Chapter 7

The next six months were the most difficult time I'd ever had. I worked from sunrise to sunset, and still couldn't do everything I needed to have done. Rob tried to help, but with his knee function so limited, he was too slow to be of much real help. I had tried out four different people who had each claimed they were experienced farm workers. They might have had farm experience, but none of them knew anything about hard work, or about thinking for themselves when something didn't go exactly as it was supposed to. None of them stuck it out for longer than two weeks.

Harvest time was fast approaching, and even though it was the "off/off" year we had been expecting, we still needed to harvest whatever small crop there was to get. I had been thinking about just letting the whole crop go, then turning it all into compost for the following year. It would be a super expensive decision on my part, but it had the saving grace of getting Rob and me out of a lot of backbreaking labor. Even if we spent sixteen hour days harvesting, it was highly doubtful that we'd manage to salvage more than half the crop out on the trees in any case.

Right before I was going to make my final decision, I received a phone call from Raul Vasquez, Lupe's brother in law. He told me he was calling to ask if I still wanted their family harvest team to come out and gather in that year's crop. He told me he meant the whole team, including Lupe, Maria, Theresa, Elena, and his own wife, Consuela. Of course I told him that I was happy he'd called, and that we were looking forward to seeing all of them again.

I moved Rob upstairs with me, and told Lupe and Maria to take Rob's old room. Rob's knee had improved enough that he could make it up and down the stairs for the five weeks or less the harvesting would take. No one brought up Anita's name, or said anything about what had caused us all the earlier turmoil.

We ended up with thirty two thousand pounds of salable nuts, not quite making all our expenses back for the year. Still, the money we did get made us end up in far better shape than my earlier plans for turning it all into fertilizer would have left us.

Right before the harvest was completed, I found Lupe out walking through the trees, checking things out to see how the trees and the soil were faring. I could tell he wasn't impressed with what he was seeing. I followed him out to where he stood.

"I tried to keep up with things, but it's just too much for only one man."

"Not that bad. I see too many things growing on trees, but good pressure rinse fix it. Maria have long talk with Tina about Anita. Maria think you tell truth before. She feels bad now. Lupe feels bad too. Anita needs go get help from doctor. Tina say Anita very unhappy now. Not good what happened. Lupe and Maria both sorry for before."

"I feel sorry for whatever Anita is going through. I hope she gets the help she needs. How are things for you and Maria? Did you find another farm to work at?"

"No farm work now. Work day labor. Money good when work there. No work, no money. Live with Raul. Very crowded in small place. Maria no like city."

"I really have missed Maria's cooking. She's the best cook I ever knew. You're a lucky man."

"If you want, Lupe and Maria move back to farm, and Maria do all cooking again. Maria tell Lupe should ask you if okay?"

"Do you want your old job back too? I hope so, because working this place by myself is killing me."

"You sure you want Lupe back? I quit in bad way before."

"You had to stick by your family, Lupe. I know how that works. I never thought badly of you for quitting, only sad that you thought I'd lied to you."

"I sorry, Jefe."

We shook hands, and that was it. Raul, Consuela, and Elena moved back to their place in the city, and Lupe, Maria and Theresa moved back to the trailer. Rob moved back downstairs to his room. I asked him why Theresa hadn't moved in with him again, and that's when he told me that Theresa had a new boyfriend. A man who she thought might marry her. He didn't sound upset with that development either. Like me, he was anticipating all the good eating we had to look forward to.

The first time I saw that old black step side pickup coming up the road leading to the farm, my first thought was that Anita had come back for a visit. My first reaction to this thought was happiness. I didn't understand what had happened in Hawaii, but I still had a lot of positive memories about the vast majority of the time Anita and I had spent together, both while working and playing. When I saw it was Tina driving, and that she was alone, I couldn't help feeling disappointed, and just a little bit let down. Tina must have noticed my reaction, because she started to bristle up and get angry.

"Hi, Tina. I saw the truck and thought Anita might be with you."

"Not this trip. I asked her if she wanted to come out here with me, but she said no. I just came to visit with my aunt and uncle for a few minutes. Are they around?"

"Maria's in the house. Lupe went somewhere to get something he said he needed. He should be back pretty soon. Go see Maria, and I'll go check on some things. It will give the two of you some time to talk and get caught up. I'll probably be by to join you both later."

I found things to do until I saw Lupe drive up in my truck and look over at the black pickup. I walked over and told him that Tina was visiting, and was in the house talking with Maria. Lupe didn't ask, but I'd bet he was wondering where Anita was.

"She asked Anita to come out too, but Anita wasn't ready yet."

Lupe nodded, indicating that he understood. It had been about half an hour since Tina had driven up, so I decided to head back over to the house to get myself a glass of soda. Really, I was hoping to join Tina and Maria to hear whatever I could about how Anita was faring.

"Kyle, is possible for Lupe get pay advance?" Maria seemed worried that she was asking for something that I would probably end up saying no to.

"Sure, not a problem. How much did you want?"

"Doscientos? Two hundred, I mean." Maria held up two fingers nervously. I went upstairs, where I kept the petty cash, and got her the two hundred she'd asked for. I was virtually certain that the money was for Tina, but knew it was none of my business why she wanted the money. My suspicions were quickly confirmed when Maria pressed the money I'd just handed her into Tina's own hands. I went back outside, but waited around by the equipment shed until I saw Tina and Lupe coming back out of the house together.

"When you see Anita, give her my best, okay? Tell her she's always welcome to come out and visit her family, and tell her I still consider her a friend. If there's anything she needs, tell her I'll be happy to help out if I possibly can."

I watched her drive away, surprised in some ways by how much seeing that old truck had brought so many memories of Anita flooding back to me. I knew she was the main reason why I was still working the farm, rather than selling it off like I'd originally planned on doing. She'd taught me a lot about how to keep things going, and in the process, had shown me how satisfying running a farm could be.

"Tina no job, and same for Anita. Money troubles for both." Lupe stood beside me, watching as the truck turned left, heading out to the Interstate.

"I'll give you some money to lend them. Just don't let them know it's a loan from me. I feel bad that Anita is having these kinds of problems."

"Girls know Lupe and Maria no have money. Make big problem for you if they come live in trailer?"

"Not a problem for me. Might be a problem for Anita though. Tell her I said she's welcome to move back to the farm and live in the trailer."

I guess there was some talking back and forth, but, in the end, the girls didn't really have another viable option. I found out that all the money I'd paid to Raul and Lupe for the harvest had gone to help other members of the family who were experiencing financial problems of their own. More than one family member had their home foreclosed on due to not being able to keep up the payments on their mortgages. One of those losing their house was the aunt that Anita and Tina had been living with. They'd been taken in by another relative, but there just wasn't space for everyone in the small apartment.

Anita was all moved in before I even knew she was coming. I'd gone down to Los Angeles to attend an agricultural seminar the Federal and State government were jointly putting on for small farmers. They wanted us to know they knew of the problems we were experiencing, and were coming up with new programs that would eventually help our situations.

What I took from all this was that they'd loan you some money, if you could prove you didn't really need it. The other thing I came away with was that the government had decided that farming worked best when it was left in the hands of large corporations, not with individual small farmers.

I'd wasted two days, but now I knew better than to count on getting any real help from the Federal government. Some of the State guys had been really helpful, but California had its own hands full, trying to deal with more serious problems than those the small farmers were facing.

When I got back to the farm, I saw Tina over under the sorting shed, with a big push broom in her hands, sweeping hull and shell pieces up off the concrete floor. Seeing Tina doing some work was a surprise. I figured if she was out here, Anita must be too. I got out of the truck and carried my small suitcase into the house. Maria was in the kitchen working, but she appeared to be alone.

I went up to my bedroom and changed into some work clothes. After a day and a half of listening to people who only talk for a living, I was more than ready to go out and do something that might actually prove useful. I'd been out working with the hoses for about three hours before I spotted Anita coming out of the back of the trailer.

She looked a lot thinner than I'd ever seen her looking. Too thin, almost gaunt, like she hadn't been getting enough to eat. I knew she'd seen me too, and was trying to decide if she should pretend she hadn't or not. Finally, she turned towards me and started walking over.

"I heard you went down to Los Angeles. How was it?"

"A total waste of time, money, and gasoline. All I learned was not to count on any help from Washington. I met some farmers who are really up against it. Too many of them have got their farms mortgaged for more than they're really worth. No way for them to even keep up with the mortgage payments. I hear there are places down South where you can go and buy irrigation pipe for what the scrap cost would normally be. How have you been? Looks like you've taken off too much weight."

"The no job diet. A lot of women would pay good money to learn my secret. I'm sorry for what happened. It got to where I'd let it get past the point where I could still control things. The only way I could see to get out of it without everyone knowing I'd been lying to them was to try to force you into marrying me. The really strange part is that I didn't even want to get married that much before I started telling people all my little stories."

"I'm sorry it had to get to the point that it did. I've really missed you. After you left, I found out how much I'd always counted on you to know what needed doing around here. We made a great team. You'd tell me what to do, and I'd go out and try to do it."

"Thank you for letting us come out here. As soon as I find something, I promise we'll get out of your hair. Tina and I will both help out around here, to help pay for our room and board."

"Are you still looking for farm work?"

"Right now I'd take anything. Most people in our family around here are barely scraping by. They all offered to help us, but they can't really afford to. They feed you a meal, and then you find out that everyone else had to go on half portions so you could have something to eat. It is so sad seeing all their suffering and not be in any position to help. Things are so bad that two of my cousins drove back down to Mexico. No work down there either, but at least we have family down there who have extra food to share. My aunt, the one who let us live with her, she just lost her house, and now she lives with her daughter's husband in a two bedroom apartment. Twelve people were living there, counting me and Tina, with only one bathroom."

We talked together for an hour, but mostly she spoke about her family, and how desperate some of them were getting, because the only work they knew how to do was in an industry that was in deep turmoil in this area.