Breakdown: Episode 7 by Jordon Quattlebaum

Author:Jordon Quattlebaum [Quattlebaum, Jordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dapper Press
Published: 2015-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

Thom breathed in deeply, letting the woman’s words sink in. She waited patiently for a sign that he understood and agreed. More than this, she waited for a sign that he would stand with her, regardless the cost.

“It’s a fine line to walk, Mrs. Jackson.”

“But we’ll walk it together, Thomas.”

Thom nodded, holding the warm hand tightly. “Together, Mrs. Jackson.”

Chapter 4 – Projects

The metal blade of Anna’s shovel bit deeply into the loamy earth. She paused only a moment before a heave of her slender frame sent rich black soil into the air. A million thoughts raced through her mind, and almost all of them were telling her to quit. This was hard. Her body felt like jelly, but her skin more closely resembled an Oreo–a gift from the dirt that had pasted itself to her sweat covered body.

She could feel blisters beginning to form on the pads of her palms despite the heavy leather work gloves she wore. She was beginning to despise these gloves. They were horrible; they didn’t breathe, and sweat dripped down her arms into the overly large fingers where it pooled and softened her skin, making it prone to tear.

She set the shovel down for a moment and flexed her fingers. Brian pulled himself up from the ground nearby, “Let’s see those hands.”

Anna gladly slid the gloves off, stuffing them between her arm and body. She’d have set them down, but she knew if she did that, she’d sit down and not get back up. There was too much work to do for that.

Brian took her hands gently in his, examining the fingers and palms carefully. “You’ve torn a blister. It’s time to stop, Anna.” He held her hand a moment longer before letting it go.

“I can keep going. There’s so much to do.”

“And we’ll get it done together, one day at a time. Our bodies aren’t used to this.” He looked over to see Matt working a mattock, and sighed. The sheen of perspiration made Matt’s well-muscled frame abundantly obvious. He was the only one of the University students who could sustain this pace. “Well, most of us anyway.”

“What, you think Matt’s in better shape than I am?” she challenged, her eyes lighting up.

Brian opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. The words weren’t right. He thought a second, and opened his mouth once more, but again the words didn’t seem to fit. Girls and their traps.

Anna was delighted, her white-toothed grin contrasting neatly with her dirt-streaked face. “It’s ok, Brian. I get it. We need to give ourselves time to form calluses, and for our muscles to build. If I keep pushing today, I’ll be useless tomorrow. You’re absolutely right.”

Brian nodded, glad he hadn’t needed to be the one to say it after all. “There are other things we can do to be helpful. Mrs. Jackson’s planting another row of beans today. Called it ‘progression planting.’ Matt said it’s to stagger out the harvest so we have time to process and preserve everything.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.