The Year Money Grew on Trees - Aaron Hawkins [49]
I found a few words I had written about apple sizes and not letting them grow too densely. I examined how our apples were growing. Three or four always seemed to be next to each other on adjoining stems. Was this too dense? I thought of trying to get Brother Brown to stop by and take a look. I decided that would be very unlikely, so I did the next best thing.
That Sunday I carried a brown paper grocery bag into our Sunday school class and stuffed it under my chair. Brother Brown eyed the sack suspiciously but didn't ask any questions. After class he waited for me, knowing I wanted to show him something.
"So what have you got?" he asked before I could open the bag.
I pulled out an apple branch I had bent to fit inside. Leaves scattered all over the floor. Brother Brown's eyes flashed with curiosity.
"Can you take a look at this and tell me what you think of the little apples?" I asked.
He grabbed the branch and handled the leaves and little shoots carefully. He held each part up close to his eyes. I held my breath during the examination. Finally he turned to me and spoke.
"Leaves look good. No disease. Lots of apples on here."
I grabbed the branch back eagerly. "So is that good?"
"Good if you like little apples."
"So they're too dense?"
"That's a good word for it. Better pull off two out of every three. Like right here you should just leave one." He pulled off two little apples from a group of three to show me.
"What if I don't pull them off?"
"Then they'll all be small. No one wants to buy a small apple, believe me."
I did believe him, but it seemed like a waste of a lot of good potential apples.
"Brother Brown, is there anything else I need to do? You know, until they're ready to pick?"
"You're sprayin' and waterin'? Keep it up and get 'em thinned out." He paused and added, "Summer's the easy part. Better rest up for what's comin'." His voice didn't sound as harsh as usual.
***
It was hard to convince my sisters and cousins about apple density. I took them out to a tree and repeated what Brother Brown had said.
"It just doesn't sound right," said Lisa. "Don't we want more apples, not less?"
"How do we know he's not tricking you into wasting all our apples?" asked Michael, acting like he had uncovered a conspiracy.
"He is kind of like our competition," said Amy.
"No, no, he wouldn't do something like that. Remember how he showed us how to water," I said, defending Brother Brown.
"And how do we know we're doing that right?" asked Michael.
"Well, it seems to be working so far. Look, I think the reason we have to do it is the same reason we did the pruning. We want the tree to concentrate its energy on growing fewer apples a lot bigger. Do you like eating small apples?"
"How small?" asked Michael.
At that point, I turned to Amy for help.
"I guess it makes sense," she finally said, and the others eventually went along.
Thinning reminded me a lot of pruning and, I imagined, what picking must be like. We had to use the ladders to reach every group of apples. Sam climbed all through the inside of each tree pulling off two little apples for each one he left. We sent Michael in there with him and assigned Lisa and Jennifer to the lowest-hanging branches.
I wasn't exactly sure what kept them coming back day after day. Michael always talked about the money he was going to make and the cans of pop. Sam just seemed happy to be outside and doing what everyone else was. My sisters had a competitiveness that wouldn't let them sit around while we were working. Besides all those things, though, I think they all had become a little attached to the trees. They would look at the tiny apples they were pulling off and say, "Do you really think these are going to be the size of regular apples someday?" Watching air and water turn