Nate's Life

The Start

I felt the heat of the sun burning down on my exposed neck, but I continued to pick the English peas in my grandpas garden.

He hadn't been feeling good for the past couple of days, and the weather was getting so hot, if they weren't picked soon they would die. The pain in my lower back combined with the tan that I was sure was turning into a sunburn made the work slow and tedious.

"Hey Nate," my sister yelled, across several rows of those god damn peas that were still on the vine."

"what is it Beth? "

"I think we should take a break for lunch." she walked threw the garden and went back to my red chevy truck I had parked not to far away.

I straightened up and tried to stretch my bunched up muscles out to a more comfortable position. "totally," I agreed. I made my way out of the garden, trying not to run at the thought of a good meal, and air conditioning.

We both got in my truck. The heat from the July day had seeped in making the interior air hot, stale, and stuffy. I turned the key, but the familiar rumbling and shaking that usually happened was worrisomely absent. I tried again, but still nothing.

"great" I muttered under my breath.

"what did you?" Beth said turning her head to look at me, her voice hinting at a tone of unrest.

"what do you mean? What did I do?" I shot back. I felt a trickle of sweat run down the side of my face.

How did I get so lucky? Stuck in a hot truck that won't start, with a sister who I could tell had a major melt down coming on.

"I mean, why cant you get the truck to start?" she hissed icily. She unbuckled her seat belt and I couldn't tell if she was going to lean over me to see if she could help, or lean over to strangle me.

"I don't know, and I didn't do it." I groaned back. She was practically in my lap, but she couldn't reach the ignition. She was wiggling and squirming, and I was shoving her away. "ouch! Stop it Beth, your, OOOOOAAAW!" I yelped.

"all I want is for the crappy truck to start and to go home and eat a crappy lunch!" she yelled. "but you can even make that happen! Why do we have to pick those stupid peas anyway!? I don't even like them! Do you even like them? It's to hot for this!"

She gave up with trying to get to the ignition, and she threw open the passenger side door and stormed out, kicking the front left tire on her way for good measure. I sat back into the hot cloth seat and felt the sweat on my back soak into my shirt.

I wearily watched Beth storm back into the garden and violently begin ripping up the pea plants, she tore some apart, and threw others, but she was hell bent and on a mission. A mission to make sure no English peas plants were left alive. She gets like this some times, she probably wasn't even all that angry about the truck or the peas. She just bottles up all her other problems, and it all comes exploding out at once. Like right now.

Me and Beth might be twins in the fact we have the same parents, spent 9 months in the womb together, and have the same birthday, but we are NOTHING a like. We don't even look anything a like. I have dark black hair and baby blue eyes. I'm not all that handsome, but I'm not anywhere close to ugly. At least that's what I think. Beth is pretty, with blonde hair and green eyes. her face is shaped like our fathers, and mine is like our mothers. Beth is quick to anger, a spitfire I guess. Were as I'm very slow to get anger, and very rarely do I act out on it. She also gets worked up about the little things, I'm more of your go with the flow. I mean don't get me wrong I have my faults, one major one in particular, mine just don't show, at least not on the surface.

I unbuckled my seat belt and hopped out of my truck. Beth had pretty much completed her mission and was cooling down. I still had to be careful though because she could go back off, and I don't want to end up like one of those poor pea plants.

"feel better?" I asked half heartedly. I dared smile in her direction.

Her face was still red, a combination of physical excretion and extreme anger. "did you get the truck to start?" she said through gritted teeth.

I shook my head. "then the word your looking for is no." she clenched her jaw even tighter when she said this and i took a step back.

"wow calm down." I said disapprovingly. She balled her fists, and it looked like she was about blow again. All of a sudden she just deflated. She sighed and let out a lot of air.