18

A VISIT FROM ANA

Nearly five weeks had passed. School would soon be out. The children dutifully attended tutoring sessions three days a week, though Ana no longer came. They missed learning gardening, but their grades had gone up, so it wasn’t all for nothing. They had also gained new adult friends, and met other children. Still, they missed their elderly mentor. So it was a pleasant surprise to see Ana walk into tutoring twenty minutes after it had started.

Clare was the first to spot her. “Ana!”

“Ana!” yelled Dante. He stopped what he was doing and ran to her.

“Hey, kiddos,” she said, smiling.

“You should see the tomato,” Dante said, excitedly.

“Shh,” Lily cautioned.

Rose was just walking up. “See the what?” she asked.

“The tornado,” Clare said quickly. “We saw this big tornado on the Monitor.”

“Tornado?” the red-haired girl repeated. “That’s not what it sounded like you said,” looking at Dante as she spoke.

Clare and Lily stared hard at Dante.

“Yep,” he agreed. “That’s what I said.”

“Oh,” said Ana. “You’ll have to tell me about it sometime. I don’t watch the Monitor much. But not right now. I’m here to work. Need any help?”

The children ran over to Gene, the volunteer who had been helping them, and explained about Ana. He smiled understandingly and moved on to help elsewhere. Ana joined the children at their table.

“I missed you,” she said. “Seeing you at church and not talking like this is just not the same.”

The kids agreed. They chatted for awhile about school, the weather, and what the latest Monitor news was. At last they lowered their voices and began sharing about their exploits in the illicit activity of growing food.

“You should see how many leaves the tomato has now!” Dante said.

“It has taken forever,” complained Clare. “I still find it hard to believe that some day it will be as big as in the book.”

“And you were right about the carrots,” Lily said. “They look just like little pieces of grass.”

Clare’s finger shot to her lips. In a flash, Rose was at their table, pulling up a chair.

“Whatch’all talkin’ about?”

“School,” all three answered at once.

“School? Huh. It looked like you were real excited.”

Ana turned to look Rose full in the face. “Of course they were excited. They are learning new things, and that’s always exciting. Isn’t it, children?” she said, looking at the others. They smiled and agreed.

“Hmph,” said Rose. “My school is boring.”

Just then, the adult volunteer who had been helping Rose called to her; Rose skipped away.

“That was a close one,” Clare observed.

“She’s kind of nosy,” said Lily. “I like her okay, but sometimes she’s annoying.”

Ana chuckled. “Rose is all right, but it’s best we keep our secret in a small circle for now.”

The children opened their textbooks and pretended to do schoolwork while Ana taught them more about what to expect from various seeds. Later, she gave the girls information about other Seed Savers, instructing them to keep the information secure in two different locations.

When it was at last time to return home, the kids had a hard time letting Ana go.

“It was so nice today, just like old times,” Clare said. “Are you sure you can’t come again?” She smiled weakly, hoping to change Ana’s mind, but knowing there was no chance.

“No, Clare. It’s for the best. And school will be out soon, anyway. Tutoring session will end. I’ll be at church. Let’s slip each other little notes now and then on Sundays.”

Ana hugged each child goodbye while Rose looked on enviously.