Chapter One, Episode 141 - Experience and the Teacher - SituationallyTheirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update

In many of the books about writing I've read, a character should go through a process of growth. In this episode, although not a short story, my writing exercise addresses this growth issue. The main character, Matt Hamilton, begins as the teacher. In the middle of the scene is questioning the ability of his students, and at the end he becomes the student. 

Without changing the intent of this writing, I did tighten up some sentence structure along with some other minor fixes (punctuation, typo's)

Experience and the Teacher

“Hold it as if it were a baseball - just like that - in the palm of your hand. Now. Lift it up - gently Gently. Twist and pull. No, no don’t tug, pull gently. You don’t want to bruise the fruit or damage any branches.” Matt Hamilton was not used to educating teenagers about picking apples. Joey Tucker and his friend, Steven Whitley, had been hired to pick the Beaufort Estate’s apples. Dez had called her friend Matt in a panic when she found out that neither of the teens that she had just hired knew anything about picking apples - unless it was a windfall apple or an apple in the produce department of a grocery store. Matt’s own seasonal pickers had completed their two week Covid19 isolation and were set up to start the pick of Matt’s orchard. They had been with him for several years, so he was able to leave them on their own for a day. Dez had told him it would ‘just be a couple of hours’, however after talking with them for just a few minutes, he guessed he’d be at the Estate til at least after lunch. Joey put his hand up tentatively. “How do we know if they’re ripe enough to pick, Mr. Hamilton?” Matt scrubbed his forehead. Where did Dez get these two guys? He took a deep breath, smiled stiffly and said “There are several ways. I’ve told Miss Eliot - Miss Dez - how to do a starch test for ripeness. So she can tell you, but there are one or two other things that, while not as certain, can help you when you’re up in the tree picking.”

~~~~~

After Matt had shown Joey and Steven how to put on the apple picking bags, how to handle the apples and then how to put them in the bin at the edge of the orchard, he directed each of them to a fairly short tree. He didn’t know what he was going to tell Dez. Friends for years and, recently, in a very on and off relationship, they always relied on each other for support. “Dez, I don’t know if these two guys are going to work out.” He rehearsed his little speech on the other side of the toolshed. Where was Samuel when he needed him? Looking up, he saw him leaning on his hoe watching him, a rather wicked grin on his face. Samuel was having fun! “What’s so funny, Samuel?” 

“You are, Matt. I seen you tryin’ to teach them two boys about apple pickin’. Patient. Patient.” Samuel had, in fact, been impressed with Matt’s teaching ability. “They’ll do just fine, Matt.” He leaned his hoe up against the toolshed. “How old were you when you started pickin’, Matt?” Matt grinned and squatted by the tomato plants, looking them over and, lifting a heavily laden limb, he secured it to the tomato cage with a tie from his shirt pocket. He turned and looked at Samuel. “Now, what’s that got to do with anything? I was almost seventeen. It was my first job……..” Matt shook his head. “You got me there, Samuel.” Matt stood up and tossed a clod of dirt at Samuel, who caught it easily. He tossed what was left of it back at Matt. Matt pushed his cap back on his head, ran his fingers through his hair and, holding it front and back, pulled it down again. He said to Samuel “I guess I’d better go tell Dez that I’m keeping an eye on them for a while to make sure they’re doing the job right. Thanks Samuel, you’re a good man.”

“Nothing ever becomes real ’til it is experienced.”

~ John Keats

Chapter One, Episode 140 - Windfalls - Situationally Theirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update

This episode didn't flow as nicely as the last couple of episodes. There was, in fact, dialogue between the two characters (Joey and Digby) in this piece. I answered my own question, from my last episode Review regarding dialogue and could it create difficulty in maintaining a steady flow for the reader. The location also changes, answering another question regarding flow: Digby's office; the upstairs with further suggestions of the outside and in the kitchen. Being alert for the back and forth nature of dialogue and location are important considerations. So for this episode, I cleaned up sentence structure and, later on in the piece, added some detail.

Windfalls

They lay in the grass in the shallow ditch along the side of the road. In the cool evening air, not a leaf stirred. This was Joey’s favourite time of day. The apple blossoms were beautiful in spring, but what his mother could do with apples, even Cook couldn’t beat. Every year, as apples ripened, bushels of them fell outside the orchard. They were known as windfalls. Joey supposed that when the wind blew, that’s when most of the apples graced the ditches beside the orchards. Each year he wandered the ditches beside the orchards to collect windfall apples to take home to his mother. Some had been too damaged by birds or squirrels. He let them lay to be scavenged by the next critter but not again this year. 

One day, as he was heading upstairs to do the cleaning, Mr. Digby stood outside his office, waiting for him. He looked awfully serious, but then he always looked pretty serious. “Joey, can you come see me after you’re done upstairs. I have something I want to discuss with you.” He turned and went into his office, closing the door part way behind him. Throughout the morning, whether Joey was scrubbing the toilet, making the beds, dusting or vacuuming, sixteen year old Joey Tucker tried to think what he might have done. Had he spent too much time out in the garden? Should he have taken the tomatoes to Cook instead of his mother? He knew that he left the upstairs clean and polished each time he was there. That ghost girl, Sarah, hadn’t been bothering him since he asked her to help him move furniture and clean. He was worried.

The week before, Dez had approached Digby and asked if she could hire Joey to pick some of the apples. Rather intimidated by Digby, she could barely get the words out, but she had to do something. Apples were ripe. Because the trees had been watered regularly, the trees were loaded. Samuel told her “there’s more of ‘em on the trees this year, Mz. Dez. Better get some pickers in here.” She remembered Emmie’s suggestion that Digby be approached about hiring Joey and maybe a friend of his, to help with the orchard. She’d never hired pickers before so didn’t know where to start. When she approached Digby, Emmie had already spoken with him. She agreed that Dez could pay Joey and one friend for certain hours in the orchard. Digby spoke with Gerald Winston, the accountant before calling Joey into his office. He never suspected the young man was afraid he was losing his summer job.

Digby was still catching up on work from the weeks he and Martha were away. It seemed as though Miss Emelina was getting him some butlering work. He had phone calls from the chairman of the one of the charity boards Emmie was still involved with, asking if some kind of dinner could be arranged for the board members. Digby had been on the phone most of the morning with arrangements. He spent some of his time talking with Cook about the catering that would be needed. “My goodness, James! Don’t tell me that we’ll be having company out here again.” Cook was almost flustered which was not in her character. So when Joey knocked tentatively on his open door, he just about didn’t hear. Joey was about to knock again, when Digby looked up and smiled. “Come in, come in, Joey. Close the door behind you and sit down. My goodness, you seem a little worried. Is everything all right upstairs?” Joey looked puzzled. Digby pressed on “You know, Sarah? the little ghost?”

“Oh no, sir. Everything’s just fine.” Joey decided to come right out and say what was on his mind, even if he did stammer.  “I’m just worried……..am I not doing my job right? Should I not be taking vegetables to my mother from my….I mean, the Estates…..garden plot?” James, not a man to laugh often, had to suppress a chuckle. “You are doing just fine, Joey. In fact, more than fine. You are a very reliable employee. I wish I’d been that reliable when I was your age. Clean the upstairs to Martha's satisfaction and then to work in the garden as well, making sure you put what ever tools you’ve used away. Of course you are to take the produce you grow to your mother. I understand you are just as diligent with your studies.Your parents must be very proud of you.” Joey was confused. If he was so good, then why did he feel like he was in the principal’s office?

“You’re worried I’m going to fire you, aren’t you, Mr. Tucker? Well, I’m not. In fact, what we need to discuss is whether you want any more work.” Digby was sensitive to Joey’s discomfort so decided that there had been enough small talk. Joey’s face brightened and he stopped stammering. “I’d love more work - is it paid work? What do you need me to do?” Digby thought to himself Good boy. Don’t forget about the dollar. To Joey he said, “Miss Dez needs help in the orchard She needs you to pick apples - have you ever done that before? There are a lot of them. Samuel may be able to estimate how many bushels, but regardless you can take some to your mother because we won’t be able to use them all here. There are frequently apples with minor damage that would just get thrown away. We also send some to the Food Bank and shelters. And you will need help. Do you know anyone else that may want to pick apples for what’s left of the summer and probably into the fall?”

Joey breathed a sigh of relief, thought for a minute and said “Steven - Steven is my best friend. He lives next door and hasn’t had any luck getting work this summer. I think he may jump at this chance. I know a little bit about apple picking, but I don’t know whether Steven does. When do you need to know?”

~~~~~

Joey texted Steven while he was sitting in Digby’s office. Steven got on his bike and came right out to the Estate. The first thing he said was “Do you think I can meet the ghost, Joey?”

“Our greatest fears lie in anticipation.”

~ Honoré de Balzac

Chapter One, Episode 139 - Today or Any Day - Situationally Theirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update

Minor repairs required for this pleasant episode: some punctuation, spacing. What I see, besides the story, is that this writer has improved. My questions to myself:  'Is it because I focussed on a specific character? Are episodes with a lot of dialogue and relational stories more disjointed and require more concentration? Things to be alert for.

Today or Any Day

Some people see a lot of things happen and keep their silence. Others see just what is passing in front of the eyes or beside their ears and decide for themselves where to keep silent or not. Gossip or not. Samuel Forrester kept himself to himself. He did like to talk and tell stories but he was most comfortable when he was planting, weeding or harvesting. Even turning the soil in the spring and fall to ready the ground for growth or for rest did his heart good. So when he did see something, like an engaged couple in argument; or when he heard something, like his boss raising a suspicious question from the dark, he kept it to himself. It was more important to him to hear the bushy heather plants humming with bees or the steady thrum and buzz of a hummingbird seeking nectar from the brilliant red trumpet flowers that grew in the corners of his garden. He loved the tall stately sunflowers showing off for the bees. He knew in the fall and winter they granted their seeds for over wintering songbirds. Samuel wasn’t much for cut flowers, only flowers that attracted the bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Butterflies were a fascination for him. They loved all the flowers but ones they seemed to love the best were the daisies. Elizabeth knew the names of all the flowers around the garden - crocosmia, clematis and coreopsis, daffodils and heather. Sometimes of an evening, Samuel and Elizabeth would walk down by the stream where the willows hung into the water. She could name all the plants and find the tiniest of flowers in among the ferns.

So Samuel had no need of talking about what he had heard people say or what he had seen them do. If anyone had asked him, and some did, he’d just say ‘None of my business and don’t think it belongs to anyone else.’ Then he would point out his best producing tomato plant or the biggest acorn squash in the garden. Or he’d tell the story of his daddy catching him about to carve his initials in the apple tree. Once he started on that story, he’d go on to tell how ‘Elizabeth’s already put up 24 jars of apple sauce from them early summer apples’. And he’d tell how he heard the pickers calling out to one another that ‘this tree's done’ or ‘I’m starting on the next row.’ That would lead him into all the tomatoes Elizabeth’d be canning once they started coming on strong. “Did you know that those two sisters have a good bunch of what comes off this garden and orchard go into town? Food Bank needs all kinds of food  - people are hungry and not so well off in this time of sickness. Some of the care homes too if we find out about it.”

So Samuel had no need of gossiping. There were times that he'd think about things that had happened and things he had heard and wonder. But to himself he just said ‘none of my business - today or any day,’

“We should have great peace if we did not 

busy ourselves with what others say and do.”

~ Thomas a Kempis