The rain was falling in a light mist over the fields and Ana felt as if she were walking through television static. It hardly ever rained in L.A., so she relished the moment. She crossed through the crops and made her way to Manny, who was helping Vic haul beets to the sorting station.
“I finished the squash,” Ana said, approaching them.
Manny nodded at Vic to go on without him.
“Good,” Manny said. He was quieter than usual.
“What’s next? Do you need me to help you?”
“Mija, we need help with everything today,” he said. “We’ve been short on workers, as you know, and the new guys didn’t show this morning.”
“How come?”
Manny sighed. He seemed older somehow, Ana thought, and preoccupied. “Old farm up in Keyserville got bought by the big guns,” he said. “They’re hiring anyone they can and offering a higher wage. Some even get shared living in the empty stables, and many of them don’t have permanent homes. Guys go where the better work is, you know? But it’s something we’re dealing with more and more. Emmett’s not in the best mood.”
“What can I do?”
“Pull the garlic before the downpour, strip it for market.”
Manny looked up at the sky. The dark clouds were ominous and rumbling every now and then. He looked out over the fields where Vic, Rolo, and René were gathered at the tented station near the truck. “Go ahead and start on the far row since those are ready to pull. I’ll find Emmett and see where we’re at today. If the rain gets worse, come on in.”
The wind kicked up, whipping Ana’s hair around her face as she headed straight for the rows with sprays of green. She reached down and gave the first bulb of garlic a pull, checking that its resistance wasn’t too firm before yanking it from the earth. There was a tiny victory in pulling each one, she thought. She began tossing them one by one into a pile behind her as she’d been taught, dirt flying all over her sneakers. She made sure to go for the ones that were slightly loose, wiggling each one, holding off on any that were too difficult to pull, having nearly fallen down trying to pull with two hands more than once. When she had a sizable pile, she began stripping the outer layers, piling the unwanted bits at the end of the row. She looked up from time to time, but she didn’t see Manny or Emmett, so she gathered the bulbs in her arms to take over to the others.
René wasn’t expecting Ana. His focus was on Vic and Rolo, who were up against the fence in a heated conversation with Joey. He nodded at her when she dumped the garlic on the table and began sorting it while also turning around from time to time to listen to what was being said. They all looked over at her standing there but said nothing. Ana’s Spanish wasn’t perfect, but she heard Rolo tell Joey that “she” didn’t understand enough to know what they were talking about and to continue. She played dumb and smiled at René, who continued working despite the fact that they were all discussing whether or not they should leave the farm. She couldn’t make out all of the details, but from what she understood, Joey’s cousin had taken a job at the farm in Keyserville, and he wanted more workers to join—there was something about his getting more money too if he brought in more people. Rolo and Vic said yes, though Vic seemed to be wavering, and René remained mum. They were talking about how to break the news to Manny before lunch.
A crack of thunder rolled across the fields, but the rain remained light and steady. Ana wondered what she should do or say, although one part of her wanted to ask the guys if they thought the farm at Keyserville might give her work too. She had only one week left on the farm and neither Abbie nor Emmett had mentioned whether or not she’d be staying. She didn’t want to leave—the very thought of it made her chest ache—but she might not have a choice. “Fix your mistakes and move forward,” she thought, echoing Abbie, “whatever the consequences.”
The conversation tapered off as Manny emerged from the hoop house and made his way over with a look of concern, bypassing Ana at the station and heading straight for the others, who were still in midconversation. To her surprise, he seemed to have already been made aware of the situation, though he hadn’t taken the men seriously. He pleaded for them to reconsider, but Joey and Rolo said they were leaving, especially because they’d not received their Friday paychecks. Ana had never seen Manny so distraught. He took off his hat and apologized on Emmett’s behalf, or so Ana assumed, as Emmett’s name came up every now and then. She had forgotten about getting her pay for the week, which was in fact a day late. It wasn’t like Emmett to forget. It was just as out of the ordinary as Emmett’s current absence.
“I’ll be right with you,” Manny said to Ana, noticing her listening, but like the rest of them, he had no idea that she’d understood nearly every word that was said. And from what she could tell, the workers said they had no choice. They didn’t want to leave; they needed more than the Garbers were able to give.
“¿Y tu, René?” Manny turned and asked. René put his head down and shook it in the affirmative. Ana realized that all of them, with the exception of Manny, right then and there had decided to go.
Another hush came over the fields—just as much for the lightning in the distance as for Emmett walking up over the hill from the barn. There was nowhere to hide, but Ana stepped to the side of the table nearest to René. She saw Emmett notice her, his brow inverting and his pace—like her pulse—suddenly quickening.
“Who stripped the garlic?” he asked.
“I did,” Ana said.
Emmett looked furious.
“Manny, did you know she did this?” he asked.
“I told her to do it, Boss,” Manny said. “They need them for market tomorrow.”
“Did anyone think to ask me what I thought? I wanted this garlic kept as is and hung to dry. We need to age most of these, not strip and sell them. Is no one paying attention around here today?”
Ana had seen Emmett frustrated and irritated, but she had never seen him bordering on out of control. He took a breath and closed his eyes.
A bell sounded on the breeze, signaling that lunch was ready. There was another clap of thunder.
“Who’s going to pick up lunch?” Emmett said, finally calm, but no one responded. “Whose turn is it?”
“I’ll head down there,” Manny said, “but I need a quick word.”
“Now’s not the time,” Emmett said. “Vic, Rolo, head on down to the house and grab lunch. We’ll have to eat under the tent and figure out what to do if it rains this afternoon.”
Vic and Rolo didn’t move other than to look over at Manny, who looked back at them and then to Joey and René, but no one said or did anything.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, if it’s the rain or what,” Emmett continued. “But we need to shift our focus, everyone. I’ll grab the lunch.” Emmett walked away toward the farmhouse while the others remained quiet until he was out of hearing range.
“Why are you all leaving?” Ana said, not being able to hold it in any longer. “I mean, I get why, and I know we need to get paid, but maybe there’s a reason the paychecks are late. Maybe we should give Emmett the benefit of the doubt. I know it sounds better over at this other farm in Keyserville or whatever, but you can’t leave the farm. In case you guys have forgotten, I’m probably being sent away too. Abbie and Emmett depend on you, and not just for work, you’re like—I don’t know—you’re more than that to them.”
“This is about business,” Joey said. Rolo shook his head in solidarity.
They continued talking. Manny walked over to her and put his hat on the sorting table.
“Did you understand everything they said, mija?”
“Most of it.”
“I don’t want this to alarm you. You’ve done good work out here, and you made a real effort today, okay?”
“But this is partially my fault. I just screwed everything up again with the garlic . . .”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“They can’t just leave without saying something. You need to tell Emmett.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Manny sighed, and she could tell by his expression that he didn’t.
“Well, I’m going to fix it then.”
“Wait—” Manny said.
But Ana was already sprinting toward the farmhouse as the rain began to fall in sheets, thunder forcing her feet to run faster. She got to the back door of the farmhouse and pushed the door open, heading straight for the kitchen without wiping her feet. Abbie and Emmett were in a tense conversation at the counter and went silent when Ana, muddy and dripping, trampled in.
“What on earth—” Abbie said.
“You’ve got to listen to me—” Ana said, out of breath.
“And you need to march right back outside,” Emmett said, walking toward her.
“Please, just listen to me for a minute. They’re leaving.”
“Who is?” Abbie asked.
“All of them—Rolo, Vic, Joey, and René. They’re all going to the farm in Keyserville.”
“What’s going on?” Emmett said, his voice rising in alarm.
“I heard them talking, in Spanish, about wanting to go today, that they couldn’t afford to do this anymore. Joey said it was a business decision.”
Emmett rushed over to the window above the sink and looked out. “Did Manny send you?”
“No, but he said it was about the paychecks and that they had to go where the work was better.”
“And you heard them say this?” Abbie asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think they really want to leave, deep down. I mean, that’s what I believe. But they said they’re going, soon, and I want to help.”
Emmett remained quiet as he continued to stare out the window.
“I don’t want my paycheck,” Ana said. Emmett turned to look at her. “If it will help everyone else get paid, so they can stay, then I don’t want mine.”
“Ana—” Abbie said.
“I know I screwed up this morning, and pretty much every morning I’ve been here, but please let me fix it. I just—I don’t want to leave. What if I stay and work and you pay me in room and board? It’ll be like having an extra worker but with one less paycheck.”
No one said anything, but Abbie looked at Emmett and held his gaze.
“I was planning on paying everyone today, just didn’t know how to break it that the checks would be less this week,” he said quietly.
“But without my paycheck it’ll be fine, right?”
Emmett nodded his head, looking at the floor. “I think it’ll help, yes.”
“Wait here,” Ana said. She ran upstairs to her room and pulled out the envelope of cash from her backpack. She ran back downstairs and handed Emmett the envelope.
“Here’s all of my pay from the past few weeks,” she said. “I don’t want it. They said they wanted to go before lunch, so you better hurry.”
Without a word, Emmett headed out of the house and across the garden to the barn. Abbie looked out the window and then turned back to Ana.
“Well, that was above and beyond,” she said with a smile and a shake of her head. “Not that we knew we were about to lose it, but I think you just saved the whole goddamned farm—I hope—excuse the language.”
Ana liked the way Abbie was looking at her, almost as if she were proud.
“Well, what are you standing there for?” Abbie said. “Go get everyone and tell them we’re eating lunch inside. Take some umbrellas.”
Ana put her hat on, grabbed a few umbrellas, and ran out of the kitchen, through the garden, and across the fields. Dolly escaped the barn again, out the half-open front door, and raced alongside her. Ana shouted out to Manny and the workers, all huddled under the tent, and hoped they’d hear her over the thunder.
“What are you doing?” Manny said as she ducked under the tent, covered in mud.
“It’s lunchtime,” she said, full of excitement, her heart racing.
“Mija, I don’t know if everyone’s coming down to—”
“And pay time.”
The workers exchanged looks. Vic, in particular, had an expression that said “I told you so,” while Rolo and Joey remained still as if they wanted to go.
“Give the guy a break,” Ana said, handing out umbrellas. “He’s a day late, but he’s got our pay. Have some lunch, get your money, and then you can decide to go.” She popped open an umbrella and held her arm out for René, who took it and walked alongside her and Dolly back down the hill as the others mumbled and followed. Abbie was waiting for them at the back door, though most of them hesitated, not wanting to track in so much wet dirt.
“Everyone inside,” Abbie said. “C’mon. Everyone but Dolly.”
One by one they walked into the house for the first time. She insisted Vic, Rolo, Joey, and René take seats around the country table, which was set for four. Manny and Ana sat on the bar stools near the counter, and Abbie handed out plates—on the same china she had used on Ana’s first day—with almond butter and raspberry jam sandwiches, thick-cut potato chips, and fruit salad with rose water and mint. Ana jumped up to fill glasses of lemonade and was passing them around when the back door opened and shut.
Emmett walked into the room. It took a moment for him to register that the kitchen was suddenly fuller than it had been in years.
“We’re eating inside today,” Abbie said to him. “Come and have a seat at the counter.”
“I’d like to apologize,” Emmett said, not looking at anyone. “I’m a day late with pay, which is unforgivable.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out several envelopes, which he handed out, personally, to Joey, Vic, Rolo, René, and Manny. “I hope you’ll accept this with my apologies. I know it’s been rough lately—well, I’ve been rough—but I promise this won’t ever happen again. The farm exists only because of all of you. I don’t know what Abbie and I would do if . . .” His voice trailed off and he cleared his throat.
“I also want to thank everyone for the hard work,” Abbie said, raising her lemonade glass. “Emmett and I are both grateful to have you in the Garber family. Let’s eat!”
The workers remained silent, staring at Manny, but on Abbie’s cue they began to eat. Manny looked at Ana and then back at Emmett with concern.
“Are those all the paychecks—” Manny said to Emmett.
“A word outside, please,” Emmett said.
Manny stood up and followed Emmett out. They huddled under the eave of the back porch as the rain continued to fall.
“Ana deserves a paycheck just like all the rest,” Manny said. “The garlic was my fault—”
“I know,” Emmett said. “She forfeited her paycheck, all of them, so I could pay everyone else—told me she didn’t want any more pay if it meant the rest could stay.”
Manny was silent.
“I know we’re in a tough spot, what with Keyserville and the shady way those guys do business, poaching everyone and promising what they can’t deliver. I don’t ever want this place to be like that. I don’t know how to apologize enough for being late on these paychecks, let alone not being able to pay them. But I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want anyone to leave. Don’t know what I can do to convince you to stay.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Manny said. “The others, I’m not so sure about. But let me see what I can do.”
They went back inside, scuffing their feet on the doormat, listening to a rousing commotion as they walked back into the kitchen. Rolo was doubled over with laughter, pounding the table with his hand while the others laughed along, but René, his head down, appeared to be crying quietly into the collar of his shirt.
“Oh, it’s absolutely perfect, Ana,” Abbie said.
Ana swiveled around on the bar stool to show them a jar of jam with a rectangular piece of sketchbook paper cut up and taped to the front. “You see, René?” she said. “You’re perfect.”
“Look what Ana made,” Abbie said to Manny and Emmett.
Ana passed the jar to the workers at the table, who continued to snicker, before passing it to Manny.
“René’s Red Raspberry Jam,” Manny said, taking in the lettering, spare and elegant, and the uncanny pencil portrait of René in the middle, framed by raspberries and leaves. “Did you draw this?”
“Yep,” she said, smiling and proud.
“Incredible! It’s him, right down to the hat and dimple. Muy bueno,” he said to René. He handed the jar to Emmett, who looked at it for a while, shaking his head, but not in a bad way.
“I have more, one of everybody,” she said, grabbing her sketchbook from the counter and opening it up. “I even have one of you,” she said, turning the book around to show everyone a colored-pencil rendering of Manny, complete with mustache and red bandanna around his neck. “I was thinking you’d be good for a jar too, though I don’t know what Abbie pickles that starts with an M.”
“Magic?” Manny said with a wink.
“I was thinking mustard greens, which could work, I guess, if we ever put labels on the CSA bunches. Oh, and there’s this one.” Ana flipped the page to an elaborate cartoon farm scene featuring a Chihuahua with chicken legs and a creature that appeared to be a cross between a cat and a pig. The “animals” had their arms around one another like long-lost pals and were standing in front of a blackberry bush made to look like a hungry monster.
“Who’s that?” Rolo asked.
“You and Vic, of course.” Rolo remained straight-faced, while everyone else burst into another round of laughter, heartier this time. Even René and Emmett cracked smiles.
The gang left after lunch. Emmett gave everyone the rest of the day off because of the rain. Manny and René said they’d both be in the next morning to help with the farmers’ market haul. The rest, Ana hoped, would be showing up with her early on Monday. She kept her fingers crossed in her coat pocket as they left, each one thanking Abbie as they did, and then nodding to Emmett before shaking Ana’s hand. René gave her a courtly bow and kissed her hand.
It continued to rain steadily throughout the afternoon. Ana headed upstairs and took Abbie’s advice about having a bath, though she couldn’t remember ever having had one before. She did as Abbie said and poured the bottle of blue liquid into the tub, watching as the bubbles rose until they nearly spilled over the edge. She got into the warm water, blissful at first, tedious after a while, and stared at the white wooden ceiling. “How long am I supposed to stay here?” she wondered.
• • •
Emmett finished feeding Dolly out in the barn. He went back to his bedroom and began picking up the glass from the photograph he’d thrown earlier, the one of him and Josie on their wedding day. He shook the photo from the broken frame and shoved it in the back of a desk drawer before he swept up the pieces. It had been exactly one year since Josie had gone out with friends, or so she’d said; needing a “girls’ night” was the way she put it. Emmett didn’t normally wait up, but he had awakened in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, so he had stayed up until dawn. When she hadn’t returned by the time he needed to head out to the fields, he walked outside to find a letter taped to the front door. He opened it, read it through once, and then burned it in the sink.
Emmett hadn’t anticipated the anger that would return on the anniversary of that day. He hadn’t expected it to affect his work. He tied up the trash bag and took it outside, shielding himself from the rain with an umbrella. He walked over to the farmhouse and let himself in through the back door. Abbie was busy making a supper of spicy chicken, black beans, and grilled corn, with a crème caramel from a recipe she found in their mother’s Joy of Cooking cookbook. She smiled at him as he entered.
“Thought I’d eat here tonight, if that’s okay,” Emmett said.
“Absolutely. I already set the table. Would you mind running up and asking Ana to come down?”
“I’d like to discuss something first.”
“About Ana?”
“Yes,” he said, removing his baseball cap and smoothing down his hair. “I’ve been thinking lately, too much probably, but having her here has been—”
“A burden for you? Too much to handle?”
“No, actually.” He didn’t know if it was the poignancy of the day or what had transpired earlier, but Abbie’s exasperated look, even more than her words, bruised him. “I was going to say—before you jump to conclusions—that it’s been more helpful than I thought it would be. We need it, frankly, and what with the whole payment thing—”
“Pretty selfless, if you ask me, and quite wonderful. All those labels, all that time she took working on them . . .”
“I’ve been thinking about how you and I grew up, how we juggled our schedules,” Emmett continued. “We used to help each other when Mom was sick.”
Abbie put down the dish towel she was holding.
“I remember,” she said. “It was hard . . . it’s been hard.”
“It was harder when you left.”
Abbie took a breath. Though she and Emmett had never discussed it, she always imagined that he and their father had been better off.
“I was young,” she said. “I couldn’t handle being here without her.”
“I understand the feeling.”
Emmett continued, wringing the baseball hat in his hands. “Today’s the day, you know.”
“What day?”
“The day Josie left.”
Abbie nodded her head. “I miss her too.”
“But what I’m trying to say is, I think we need the help around here.”
Abbie smiled. “I know.”
“It’s more that it’s good for the farm, good for the business . . .”
“Emmett Garber you can’t bring yourself to say it.”
“Say what?”
“That your sister was right.”
• • •
Emmett went up the stairs looking at the photographs and paintings the way he used to when his mother would tell him to go up to bed. He wondered how long it had been since he’d been upstairs, now that it was Abbie’s domain. Something about the creak of his footfalls brought back a flood of memories, from the giggling to the yelling to the week of their mother’s death. The hallway had gone quiet when Abbie ran away soon thereafter. He knocked on Ana’s door—Abbie’s old bedroom—and he turned the knob when she said he could come in.
She was startled at the sight of him, poised as she was, sketching on the bed, her wet hair hanging down her shoulders, wearing his old Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert T-shirt.
“Abbie said I could wear it, I swear,” she said, eyes wide. “All my clothes are in the wash.”
“You can have it,” Emmett said. “Don’t think I could fit into it if I tried.”
They looked at each other, neither one of them saying anything.
“Is it dinnertime?” Ana asked.
“It is.”
Ana slid off the bed and tied her hair back as Emmett made his way into the hall. He stopped and turned back around. “I need to say thanks,” he said. “For today. I’m sorry I went off on you like that. I know how hard you’ve been working, and I think I forget that this farming stuff doesn’t come easy all the time.”
“You said I was supposed to be fit for it, so I’m trying my hardest to be. It’s just new, I guess. I told you I had good hands, but I didn’t expect them to make such a mess in the dirt, you know? I mean, I still don’t understand what kohlsabi is or why anyone would ever want to eat something called that, or why you people worship worms the way you do.”
“Kohlrabi?”
“Exactly. But I’m serious about it and want to get better . . . if you’ll let me.”
“Supper’s ready. Abbie made some spicy chicken thing.”
They headed down the stairs. Ana thought Emmett looked different and realized this was the first time she’d ever seen him for any length of time without his baseball cap. She took her seat at the table, and Emmett sat beside her. Abbie served plates full of food with glasses of iced hibiscus tea as the rain pelted the windows.
“I’ve always wished for rain,” Ana said.
“Why?” Abbie asked. “What I wouldn’t give for all of your sunny L.A. days.”
“I always think it’s more atmospheric in L.A. when it’s gloomy, like all of the gray kind of folds into this two-dimensional wonderland. It makes the trees and flowers pop up against it. Whereas here, where there’s so much color, so much green, the bright days are the best because the sun has more to play with. I guess it’s about contrasts, always wanting the opposite of what you’re used to. Holy geez—” Ana said. “This is outrageously delicious.”
“I did my best, used some oranges for the marinade.”
“It’s so good. You used bacon in the beans, right?”
“I did. Is that how your—how you like to have them?”
“I’ll take them any which way, really. My abuela did frijoles de la olla with pinto beans, which is kind of similar. The secret is epazote.”
“I’ve never heard of that before.”
“It’s an herb,” Ana said. “See, I know some stuff, Emmett.”
They ate together for the first time since Ana had arrived at the farm nearly a month before. The time had gone by quicker than she realized. Her phone call with Mrs. Saucedo was scheduled for that night. She reminded herself to find out about where she’d be going when she got back to L.A. the following Saturday, not that she wanted to think about it just yet. Abbie asked about her sketches and what gave her the idea to make the labels. Emmett asked about when she started drawing and if she wanted to be an artist. In turn, she asked them if they’d ever been to a famous art museum—Abbie, yes; Emmett, no—and why no one had ever made signs to mark all the crops.
They did the dishes together, with Abbie washing, Ana drying, and Emmett putting everything away. And when it came time for Ana to make the phone call in the parlor, they asked her to sit back down at the table.
“Emmett and I have been talking,” Abbie said.
“Good. I mean, not that you weren’t. You know what I mean,” Ana said.
“We’d like to keep you on through the fall, if you’re interested. You’d go to Hadley High, but you’d also continue to work here.”
“It’s still an internship, so you’ll have a morning farm shift before school most days,” Emmett interjected. “And a full shift Saturday, plus farmers’ market prep on Sunday mornings. It’ll be tough, but it’s the schedule Abbie and I had when we were in high school.”
Ana looked from one to the other. “You’re serious?” she said.
“It’s entirely up to you to decide,” Abbie said. “But we’d love to have you, if you’d like to stay for the semester. We want to help you with your emancipation.”
Ana was quiet. She looked from one to the other and nodded her head. “Yes,” she said quietly, holding back her exuberance, worried it was enough to topple them over. “Yes, please,” she said again. “Do I tell Mrs. Saucedo tonight?”
“If you’d like to,” Abbie said. “There’s no pressure, either way. I will speak with her this week.”
Emmett stood up from the table, as if it were his cue to leave. “Tasty dinner, Sis,” he said. He walked over to Ana and put out his hand as if to shake on the deal.
“Abbie really likes having you here,” he said. Though Ana heard the name Abbie, she knew he meant himself too. She said nothing and shook his hand.
“I almost forgot,” he said, pulling out an envelope from his coat pocket. “This is for you.” He handed Ana a white envelope. There was an M written on the front in Emmett’s handwriting, followed by “for magic” written by a different hand. “It’s from Manny,” he said. “He says to use it wisely. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
They all said good night as Emmett left out the back door.
“What a day,” Abbie said, exhaling as she rose from the table. “I think I’m going to luxuriate in recipes for the rest of this rainy night. Need anything before I head up?”
“No, thanks,” Ana said, remaining seated, still not believing she was staying, wondering what was inside the envelope, but guessing what was. “I’ll go make the call.”
Abbie pulled out a couple of cookbooks to peruse and tucked them under her arm. She looked over at Ana, who was still at the table facing the other way, and she fought the impulse to embrace her, like her own mother would have done. “See you in the morn,” she said, and Ana nodded.
“Abbie?”
“Yes, hon?”
“Good night.”
“’Night.”
“Today was a sunny day.”