Chapter One, Episode 53 - Ownership - Situationally Theirs

June 28, 2020

Review, Edit and Update:

For clarity's sake only one sentence was altered in structure not in wording. Practice does get one closer to perfect! 

Dez is very thoughtful in this piece, recognizing that there are different sorts of ownership.

Ownership

Dez liked Samuel’s manner of speech. She was used to people painting much larger pictures, sometimes filling empty conversational corners with unnecessary detail. Rather like a work of art cluttered with too many colours and lines. At the same time, Samuel's clipped phrases made him almost invisible to the world. Samuel seemed to walk into the land as he worked.

Deep in thought, Dez left the lawn chairs by the garden. She looked up at the orchard. Took the empty ice tea glasses back to Cook. “That didn’t take long, Miss Dez. Did you and Samuel have a good visit?” Cook chuckled as she sliced thick brown mushrooms for her soup.

“Yes we did. He was very thankful for the tea.” Dez put both glasses in the dishwasher, “As am I. And for that sprig of mint.” The kitchen was quiet except for Cook’s chop, chopping. “Miss Dez?” Cook stopped in mid chop. “Now where did she go? Don’t tell me she’s getting just like Samuel. You don’t hear him come in and you don’t hear him go out.”

The land, the house, the orchard.  Emmie owns them all legally. Cook ‘owns’ the kitchen. She feeds us all. Samuel ‘owns’ the yard and the garden. He grows food for us all. Could Dez ‘own’ the planned apiary and the bees? Dez thought of all the people that worked at so many other jobs. Without them, there would be no groceries, no clothes, no………nothing. Just each one of us stumbling blindly through life. Dez watched Samuel as he worked, reminding her of her grandfather and his quiet ways. Bees and honey. Are they really the foundation of life? They are so tiny. Dez walked into the apple orchard. Dust motes beamed in the late afternoon sun. Travelling bees made the orchard alive with buzzing. Dez stood still, listening to them speak.

“Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. 

If you will not share it you cannot  use it.”

~ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed