I turned around and jogged back to Lisa. “So where to first?”

“Well, first we’ve got to do all the bins of green beans, and then we’ll head to do the corn. I’ll help you as we go because we’ve got to get enough bags done by eight so we can bring some up to the office.”

“Why the office?”

By the end of the day, I was sure she’d get tired of all my questions. I figured if I was going to be working here, I needed to know everything that was going on. I didn’t want to do something wrong and then be liable for it. “We’ve customers that come out first thing in the mornin’. We don’t just sell at the farmers market, so we have to bring the veggies up there too. Mrs. Johnson sells her eggs as well. So I’ll have to go over there in a few to get what she has.”

We walked into the bean house and I could see a few people at the conveyor belt already. Lisa told me yesterday that there was a Mexican family who lived in a trailer on the farm, so this must be them.

“Good mornin’, Layla, Marco,” Lisa said in greeting. “This is Sadie. She’ll be working here this summer.”

“Hola.” Layla nodded to me and continued her work. She was short with long dark brown hair pulled back in a braid. She had a cute face, but it looked like she worked in the heat a lot. Her dark complexion looked like leather and her wrinkles were very pronounced. I’d say she was probably in her late twenties, but I couldn’t tell.

Marco, on the other hand, gave me a megawatt smile. “Hola, señorita. Another pretty face.”

I couldn’t contain the laugh that came out. I wasn’t laughing at what he said. I was laughing because he still had that megawatt smile on his face along with a huge bushy mustache. Who even wore a mustache anymore? I mean, this thing could be a country of its own.

I looked over at Lisa who was also laughing. “All right, Marco. We don’t want to scare her off already.”

I looked back at Marco and he gave me a wink as he turned to continue his work. I laughed again and walked over to Lisa who was moving buckets filled with beans over to the conveyor.

“Wow,” I said with wide eyes.

She looked up at me from her bending position with a smile. “Oh, that’s nothin’, girl. Just wait. I give it twenty minutes and he’ll start singing Elvis to ya. It’s hard to understand them sometimes with their accent, but he sure can sing some Elvis,” she said, shaking her head. “Anyway, if it bothers ya, just let me know and I’ll tell him to stop.”

“I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

“Okay, let’s get started.” She grabbed a bucket and replaced the empty one that was at the front of the conveyor.  She lifted it up and slowly poured half on the conveyor. Layla came over and spread them all out. The conveyor moved slowly, to give them enough time to pick out all the bad beans. When Lisa was done, she set the bucket down and I followed her to the other side, opposite Layla and Marco. She immediately started scanning the beans and picking out the bad ones in record speed. “See these.” She held out her open hand to show me beans that were brown and rotten looking. “These are the bad beans. If you see one that looks like this, obviously pull it out. The brown ones aren’t always bad, but if it’s questionable just pull it. Roll your hand around them as they are movin’ along too so you get a good view of them.” She tossed the bad beans into the bucket by her feet and scanned the conveyor again.

“Doesn’t sound too hard,” I said as I started scanning. I saw two bad beans and picked them up and tossed them in the bucket.

“Nah, it’s really not and once ya get used to it, it goes by really fast.”

We went through fifteen buckets before Lisa said we needed to get over to the corn house. There were enough bags of beans to bring up to the office so we needed to start bagging the corn. It only took us around forty-five minutes to go through the beans, so we had about the same amount of time to do the corn.

When we got to the corn house, the heat was already causing the sweat to run down my back. It wasn’t so bad when I was in the shade, but out in the open it was brutal.

Lisa walked up to one of the stands she showed me the day before and picked up one of the green sacks. She placed it inside the hole on top and wrapped the top around the rim. “Place the bag in the holder like I told ya yesterday. Then put thirty ears in each bag.”

I grabbed a stand and moved it over to the truck that was backed up with a load of corn, and then put the bag in it.

Reaching for the corn, a question popped into my head, but I waited for her to finish her bag before I asked so she wouldn’t lose count. “Do we toss bad corn too or just bag it all.”

“Nope, just bag it all.”

That sounded simple enough and it was. If you grab two ears at a time and count by two then it was possible to get a bag done pretty quickly. The only hard part was closing it up and moving it out of the way. “These things are freaking heavy,” I complained as we both finished a bag and moved it to our growing pile. “How do they get to the office?” There was no way
I’d
be able to do it; I knew that for sure.

She wiped at her forehead and pulled a small fan out of her back pocket, turning it on. I definitely needed to get one of those. “Don’t worry. We don’t have to carry anything. Landon will be here in probably twenty minutes or so with the truck to load the bags.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise at the mention of Landon’s name. I remember her saying that he didn’t work on this side of the farm. “Oh, okay good.”

“So what’s it like havin’ a surgeon for a dad. I bet that’s really cool.” She stood there with the pocket fan, leaning against the tailgate of the truck. I finished off my bag and followed suit.

“It is really cool. When I was little, I used to think he performed magic or something because these people would always end up getting better.” I chuckled at my memory. “He had hoped one day I’d want to follow in his footsteps,” I mentioned as I moved dirt around with my boot. “But it’s just not for me. Plus being in school for, like, seven years is not my idea of a good time,” I scoffed. “It’s hard enough going to college. I couldn’t imagine doing it for seven years.

Lisa nodded. “Yeah, I couldn’t do it either. Which is why I went for a two-year program. Do ya know what ya want to go to school for?”

I shrugged. “Not really. A couple of years ago, I really wanted to be an art student, but my parents shot that down. They said it wasn’t a career and weren’t paying for it. Now, I have no idea, but I’d love to work in art galleries or museums.” I smiled at Lisa as I thought about it. “That would be my dream job.”

“You sound passionate about it.” I shrugged and kept my eyes to the ground. “You should totally take those classes and go to school for what ya want. You want to love what ya do every day. Besides, we only live once. Do what makes ya happy.”

I looked at her with appreciation. She was starting to sound like Erin. “I really wish it was that easy.”

“Derek is doing what his parents want, but he loves agriculture. Landon, on the other hand, did the same thing you’re doin’ now,” she blurted. “Doin’ what his parents wanted instead of what he wanted. Don’t get me wrong; he loves the farm, but he’s got other dreams. Dreams he’ll never follow because he wants to keep his parents happy. Plus he’d have to do school all over again.”

I frowned at this information, knowing exactly what he must have gone through with his parents. “What exactly did he want to major in?”

“Mechanical Engineerin’,” she said with a smile.

“Wow.” That would be a hard course. “You said he loved cars so I could see that as a career for him, but isn’t that tough?”

She nodded her head and put her little fan away. “Yeah, but he would’ve loved it,” she said as she picked up another bag. “I’m totally not trying to be a Debbie downer either.”

“No, I understand. I appreciate what you said. I know there has to be a way to get through to my parents because I definitely don’t have the money to pay for school.”

We counted out corn and bagged up two more bags before she started talking again. “He asked about ya, ya know,” she said as she finished tying up her bag.

I was reaching for some corn, but stopped to look at her. “He, who?”

She laughed. “I’m sorry. I have a habit of blurtin’ shit out when I’m thinkin’ about somethin’, so just ignore most of the things that come out of my mouth.” She looked at me with a smile, and then reached for more corn to bring them closer to the edge. “He, as in Landon. I had dinner at the Johnson’s last night.” She turned to me. “I overheard Landon askin’ Derek about the ‘new girl’.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Okay, so he was asking about me.” I didn’t see what the big deal was.

“Landon doesn’t ask about girls. Girls are the ones who ask about him.” She dragged the bag of corn to the pile. “I just thought I’d tell ya,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “He might be extra flirty.”