December 15, 2014 - 19:58
I was working in the garden with Lisa, Mark, and Beth. It was day four, and by now everyone at the CSA knew my name and I knew theirs. It had been raining earlier while we weeded in the spinach patch, but now the sun was coming out and the vegetables were steaming. The ground muddy. My feet were wet, and hands brown with dirt. We were harvesting squash. Big, thick leaves and stalks covered the ground. You had to look closely for a glimpse of orange or deep purple, the squashes mostly hidden beneath the green. Mark and I were working together filling one bucket. Beth and Lisa were working separately not too far away.
When Mark and I had filled a bucket with orange squash, I carried it out of the patch and to the grass near the tractor. As I was loading the bucket onto the trailer attached to the back of the tractor, Lisa came over to me. I asked how she was doing. She said, "Not too good." I asked what was wrong and she said, "I'm really going to miss you guys. I don't want you to leave." I said, I'm sad to go too, but I have to get back to school. She said, "Are you going to come back?" I said probably not. She said, "Are you going to graduate?" I said yes. Mark looked at us, frowned, then went back to work pulling up squash. I went back to working with him. This time we looked for the deep purple of the acorn squash. The clouds passed in front of the sun, but the vegetables kept steaming.
Soon, one of the co-workers asked if Mark and I would wash the squashes back up at the barn. We hopped onto the trailer to be towed behind the tractor up the hill. As we drove off, we waved to the people harvesting in the patch. Beth waved to us. Lisa didn't look up.