Chapter 3 — A Hat Like Grandpa’s
A serial novel in the form of correspondence among a family while the world as we know it collapses around us. I recommend you start at the Introduction:
https://readmedium.com/climate-for-change-introduction-5331d5ab9313
But you can start anywhere you want.
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Chapter 3:
Email from Carol/Mom:
Dear Benjamin,
It was so great to see you and Mel last weekend. I can’t believe how tan you’ve gotten. Have you ever heard of sunscreen? I went online and ordered you a very big sun hat. It should come this week. Very stylish. Wear it. I was pleased with how proud you and Mel were to show me all the work you have done. My favorite part was when you showed me the compost pile that you turned using the front end loader of the tractor. When you dug in there with your bare hand to pull out some steaming hot compost, my little mother’s heart swelled up in pride.
Grandpa and Grandma are getting a little too used to having you two around. I think I have never seen their barn so clean nor their garden so abundant. Although we haven’t had much rain this summer, that garden looks like an oasis of green. Thanks for sending me home with all those green beans. I’m going to blanch and freeze them for our winter meals. It will be great eating them after there is snow on the ground and the garden is a memory.
I have been bored without you and Melody here during the days. I decided to do some projects of my own. I have chosen a few things that I would like to work on, and I’m doing research right now. I want to learn how to prune our fruit trees, and I want to redo the tile in the bathroom. I have been watching online videos, and it alternates between feeling really easy and being overwhelming. I don’t want to mess up our bathroom or kill our trees.
What did you mean about Grandma and Grandpa trying to overthrow the government? You didn’t tell me when I saw you.
Hugs to Mel. Tell her to write. Love,
Mom
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Dear Mom,
My hat arrived. It is great! Just like Grandpa’s. Sometimes I take his by accident. But his is worn out and has some stray straw that pokes my head. I have been thinking about what to do when I get back home. I know I want to try out for the club soccer team again this fall. I also want to get more involved in the school’s Activist Club. I want to try to stay in shape, too. Throwing hay bales for three weeks has me feeling strong. I like it. Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. There is a lot to do here.
Grandpa and I were planting fall crops today. It is the middle of summer, and we were planting broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower to be eaten in October. We even planted a row of potatoes. Grandpa says with the warming planet, we can get away with planting a second crop of potatoes for a fall harvest.
I was only half joking about Grandma and Grandpa trying to overthrow the government. You must know that to work with Grandpa is to get a lecture, ready or not. At first I was like, “Grandpa, enough already!” But as the weeks have gone by, I have started to really like working with him. When we have a job that allows us to talk, I have started to rev him up by asking him questions that are sure to start a story or an opinion. I got two hours of stories about your childhood while we were hoeing in the sweet corn. Interesting stuff. Last week while we were sharpening tools, I asked him what he thought of our President-For-Life. It was like I pulled the string on a wind-up toy. I learned a lot that day. Grandpa seems to be maddest about the PFL’s interpretation of free speech. By shutting down news outlets in the name of free speech, the PFL really got Grandpa mad. Grandpa misses public radio news a lot. I think that might be the biggest reason that has him plotting to overthrow the PFL. But he also talks about how the government should function by using the resources of the people to support the needs of the people and the environment, not just taking taxes and giving breaks to corporations. To Grandpa, the PFL has taken over the government to enrich himself and his people. Grandpa believes that a government that doesn’t look out for its people and environment shouldn’t last long.
I like talking to Grandma, too. While Grandpa is really good at explaining something, he is not that good at listening. Grandma can do both. It is in my conversations with her that I find myself telling her thoughts that I didn’t even know were in my head. She asks me open-ended questions and then waits long enough to let me gather my thoughts. We went looking for raspberries yesterday, and our conversations just went from one subject to another to another. Grandma is horrified at how many people the PFL has in prison for one reason or another. She was telling me that she is part of a group that visits people in prison and brings them books and kits for basic needs. The recent crackdown on immigrants is another thing that has Grandma up in arms. She is literally up in arms, Mom. We spend time every week with Grandma learning about firearms and practicing at her improvised shooting range. She says that a person ought to know how to defend herself and her loved ones.
Living with them is like living in a different world. The other night they had some friends over, and Grandpa made pizza in their brick oven. We set up a candle-lit table outside with a tablecloth, and they got out a bottle of wine. Once the glasses were all filled, Grandpa raised his glass and said, “To International Socialism!” and everyone clinked their glasses together and drank like this was a normal thing.
The other day we had all of these items to do on our list. But after the morning animal care, Grandma said it was too hot to do anything. Grandpa said he knew what to do. He went out to the machine shed, and soon I heard the sound of the air compressor. I went out to look, and he had inflated five car tire inner tubes, and he asked me to throw them into the back of the pick up truck. By that time, Grandma walked out with a cooler that she asked me to put into the back of the truck. Finally, Grandpa told me to “scoot and get my swimsuit on.” We drove behind Grandma’s car to a nearby bridge. We dropped her car off and then drove the pickup truck upriver a ways to another bridge, where we all got into the river and proceeded to float down the river sitting in the inner tubes. The water was perfect. The cooler had its own tube that was tied to Grandpa’s tube. We spent all day on the water, including a lazy lunch. At one point we floated past a dairy farm, and the cows were all in the river with us, cooling off. We saw three bald eagles along the way, too! Just when I start to think that all we do out here is work, they surprise us.
I think I am finally missing the city a little. I don’t think Melody will ever want to go back though. She spends all her time in the barn with the chickens and the other animals. The other day a mother hen came out of the woods with eight chicks walking behind her. Mel just about died to see this! Grandpa helped her set up a space in the back of the chicken coop for the mother hen and her chicks. Every afternoon Mel is down there sitting on the poopy coop floor and holding the baby chicks. At first the Momma hen complained, but now I think they have come to some sort of co-parenting agreement. Mel loves those wild-hatched baby chicks, and I can see why. Each one has a personality. I like those chickens too, but I have no patience for the meat birds that Grandma is raising. They are big and white, and all they do is eat and poop. They waddle from the feeder to the waterer and back again. They are so stupid! I am tired of caring for them.
Your son,
Benji
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Dear Benji,
I loved your letter. I am so glad you and Mel have gotten to spend so much time with your Grandma and Grandpa. We should have done this years ago. They are special people, and I’m not saying that only because they are my parents. I wish I could be there, too, but you know I have to work. I want you to savor these last few days with Grandpa and Grandma. There is nothing quite like summer on a farm.
I got an email from the club soccer team. The tryouts are next Saturday. After that, all your friends will be back from their vacations, and school will start back up. It looks like summer is coming to an end, but you wouldn’t know it from how hot the weather has been.
Bring back as many tomatoes as you can. I want to can a bunch up for pizza sauce. Hugs to Mel. Tell her she can bring some of those chicks back to the city if Grandma says it is okay. We have space in our coop.
Love,
Mom
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Next chapter:
https://readmedium.com/chapter-4-history-in-transition-25ad73c9733a
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