Page 127 of Sombra
Twenty-Three
Tavo - Cosecha
Day two of the harvest. We’ve spread the tarps under the trees, one by one, and now I’m taking the rake and beating on the branches, dropping the olives down onto the tarps. Other workers gather up the olives and put them in bins, stack thebins with a forklift, and take the stacks on a truck to the Molineros where they will grind the olives and extract the oil.
Trent works next to me in the same tree, opposite side, hitting the branches, while Tía Valeria and Dani pick up the olives. Everyone is out to help. Even my mother put on boots and jeans—it must be the apocalypse—because she’s getting dirty and working alongside everyonein the family. I’m not talking to her though. Not after the way she treated Kim. Not after the way she treated me. Guillermo got her to contract with a few day laborers, just to get the job done.
Because if I focus on the harvest, then I don’t tear myself apart about Kim.
But I’m already torn apart and broken. The only way for me to handle being in my body is to beat the olives withthe rake with every muscle until I fall down asleep.
I hate her reason for leaving, because it was a clusterfuck.
As I work, the demanding physical labor makes it hard to keep talking, so I’m left to my own thoughts. Kim. Kim’s pregnancy. Sonia’s idiocy. Kim’s flight. My mother’s affair. All of this orchestrated to manipulate me.
Well, not Kim. Kim never used me for anything.
Wiping his forehead with his sleeve, Trent pauses to look at the activity on all the trees. “I’m amazed that this is how you do it. No machines.”
Grateful to him for keeping me from my painful thoughts, I say, “While some farmers in Spain use mechanized processes, we don’t. We still use the old ways. This ensures that we get the best-tasting olive oil. And since we’re a small-batch,high-quality grower, the better the olive oil, the higher our profits.”
“That’s so cool,” says Dani, flinging the olives into a bin. “I love being a part of this. It’s old school and in harmony with nature.”
“How long do you think it will take to finish?” Trent hits a particularly fruit-laden branch, and olives rain down, making Dani shriek and cover her head.
“We have aboutthree days to harvest all of these hectares.”
“Where’s Kim?” Dani asks, looking around.
“She left.” I try to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
Confusion passes over her brow. “Wait, what? I thought she was staying until the end of the semester.”
I don’t want to talk about it, but I need to say something. I bank on my aunt not knowing English. “Kim left after we hada big fight—a big misunderstanding—and I don’t know how to make it all right again without getting some money together that I don’t have.”
“That sucks,” says Trent.
“There’s a few other things.” I debate telling them that Kim is pregnant. That Sonia is evil. That my family had the blow-up of blow-ups. But I don’t want to talk ill of a woman to them. Even Sonia.
“Will she comeback?” Dani asks.
“I don’t know.”
“Then you should go to her,” says Dani.
I can’t help but snort derisively. “Look around, amiga. I can’t do anything until this is done. It will have to wait, and I don’t have the funds for a last minute airline flight.”
She shrugs. “I think she needs to know how you feel.”
“I told her how I feel. She didn’t feel the same way.”
“Or maybe she didn’t tell you,” Trent says sagely. I look at him. “Keep trying. If you like her.” He sees my expression. “If you love her. Keep trying.”
“Why aren’t you speaking Spanish?” I ask.
He laughs. “Porque creía que quieres hablar en código.”
“Es verdad.”
