Drifting into Darkness (6 page)

“Oh, yes, dear. It’s good to meet ya,” she said in a deep southern voice as she extended a small frail hand.

I reached out and gently shook her hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Well, go on now,” Nan stated, retracting her hand and shooing us away, “I’ve got plenty to do here and ya need to show her around,” she directed to Lisa.

“Okay, okay, we’ll be back in an hour or two,” she told Nan. She closed her office door and we made our way out onto the porch.

I took a deep breath as we got outside to try to rid my nose of the awful smell, but it must have been burned into my nose hairs because the smell wasn’t going away. “It really stinks in there,” I said, scrunching up my nose.

Lisa burst out laughing as we walked off the porch. “I know, right. It’s because the guys walk in there durin’ the day with shit on their boots. It gets cleaned every couple of days, though. Just imagine what it was like a couple of years ago. They had carpet. Mrs. Johnson finally got Mr. Johnson to give in and put down tile. I couldn’t even imagine what it would look like or smell like if they hadn’t done that.”

“Ew,” I said disgusted. “That’s so gross. It doesn’t smell any better out here either, but I guess nothing is going to smell pleasant on a farm, right?” I shoved my hands into my pockets. As I looked around at all the crops we were passing, I saw what looked like a big shed up ahead.

“The only thing that smells good around here are the guys when they get here first thing in the morning,” she smiled and I knew she had to be thinking about Derek. “After that, it’s pretty much downhill from there.”

“Good to know,” I laughed. “What’s that building right there?” I pointed to the building that looked like a shed, but as we got closer, I noticed that it wasn’t fully enclosed. Each side of the building didn’t have any doors. There was also something huge sitting in the middle of it.

“First, let me tell you a little bit about the farm. It’s over one-hundred acres and three kinds of vegetables are grown; corn, green beans, and peppers. Although the peppers are grown on a smaller scale than the other two. There’s also the pasture for the cattle and horses, and stables where the horses are kept at night. Our cows are field fed, which means they are sold as organic meat.”

“You mean they are sold to slaughter houses?” For some reason, the thought just didn’t sit well with me.

“Yes,” she said with a hand on her hip. “Does that bother you? I mean, you did eat a burger yesterday.”

“Yeah, just,” I scrunched up my nose, “the thought of what happens before it becomes a burger doesn’t usually enter my mind,” I stated. “Now I’m thinking about it.”

Lisa laughed. “Come on. I’ll show you what jobs you’ll be doing with me.”

We walked into the shed and stood next to a conveyer contraption. “What in the world is this thing used for?” It was around ten-feet long with a huge tub-like container at the end of it.

“This is where we separate the good beans from the bad beans. When the beans are picked, they’re brought here,” she said, pointing to the big wooden empty buckets in the corner. “We bring those buckets over here and one person piles them on the conveyer and three to four others pick through them. The good beans end up in the tub down there,” she pointed at the end of the conveyer, “and here,” she pointed behind me against the wall where white buckets were stacked, “is where you’ll put the bad beans. We give those to the chickens.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. “Chickens?” Please tell me they don’t chop up their own chickens too. I’m not sure I’d be able to handle that.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Johnson has chickens in her back yard. They are just for layin’ eggs,” she laughed. “You should see your face.”

“Ha, Ha,” I mocked. “How many people work here?”

“Well, right now, there are over fifty people because there is so much to do. In the winter, we have around half that, but don’t worry; there is plenty of work. You won’t have time to do nothing,” she said with a smile. “Come on,” she said, walking back out into the sun, “you’ve got more to see.”

I followed her to another building that was similar to the one we just came from, but there wasn’t a big contraption in the middle. The back of a truck was halfway in the shed packed with a load of corn.

“This is where we bag the corn.”

“I can see that. You know with the corn and all,” I said sarcastically.

She smiled at me and continued, “You see those black stands over there,” she pointed to the side of the building. It had a flat metal square bottom, two metal poles going up the side, and a flat metal square on top with the middle cut out.

“Yeah,” I replied.

She walked over to a table that held dozens of folded green plastic woven bags with black drawstrings on top. “When baggin’ corn, you slip one of these bags in the hole on top and wrap the rim of the bag around the outer square. Then fill the bags up completely. We usually do around three truckloads every morning. Sometimes more. We keep some of the bags because we do have customers that come here and buy from us directly, but most of it goes to the produce stand in town. Got all that?” She smiled.

“Yeah, seems pretty simple, but this heat really blows,” I complained, wiping my hand over the layer of perspiration on my forehead, causing the baby hairs I had to stick to my face.

“Yeah. One of the best things to buy workin’ out here is one of those pocket fans. Not the ones that spray water either. I learned my lesson with those. The cold water ya put in it might seem great at the beginning, but after a couple of hours, that water gets hot. After that, it just feels like you’re spraying more sweat on yourself.”

I laughed. “I definitely don’t need to feel like I have more sweat on me than I already do.” I pulled at my shirt in emphasis to prove my point. I was glad I had worn a light-colored shirt, but you could see my sweat was causing parts of the green shirt to turn dark green.

“Okay, come on.” She gestured with her hand as she walked back out into the hellish sun. “It’s time to get the four-wheeler.”

“Four-wheeler?” I questioned. “What do we need a four-wheeler for?”

“I told ya how big the farm was. Would ya rather walk or ride?” That was a good point. “Plus, what kind of tour guide would I be without a little fun.” She grinned mischievously.

We walked back to the office building and I waited on the porch while she ran in to get the keys from Nan. The four wheelers were kept on the side of the office and the keys were always returned to Nan so she could lock them up at the end of the day.

I looked around while Lisa was inside. It was really nice out here and the work didn’t seem too bad. Lisa seemed to enjoy it so there really was no reason why I wouldn’t be able to get used to it.

After a few moments, Lisa came out dangling the key from the key chain. “Let’s go take a ride.”

I raised an eyebrow at her with a concerned look on my face but she only laughed. I’d never been on a four-wheeler before so I didn’t know what to expect.

“Just get on behind me and hold on.”

I did what she said and she sped off down trails between the crops. The breeze felt great even though it was hot. A go-cart would be so much better to use out here in the heat. At least that way, they’d get some relief from the sun.

She took me down some trails, showing me where the crops were located and pointed out some of the workers. There were two machines going at once, gathering corn as we passed. I watched in fascination at how it all worked.

When we passed the crops, I thought she’d make a right to go back the way we came, but she kept going. She was going full speed toward part of the land that was wooded. As we got closer, I could see an opening where the trees had been cleared and you could clearly see a tire path. Which could only mean they used the four-wheeler to go down here often.

As soon as we entered the woods, a cool breeze hit me. Shade was my best friend at the moment. I closed my eyes and tried to enjoy it until I felt the four-wheeler start to slow. I opened my eyes and looked around. It looked like someone had cleared the trees in the middle of a forest. “Where are we?” I asked over the engine.

“This is where Landon throws his parties,” she yelled over her shoulder, before slowing to a stop.

I’d forgotten she said they threw parties out here.

“There’s another opening over there,” she pointed across the way. I could see a similar opening to the one we came through. “On the other side of that is where we park our cars. The path isn’t that far to walk and parking on that side ensures no idiots drive through the farmland.”

Shifting into first gear, she took off again and made a U-turn to go back through the trees. She sped past the crops, and instead of going to the right, back to the office, she made a left. Around five minutes later, she pulled up in the back of a white two-story house. “This is the Johnson’s house. You see all the way over there, past the pool?”

I looked to where she was pointing to see a small building that looked like a miniature barn. “The small barn?”

“Yeah, that’s the chicken house.  I’m the one who usually feeds the chickens, but there might be a time when you’ll need to do it for me, so I had to show ya. But don’t worry, I’ll tell ya everything you need to know if that time comes.”

“Sounds good,” I replied as she shifted back into gear.

“Oh, and always keep your swim suit in your car. We occasionally take a dip durin’ the day,” she nodded toward the pool.

“Awesome.” I looked at it longingly as I thought about how great it would feel to submerge myself in the cool water.

“One more stop and we’ll be done,” she yelled, speeding back down the trail.

I was happy the tour was almost over. It felt like the sun was sucking the life force out of me. I wasn’t sweating as bad as I could have been, but I was still taking a beating. I wasn’t used to being in this kind of heat during the day and I was sure it was taking a toll on my body.

A few moments later, we pulled up to the horse stables. She put the four-wheeler in park and turned it off. “There’s a mini fridge in here so we can get some water.”

“It’s like you read my mind,” I sighed as I wiped at my forehead again.

We made our way into the shade of the stables. I followed her until she reached a door to the right at the other end. She opened it and we both walked inside. It was an office, and a messy one at that. There were papers strewn all over the desk and stacks of boxes in the corner to my right. It looked like a bunch of clutter and probably hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. I wasn’t the cleanest person in the world, but I even had the urge to want to straighten things up a little.

Lisa bent down and opened the small fridge, grabbing two water bottles, handing me one. I opened it and walked out of the office, chugging it as I went. The cool water would replenish the sweat that poured out from being in the sun; only to pour out again on the way back to the office I was sure.

“So, this is probably one of the crappiest jobs around here, no pun intended,” she laughed as she closed the office door.

I scrunched my nose up at her. “Totally not funny.”

“Yeah, it kind of is. But we’ve all had the job, and honestly, it’s not
that
bad. It doesn’t smell as bad as cow manure or at least it doesn’t in my opinion.  And it’s pretty easy to clean up as long as the horses don’t trample in it.”

I could see her trying to hold back her laugh, which only caused me to laugh. “You aren’t making this job any more appealing than it already is.”

“Sorry, I think the sun is makin’ me delirious.”

“Sure,” I said sarcastically.

“Anyway, the horses are brought out to the pasture in the mornings so they won’t be in here when you come to clean it all up. If you look behind you against the wall,” she nodded past me, “you’ll see the rake and shovel used for the poop.” I turned my head, located what she was referring to, and looked back at her. “You’ll just have to fill up the trashcan bins that are over there. Landon will take care of the rest.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I said as I thought about having to scoop up shit, and then hand it off to Landon. I was glad I had met Landon earlier. I couldn’t imagine arriving for work to clean up horse crap, and then run into him for the first time. That would have been so embarrassing. ‘Hi, I’m Sadie, here’s your horse’s crap.’ I shook my head and laughed at myself.

“Hopefully, you’ll be able to meet him before you leave,” she said, looking around.

“Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw him and Derek before I came into the office.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, they said they were on their way to get feed or something.”

She nodded her head. “They usually do that on Fridays, but for some reason, they ran out earlier than expected. Did Landon say anything to you?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

I furrowed my brow. “No, why? I thought you said girls were the ones who chased after him.”

She laughed. “Oh, they do, plenty. But Landon sometimes thinks he’s God’s creation to women. Especially when he meets new girls.”

I hated guys like that. “Don’t worry; I don’t fall for that kind of crap. He’s definitely a good looking guy, but I’m not interested in guys right now anyway, especially guys like Landon.” As the last few words left my mouth, I heard footsteps come to a stop behind me. I knew it had to be him. That would be my luck.

I looked at Lisa for confirmation, but she smiled and said, “Hey, Landon.”

I turned my head slowly to see him standing a few feet away from me, eyes boring into mine. I could feel the heat stir in the pit of my stomach again. I could see why the girls behaved the way they did.

“Derek told me to tell you to meet him back at the office.” He looked at Lisa when he spoke, but brought his gaze back to mine with a grin. “I’ll see ya around, city girl.”

He walked out of the stables, and a few moments later, I heard a car door close and the start of an engine. I looked at Lisa and we both burst out laughing.

Five