Chapter 10
Thunderstorm at Forty
Monday came around quickly and Adam found himself driving out to Fred’s orange farm without having made a decision on whether to buy it or not. For that matter he had not made any decisions at all, whether to go back to his old life of moving paper about or to continue living this nomadic life or to buy the orange farm. He had tried writing all the pros and cons down on a piece of paper, he had tried making a list of good and bad points, but nothing had worked. And here he was driving out to start working on the orange harvest.
Arriving at the farm, Adam could see other workers were already there, milling around the farm shed. He was parking the Subaru next to a large campervan when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Zoe’s Land Rover. Getting out of the car, he then wandered over to the group of people standing outside the farm shed.
“Hi, I’m Adam,” he said to the whole group.
Some just nodded, others just said their name, the older ones said their names and shook Adam’s hand.
“Are we all looking forward to a hard day picking oranges?” asked Adam.
He was met with silence except for a few of the older ones who called out, “Yes, bring it on.”
“Are you the farmer?” asked one of the younger ones.
“No mate,” replied Adam, before adding, “he’ll be here soon I expect.”
Zoe was not amongst the group, but Adam knew that last year she stayed on the farm in one of the ‘farm stay,’ accommodations. After a while Fred emerged from the shed, with Zoe not far behind him, but there was no site of the pretty boy from the service station.
“Good morning everyone, I’m Fred, I’m your farmer for today,” said Fred, in a loud, forceful voice. It was an attempt at humour by Fred, that fell flat.
“Don’t give up your day job Fred,” said Adam, which got a laugh from the group.
“Can anyone drive a tractor?” asked Fred.
Adam put his hand in the air, and Fred asked again, “anyone else?”
One of the older men put his hand up and said, “I have done but I don’t have much experience.”
“What’s your name?” asked Fred.
“George,” he replied.
“George, can you go with Adam,” said Fred, pointing at Adam, he then continued, “Adam, can you give him a run down on what needs doing.”
“Yer, no problem,” replied Adam, some what taken aback at being thrust into a leading position, without notice, but he took it in his stride.
“Come on mate,” said Adam to George as they walked into the farm shed. Adam glanced over at Zoe and gave her a little wave, she smiled and waved back.
Zoe started handing everybody a hessian shoulder bag, some gloves and a plastic bottle of water. Fred instructed the group to follow him as he walked over towards an orange tree growing at the end of the shed, where he gave them a run down on how to pick oranges.
In the shed, Adam checked the fluid levels of both tractors before starting them and leaving then to warm up.
“What type of tractor have you driven?” asked Adam.
“It was a John Deere but a lot, lot newer than these,” replied George.
“Arr, well, you are in for an experience, these are heavy in all respects, steering, gears, well everything really, there hot and smelly but they have a certain charm to them. If you look long and hard enough,” said Adam.
“Charm, I’m not seeing it,” replied George.
“Sorry I lied about the charm,” said Adam, he then added, “climb up and get a feel for it.”
George climbed up onto the tractor and sat there, looking very much like a duck out of water. Adam ran through the controls and all the tricks of driving one of these old tractors.
“My goodness, your exposed sitting up here,” replied George.
“You are that,” said Adam, before continuing, “what we will be doing, is taking these empty wooden crates,” Adam pointed at the wooden crates, he then continued, “out into the rows of oranges and bringing the full ones back here. A bit like forklift driving except with tractors.”
“Can I have a go?” asked George.
“Yes, pick up one of those crates and move it over there,” said Adam, while pointing at the crates.
While George was practising, Fred came out of the shed and asked Adam, “are you alright with what needs doing?”
“No problem mate, where are you starting?” asked Adam.
“Same as last year, the furthest rows,” replied Fred as he waved his arms around, indicting the general direction he was talking about.
Fred headed off to organize the pickers while Adam and George picked up wooden crates with the tractors, and drove off to put them in the rows where the pickers would be starting. As they drove along the track with oranges on both sides of them, there court up with the pickers. The pickers had to get of the track to let Adam and George go bye, Adam gave Zoe a little wave as he passed her, she smiled and waved back.
George slowly picked up the knack of driving the old tractor, as the morning continued on, with everyone settled in to a routine, the pickers, picking oranges, Adam and George taking empty wooden crates out and returning with full ones. The time passed quickly and next thing, it was lunch time.
Adam sat in the shade under large tree, near the tractor, the picking team were spread out, sitting in groups. The older group sat together and the younger once were sitting in two groups, Zoe came over and Sat with Adam.
“Hi, do you mind if I sit here,” asked Zoe.
“No problem,” replied Adam.
“How have you been?” asked Zoe.
“Not to bad,” replied Adam.
“You haven’t gone back to you office job yet,” said Zoe.
“No, but I have to make my mind up very soon, as my long service is running out,” replied Adam.
“Do you have a preference?” asked Zoe.
“Not really, other than that, ‘I don’t want to go back to moving paper around,” replied Adam, he paused for a moment before asking, “what happened to your pretty boy?”
Zoe looked puzzled and asked, “what pretty boy?”
“I spoke to him in Renmark while he was filling the Land Rover with petrol,” said Adam.
Zoe smiled and then frowned before saying, “so you thought he was with me, did you?”
“Awe, arr, I don’t know, I guess,” replied Adam.
There was a defining silence for what seemed like minutes, but was really only seconds, before Adam asked, “how’s the old Land Rover going?”
“Good,” replied Zoe.
“I want to ask you something but I don’t want to course you any upset or unhappiness but I really need to ask you, can I ask it?” asked Adam.
“What is it,” snapped Zoe.
Adam knew he was on thin ice but he continued, “why did you run off, the day after, ‘our night in the back seat of my car,’?”
Zoe looked surprised by the question and then said, “I didn’t run off, you did.”
“I woke up and you were gone,” replied Adam.
“I just went down to the road house to get use a hot breakfast, I left a note,” said Zoe.
“I didn’t see any note,” replied Adam.
“Well I left one,” said Zoe, she paused for a moment and then continued, “I left it sticking out off the pocket that’s on the back of the driver’s seat.”
Fred called out, “come on, let’s get back at it,”
Zoe stud up and without saying anything walked away, Adam watched her walk away for a moment. He got up, wiped a tear from his eye and the walked over to the tractor and got on with the day.
The afternoon dragged on for Adam, it seemed to be a lot longer than the morning, he drove back and forth, empty crate out, full crates back. He just wanted the day to end.
With the day done and dusted Adam got some take away food for dinner on his way back to the Caravan Park. He sat outside his tent, eating some pretty awful fish and chips, looking out over the river, wondering what might have been. After a while he went over to the Subaru, opened the driver’s side rear door and searched around in the pocket on the back of the driver’s seat.
The only thing he found in the pocket was a piece of paper about the size of a business envelope. Written on the paper was;
‘Gone to the Road House, back with breakfast soon, love Zoe’
Adam sat in front of his tent looking at the piece of paper and contemplating, on how something like a piece of paper, can affect the course of someone’s life.
The next day Adam drove out to Fred’s farm, after parking his car he went into the shed to check the tractors before starting them up, all the fluid levels were good. The picking team were arriving and getting organized in the shed, collecting their shoulder bag, gloves and filling their water bottle.
Zoe was filling her water bottle at the sink in the kitchen area of the shed when Adam saw her, he approached her and handed her ‘the note.’
“I found this in the pocket behind the driver’s seat,” said Adam.
Zoe read the note, she looked at Adam.
“You know, I was so happy when I wrote this,” said Zoe.
“I wish I had read it back then, but I have now, so where’s the breakfast?” asked Adam.
Zoe picked an orange up from the kitchen bench and handed it to Adam.
“An orange is a healthy way to start the day,” replied Zoe.
They hugged each other, both trying to hide the tears. The picking team had no idea what was going on and just looked on with some puzzlement.
Fred walked in and said, “well let’s get this show on the road.”
Time passed quickly for Adam as he drove the tractor back and fourth and before he knew it, it was lunch time. He parked the tractor in the shad of a large old Fig tree, Zoe was sitting on the grass eating her lunch when Adam arrived. He walked over to her and asked, “can I sit here.”
“Yer,” replied Zoe.
Adam sat next to her, but he had no lunch, so Zoe offered him one of her sandwiches.
“Did you see that Fred has this place up, ‘For Sale,’ I was thinking about buying it,” said Zoe.
“Over the last year I have been thinking, that something like this place would be great, but something is missing, someone to share it with,” replied Adam.
“A man about the place would make it a more complete package,” said Zoe.
Adam looked at Zoe for a moment.
“Was that an offer? Was that a proposal?” asked Adam.
“Yes,” replied Zoe
“Yes, yes,” said Adam.
“Yes, but isn’t this the wrong way around, you should be asking me,” replied Zoe.
“I did, but you did not hear me,” said Adam.
Zoe lay back on the grass and looked up at the tree branches, Adam lay next to her, reached over and kissed her.
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