Plums-chapter one

Plums and other crops..introduction of characters...Adam the main lead- Macy the young 5yr old daughter -Mr.Carrey the farm foreman-John the blacksmith...

PLUMS-UP ONION 

 

It’s starkly cooler in the hall as I pass the same corner thinking the same thoughts and completing the same idea, feet walking the same footpath as remembered .

Doing by wrote memory , plotting and putting it on hold again the planning of the production of the shovels ,instead of having to relearn it by trial each time. Working in my mind on production parts for the making and repair, of said- same shovels. Which townships would produce the fastest turnover of shovels and in turn faster sales? ... now feeling that ..."déjà vu" remembrance of planning this out in my mind many, many years before.

 Surreally experiencing the walk thru the veranda, while all the time stepping gingerly over the invited guests sleeping on the cooler porch…in the wee dawn hours before the days began barking up the dawn.

Plum picking; now dominating the all of My existence, my stomach especially… for the memories of the eating of the ripe fruit and the canned preserves and fruit in winter .Grabbing a wicker basket in both hands and heading across the green lawn where the eighty plum trees have blossomed and made fruit ; seeing in the distance and peeking from behind a blanch white tree trunk; a little daughter from my first wife...Macy being her name.

I place my head behind the trunk and pop out. With the setting moon in my shadow and face appearing blackly silhouetted, I startle her and she giggles in retort...racing thru the trunks and peek-a-booing at each one…I scoop her up and she squeals echoing “Pick Me up”…as I scoop her up in one arm and the baskets in the other ..We begin our annual routine of picking the fruit from the ground and she bringing me baskets in turn to fill…and stack.

I begin assigning the others, the older ones, to begin picking and cleaning and washing and paring of the canning fruits...simmering in the fructose syrup and sanitizing of the jars and lids for canning. A group process we did around this time each year and in good fellowship for the communal way of “outback” living, this being our habits and the process we are all familiar with.I look beyond the first few fruitless trees to the face of the orchard foreman sayin’”'G'day mate  ”…I seeing his down cast look and agitation .I ponder but ask ”Any problems Mr .Carrey”...and He raising his hand to shade his brow replies “No”.Simply, flatly almost dumbly,his answer seems to hang ripening in the thick air between us.

He begins to close the distance between us seemly gesturing with his chin to the firehouse immediately to our left.

Now seeing where his attention lies ,I begin to process the situation and the feelings of Mr. Carrey and of our Forge-Master John and the antagonism brewing and rising between them…Mr. Carrey on the one part needing the hands to all be busy and John feeling out of his profession and needing to contribute; I step in and say ”John go start the forge fires for the burning coals and fire them hot and Mr. Carrey lets walk the carrots and vegetable beds for those to garner and those to retain and those to burn and replant…what say you?”

Mr. Carey began very quickly explaining in his native language where exactly the peaches will fit after most of the squash and celery is replanted or consumed. He glances at Me and ponders my instructions to John and thinks better of questioning them and my ability to ascertain the conflict among these two.

John fires the bricks from the earth in the forge for our home. Additions or repairs and the many cook ovens we have on the farmstead and as our Blacksmith he runs one part of the farm loosely leveled in ability according to the needs and the seasons. Today John heats the coals to burn the earth and start the fresh beds for the vegetables…later he will manufacture the aforementioned shovels and their production will be his focus again.

 

Reviews

[Raven Starhawk]

Cannot wait to view more. It has a classic feel to it. I mean for me it reads like one of the great and long last masters of the genre.