The Year Money Grew on Trees - Aaron Hawkins [15]
"So what is it?" she asked after a few awkward seconds.
"Mrs. Nelson wants me to get her apple orchard growing again and sell the apples. But I can't do it all myself. I need you to help me and then you can have part of the money we earn."
"What? Why would you want to do that? You don't know anything about growing apples. It sounds crazy!"
"I know. I know. But I'm figuring it out. We really just have to get the apples to grow, pick 'em, and sell 'em."
"But why would you want to do it in the first place?"
"It's either that or work at the scrap yard with Skeeter Nickles."
"Oh." A slight look of sympathy crossed over her face. "So when are you planning for all this to happen? In the summer or something?"
"In the summer, yeah, and there are also things we need to start doing now."
"It doesn't sound very fun. Why are you asking me, anyway?"
"Because I like you. And you're the toughest, hardest-working person I know."
"Yeah right. You couldn't think of anyone else, could you?" she said with a smirk.
I looked into her face again. I wanted to tell her everything about Mrs. Nelson's agreement and about the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to confess that I was scared I was going to fail and waste everyone's time, but that if she would do this with me, I had a tiny bit of hope it was possible. I looked at the floor and was only able to manage, "Amy, this is something I really want to do, and I know I can't do it without you. If you help me, I will never forget it and always owe you."
She didn't reply at first but lay back on her bed, looking at the ceiling and playing with her hair. The seconds ticked by. "Oh, all right!" she said in a voice of surrender. "But we're going to make lots of money, right?"
"It'll be like growing money on trees," I replied excitedly, repeating Mrs. Nelson's line. "But we'll have to work hard."
"I'm only working as hard as you do."
"Will you really?"
"No, not really, but I could promise you if you like," she said sarcastically. "And this doesn't seem like a very fair trade of favors. All you had to do was act like you broke that stupid music box."
"Are you kidding? Your mom reminds me of it every time I'm in your living room. That's gonna last my whole life. All I'm asking from you is one crop of apples."
Amy sat up and rolled her eyes.
"You know, we could probably use my sisters and your brothers if they would do it," I added.
"Are they going to get part of the huge fortune too?"
"I guess they would have to, but there should be plenty to go around."
"Like how much?"
"Thousands probably."
"Thousands? Hmm. Well, if you can convince them to actually work, it might be all right."
"I'll go talk to everyone. Maybe I'll tell them that the amount they would get depends on how much work I think they could do."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Okay, so we'll start tomorrow?" I asked enthusiastically. "I need you to come with me to Mrs. Nelson's to get some stuff."
"Tomorrow? I can't believe I said I'd do it." She sighed as she dropped back onto her bed.
I was mostly happy that Amy had agreed to help, but I felt a little guilty about our conversation. First, no boy had really asked me about her, although this seemed like just a small stretch of the truth. I was sure that there were plenty of boys at school who liked her and would like to know more about her. I felt worse telling her about getting money after we sold all the apples. It was kind of true, though, because we would get everything over $8,000, plus the orchard itself had to be worth money. I'd be happy to split that with her if she wanted. Somehow the money details would just have to be worked out later. That was so far into the future, it seemed unreal. For now, we just needed to get things started.
After talking with Amy, I spoke with each of the younger kids that night, starting with my cousin Sam. He was eleven and was like a very energetic puppy constantly moving and searching for something. The instant I mentioned that Amy and I were going to be working together, he wanted to be a part of it.