Endurance

Solomon Part 1

Barnde Gat County, New Pannonia, May 1 2024

For the first time in seemingly forever, the sun could be seen. It felt as if this was some sort of beginning, and it was. Today was the first day that work would actually begin for the summer. Of course Solomon had to do chores around the house, and go fishing with his father to feed the family, but just as how it had been last time, he had to begin the work needed to get the fields planted with miles of corn, pumpkins, squash, and blueberries. For a few weeks the trucks had been arriving with the seeds. There was yellow corn, ornamental corn, pumpkins, tens of thousands of different kinds of squash, and the usual blueberries. 

It was 10 A.M. and Solomon, his father, and the workers on his farm had all shown up as planned. Solomon's father, Samuel Klein, who owned the farm opened his mouth.

"Hello everyone and thank you for showing up for our first major work day. As you all know, we will be needing to run a very large operation today, the rest of the week, and next week to get the crops sprouting by the end of the month. You will get more information as the day goes on, but for now you will be divided into groups and told where to go in order for the work to begin. Each group leader will be assigned a radio, and workers without radios will be told when to start work when the signal is given."

Soon enough, people moved around into the groups they were assigned to. As usual, Solomon, being the owner's son got to pick which group he worked in. He picked the group he always picks, ornamental corn. He never knew why he always picked this group since it was probably the least important, as most people don't eat ornamental corn, but he thought he'd do it because he liked how it looks. 

The pic-up truck parked at the very back of the farm. The area where the farm was cleared out was a suburban development before the last house got sold 5 years ago. Some of the houses were kept, as workers of the farm could pay rent to live there. Just beyond a small group of trees from where the cul-de-sac ended were towering high-tension power lines. Many workers had used this lines to get to work on the farm, as the government built a long biking and walking trail with the lines spanning all the way from Windsor, to Lakewood, through Van Hiseville to where they end in Toms River. Apparently some people go on challenges where they ride the entire line, which is apparently two whole days, with camping zones built along the paved trail in some places. 

Solomon hopped out of the bed of the pickup along with other workers and grabbed a sack of seeds. He used a trowel to dig a small hole, and placed three seeds into it, before burying them. He repeated this for quite some time, making sure each little hole for the seeds to go in was in line with the one placed before it.

"This would be a lot easier if we had a tractor. We wouldn't have to do it one by one!" said Pedro, his friend from agricultural school. The agricultural school was built on a farm near the Whitesville train station. It was about a 10 minute bus ride there, and most kids from the area who lived or worked on farms in the summer attended it.

"Mr. Klein would have been able to buy the tractor if the Hernandez family didn't burn their house down!" said another worker. Solomon forgot his name but he was always generally a rough person to deal with. 

Solomon remembered the day of the fire. It had snowed that day. The white powder covered everything, and the sun was brightly shining, making for a perfect photograph. The fire took two hours to be put out by the fire department, and reduced half of the house to ashes, which then made the ground surrounding the house look like a chess board, white in some spaces, black in others. The police department said the fire was caused by an engine fire in the garage from the family's pickup truck, however they claimed they weren't working on the truck that day. Solomon could've sworn he heard some sort of popping noises or small explosion before the engulfed the house while he was shoveling his parents' driveway, but the police said it was probably from the engine catching flames.

Solomon continued to work through the day, planting as many seeds as he could until eventually everyone had planted all the seeds. 

"At least that's done," Pedro said, leaning up against the red Ford pickup.

"Just wait until we need to start weeding once the plants sprout and the weeds begin to grow." Solomon said, wiping his forehead with his hand.

"Y'know you didn't need to remind me of that," Pedro sighed.

The workers hopped onto the pickup as their watches hit 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The truck parked near the entrance to the farm, where the Klein family resided. He walked up the driveway and entered the home.

"Shalom," Solomon began in Yiddish, the lingua franca of the Klein family, to his father. "How are you doing?" Solomon's father sat at the dinner table, a newspaper sat in his hands. 

"Solomon, read this." Solomon picked up the Yiddish newspaper, named 'Die Git aun Die Slecht', meaning 'The Good and The Bad'. It was the Yiddish newspaper for most of New Pannonia. "It's in the section for news in Barnde Gat County," added Solomon's father. Solomon carefully read something that is not in the paper every day, especially for a farming family from the outskirts of a village without a train station. 

'Duke Sender I of Barnde Gat, patriarch of the Feidman family will be doing a tour throughout many agricultural-based towns and villages throughout Barnde Gat County. These places include Bennett's Mills, Cassville, Collier's Mills, Jackson Mills, New Egypt, Siloam, Van Hiseville, Whitesville, and many other areas, all to discuss the future of New Pannonian farming with local leaders, as well as regular citizens at municipality-wide meetings at the municipal hall of each town the Duke will visit.'