The Year Money Grew on Trees - Aaron Hawkins [48]
"What are you talking about?"
"The orchard, dummy. Aren't you supposed to be in charge? We're not sure what to do."
Somehow it was strange that my sisters cared what happened to the orchard. I had always thought of it as my project with them only grudgingly involved. I suddenly realized they looked at it as more than that.
"All right! Just give me a minute," I finally said. I slipped on some clothes and found the girls outside waiting for me near the tractor. A few seconds after I got there, Sam and Michael walked out of their house and joined us. It was almost as if they were headed for school, except they weren't carrying any books or bags. We had worked every day except Sundays since we had started in February, but it was still a strange scene.
When Sam and Michael reached us, we all looked around at each other until all four faces were looking at me expectantly. Sam was the first to break the silence.
"So what else needs to be done from here on out?"
It was a little overwhelming to think that they had put so much trust in me. His question caught me off-guard, and I struggled to sound like I knew what I was talking about. I thought back to the calendar I had created. There had been a big gap while waiting for apples to grow, but I didn't dare tell my workforce that and risk destroying our momentum. "Well, uh, we've got to keep up with the spraying and watering. We've also got the rest of those weeds to chop and that ditch to keep digging. Probably best to get the weeds out of the way first. You guys really ready to work all the time now?"
"Why wouldn't we be? I thought that was the idea," said Sam.
"Are we going to get pops every day now that we're working the whole day?" asked Michael.
"Umm, yeah," I replied, trying to think where all those cans were going to come from.
"Where's Amy?" Lisa asked Sam and Michael.
"Probably asleep," said Michael. "Mom was pretty mad this morning about how late she came back home."
Almost half of the rows still needed weeding, so we went to work with our normal method using the shovel, weed whackers, and hoes. My thinking about the weeds was that if they could steal water and nutrients from the trees, they had to go. Having them gone also made the orchard look a lot better and kept everyone busy. I watched carefully as everyone attacked weeds enthusiastically, wondering if they could keep it up all day, every day. And what was all this work really worth in dollars? How many thousands would we have to bring in so they got their fair share?
We didn't see Amy until after lunch. She came walking out to the orchard without any shoes on, still in her pajamas. She looked at us and the freshly cut weeds through tired eyes.
"Hey," she said to me.
"Hi," I responded, avoiding eye contact.
"How was the dance?" asked Lisa.
"It was fun. Really good music," Amy said while trying to shade her eyes from the sun.
"What time did you get home last night?" Michael asked.
"None of your business!" Amy snapped, looking at him angrily.
She kept staring at us and the weeds while we continued working.
"How long have you been out here?" she finally asked.
"Since this morning," Sam answered. "We're full-time now."
I watched her carefully, unsure how she would react. She glared at Sam, who was looking away to avoid her eyes. She shook her head and I thought she was going to walk away, but instead she grabbed the free hoe leaning against a nearby tree. She attacked the closest weeds vigorously in her pajamas and bare feet.
***
With everyone working full-time, it was amazing how much we could get done. Even with the watering and digging on the ditch, we were on a pace to finish all the weeding by early June. Just a month earlier, there didn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Once the weeds were cut, it didn't seem like there would be enough work to keep six people busy.
The trees themselves looked great, with lots of leaves and little apples on almost every branch. Still, it seemed too good to be true. Were we missing something? I went through my copied apple book pages again. After reading