The Year Money Grew on Trees - Aaron Hawkins [71]
"So let's get this tractor back and load up the rest of those empty boxes and get them out to the orchard. I need everyone's help because it has to be done before tomorrow," I said after explaining the situation.
"Are they really going to be able to fill all the rest in one day?" Sam asked in awe.
"Those guys can probably do it in a few hours," I replied.
Amy nodded her head in agreement.
A new wave of energy swept over me after we ate a little dinner. Michael and Jennifer held flashlights as we loaded up boxes and then dumped them among the unpicked trees. I was glad we had saved the new boxes until the end and felt proud to be able to spread them around. I was in bed by 10:30 and never slept better.
***
The next day was a Friday, and my mom had to roll me out of bed. I hurried out of the house in my pajamas to check if the workers were back in the orchard but saw no one. On the way to the bus stop, the orchard was still empty.
"Amy, there were people out in the orchard helping us last night, right? We put all the rest of the boxes out?" I asked.
"Yes! Why are you asking that?"
"I just want to make sure it was all real and I wasn't dreaming."
I watched the orchard drift past as the bus pulled away. All day at school, I thought about those empty boxes and whether they would be full when I arrived home. I tried to think of a good excuse so I could go to the school's office and call my mom and ask her to look outside. My brain was too numb to think of anything creative, though, so I spent the day sitting and wondering.
On the bus ride home, I figured that even if Brother Brown's work crew had shown up right after we had left in the morning, they would still only have seven hours before our return. I had told Sam they could easily do the whole job in just a few hours, but now I wasn't so sure. As the bus got closer to the orchard, I could see it was empty of people. My heart started beating fast. Could they really have finished already, or had they never showed up? I jumped out of the bus and sprinted into the orchard toward where we had left the boxes the night before. I tore the lid off the first one I came to.
It was full of apples.
I checked three or four more just to be sure and then gave a loud yell and danced around the boxes. It felt like Christmas morning in some rich family's house. My cousins and sisters had followed me from the bus stop and found me still skipping around the boxes.
"So I guess they're all full?" asked Amy, grinning.
"Now all we have to do is sell them," I said. "That's the easy part."
"Says you!" Lisa responded defensively.
"Amy, how about you try to do some selling with everyone else, and Sam and I can stack up these boxes," I said as everyone began to separate.
"Okay, but only because you're not good with people," she called out to me.
Sam and I spent the rest of the day hauling the remaining four hundred—plus full boxes to the end of the rows and stacking them three high. We figured this would make it easier to load them on the wagon for the trip up to the road. When we were done, I was amazed that Sam had handled the previous six hundred by himself without complaining.
"Sam, your back must be made of steel," I told him, trying to stretch out the strains and pulls in my own back.
"You'll get used to it," he said, as if I had never seen a box of apples before.
We walked up to the station wagon to check on the others. I was glad to see Amy trying to convince an older couple to buy a bushel.
"How long do you think it will take you to sell four hundred more boxes?" I asked Lisa.
"I think tomorrow will be the biggest day of the year," she replied.
"Why tomorrow?"
"Everyone who's been stopping talks about the Navajo Fair tomorrow. There's going to be tons of cars going by."
The Navajo Fair was a yearly celebration that involved parades, powwows, and various other events in Shiprock. Shiprock was west of Fruitland about the same distance away from us as Farmington, but in the opposite direction. Shiprock was on the Navajo reservation and had very few stores, so most people