Geek to Farm

The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when I stood at the side of the field we had plowed the previous day. I estimated that we still had another twenty acres to do and I was anxious to start. The smell of newly turned soil was still heavy in the air and I stood there, reflecting on a number of things. The conversation with my mother the previous night had been long. Wallace had been with her and the lot of us went on speaker and eventually on video. A lot of laughing and at one time even a long moment of deep emotion from my mother when Melanie called her Mom. I was also informed that when Mom and Wallace got married, I would gain two brothers and a sister. One 'brother' being a property broker in Colorado Springs and the other a lawyer somewhere in Denver. My 'sister' was married to an aspiring wine maker in California. It seemed I had potential family close by in Colorado.

Wallace's honest and heartfelt public request during the call for my blessing on his proposal to my mother left me bursting with pride and just a little choked up.

Gazing over the upturned soil I decided to do something very important. I paged through the photo's I had taken of Melanie since we got together. I settled on one where she was laughing at me through a hole in an old adobe wall down at the creek with the sun hitting her astonishing eyes at the perfect angle. I sent it to Tammy with the message. 'You can stop worrying about me. Please know that I love you as you love me and always will. Melanie fills my soul. As you love Devon, so I love Melanie. At last there is someone I can pour my love onto. I solemnly promise that I will never do to her what I did to you. I never want to see or feel that pain again. We will meet as soon as we get back home. Greetings from Colorado."

Pretty soon a message came through; 'I will always love you Johnathan. Let me know when you return. I want to meet her and hear this story. We still have to spread Justin's ashes. Make it a day?'

I sent a thumbs up emoji and dropped the phone into my pocket. With joy in my heart I walked through a part of the plowed field and often picked up clumps of soil, just to feel the life in it. Some I crumpled to fine earth. Others I dropped and watched it roll until it reached a place of rest.

I sensed Melanie's presence and glanced up. About halfway between the house and the field she stood looking my way. I waved and she started hurrying towards me. I broke into a run and when we got together I grabbed hold of her and swung her around me a couple of times. She laughed sweetly and then threw her arms heavenward almost singing; "I love you!"

I put her down and we started walking home with her leaning into me as close as she could get.

"I sent Tammy a message," I said softly and she looked up at me.

"What did you say?"

"That I love her."

"Really?" The faltering of her step was almost imperceptible but I felt it.

I fished the phone from my pocket and gave it to her. "Read it."

It took her a few seconds to find the message and I could see her hands trembling as she read. She must have read it numerous times because it took a long while before she stepped out in front of me forcing me to stop. She put her hands against my chest and I could sense her fast breathing. Her eyes were cloudy when she looked up at me. "That day in the park I said that there was a mountain of trust between you, Tammy and Devon. Thank you for sharing that with me."

"Do you trust.."

"Till I die," she said before brutally pulling my head to her and kissing me so hard that I tasted blood.

As we approached the house I remembered something and pulled her to a stop. "The day I had the run-in with Tom whatsisname you said there was a reason why he upset you so much. I also noticed that your father has anger in his eyes when his name is mentioned. What happened there?"

She fidgeted for a while and then looked up with almost the same expression she had when she told me how Peter had died. "He tried to rape me."

A cold wave washed down my back. "Tried?"

She nodded. "I disliked him for as long as I knew him. One night I went to a community festival in town and joined a group of friends. He was also there but I ignored him as much as possible. He tried to strike up a conversation more than once but I cold-shouldered him. Twice he 'accidentally' touched my breasts and I lost my temper. I yelled at him and left. Halfway home he overtook my little car in his truck and forced me to stop."

I could feel her tremble and gently folded her into my arms. "And then?"

"I was furious and got out of my car to give him a piece of my mind. I never thought he would do what he did. He simply grabbed me and ripped my blouse open and then ripped my bra off my body. Like a fool I covered my breasts and that's when he lifted my skirt to yank my panty down. Somewhere around there I got to my senses and kicked at him. I was lucky to hit him solidly in his solar plexus as he bent down and in the time it took him to recover I got into my car and sped away."

"Did he give chase?" I asked softly and she shrugged.

"I think so. I vaguely remember that the ambient light in my car changed at some stage and I think that may have been when he turned around as I was near the farm. I was too terrified to even look in the mirror while I was racing for home."

"What came of it?"

"We laid charges but he had a whole bunch of friends who maintained that he never left the venue and I was left as......"

"...the girl he snubbed and tried to get back at him," I finished for her and she nodded.

Still hugging her I softly said; "I promise I will not go and look for trouble with him but if we accidentally meet in a dark alley, will you forgive me if I turn him into a eunuch?

She giggled and hugged me tighter. "As long as you do not give me his dried testicles as a wedding gift."

***

We finished plowing the field that day and then Bart made us be tourists for a day or two. Pikes Peak literally took my breath away. Having grown up and still living at almost sea level, I breathed with difficulty and my feet felt as if they were the size of Charlie Chaplin's and made of lead. With a mischievous grin Melanie directed me to Cripple Creek. We had time to take a quick walk down the main drag and play with a few burros before cold, hunger and impending night forced us into our hotel for the night. Dinner was something dreams are made of and pretty soon after a hot shower we were cuddling for warmth in bed. Making love at that altitude was difficult and afterward we lay in bed giggling, trying to answer a very real question; why were there so many venues advertising chapels and romantic get-aways when the exertions of sex almost kills you?

Two days later we got back to the farm and I got into the farm work as soon as I could. I loved the hard work and spent as much time on the tractor as I could. I loved being on that thing. At night I would return to the house after a day of work tired, dirty and completely happy. I learnt how to wrangle and milk cows and even slaughtered a pig much to the delight of Bart who intentionally did a few things to make me queasy. I held it together mainly because Melanie seemed completely unfazed and there was no way on this world that I was going to be a weakling in her eyes. Before we had to return home I finished planting half of that field with corn and another half with grain sorghum. Callouses on my hands bore testament to hard labor. The start of a typical city slicker's body with a paunch and flabby muscles had started to disappear. I felt strong again and my face and arms had a healthy tan to it. In a corner of a barn was a box containing a bewildering array of bits and pieces which, I was told, would be an ancient engine used to pump water once it was reassembled. I did not touch it. That was to be a project for somewhere in the future, but I was curious to see it done.

Chapter 15

Jenny nearly fell off her chair when I walked into the offices that Monday morning. She had the same 'wow' reaction to how I looked as Tammy had had on Sunday when Melanie and I arrived at their house with the little box containing Justin's ashes.

"You have changed," she almost stuttered before kissing me on the cheek. "I want to know what happened to you in two weeks to turn you into such a desirable hunk."

I gave her a hug, waved Derek over and was given a grand tour of the new installations in the offices. Having a new, very wealthy, absent partner was obvious in what was available in the offices. Derek was motor-mouthing while I tried to take everything in. He could barely contain himself when he presented me with my new laptop and I stood watching as he sang the praises of this new gadget, representing the latest of the greatest of the biggest in computer technology. It was fast. Blindingly so. It was over the top as well but I kept that to myself as I started paging through files on the drive. The program for Joice was already on disk and I sat there looking at it for quite some time before I realized that it had been changed. Dramatically.

I phoned Reese and soon had fun going from command to command with him. I marveled at what they had done in two weeks.

"It helps if you don't have a little bug that rewrites your best coding every now and then," he chuckled.

During lunch I was ambushed by Jenny and Derek. It took more than just our lunch break to go over the past two weeks but I got the grist of it across before we had to break up to put our nose to the grinder again. Henry waddled into my office during the afternoon and very carefully wanted to know how long the Joice project was going to take. He nearly danced when I told him that all that was left to do was matching it up with their current system and provided there was no strange glitch, it should be running within the week.

"You wanted to speak to me when I came in to fill out my leave," I prodded and watched him flush slightly.

"I uhm....Oh yeah! I wanted to thank you for what you had done. And also..." His eyes started flitting across the room. Obviously, he was embarrassed.

"Part of my job I guess," I joked and he smiled self consciously.

"Not really but yeah, I guess you were in the right place with the right knowledge. I'm sorry for being such a dork to you before. I disliked you for some stupid reason and allowed that to spill over into the department. I realize I caused a lot of conflict."

I nodded. "That you did." For a split second I saw anger flash across his complexion but he gathered himself and smiled lopsidedly.

"Can we put that behind us?"

I shrugged with a smile. "We need a common enemy. If it is not you, who will it be?"

To my surprise he laughed merrily and held out his hand. We shook and he left my office with a happy smile and a spring to his step.

I arrived home and found Melanie's road pimple parked in my garage. I smiled and wondered if I had lost my cupboard space as well. The thought made me happy and I almost bounced through the front door where I was met by two wonderful things. First, the smell of cooking that had my mouth watering and secondly as I rounded the corner from the great room to the kitchen, the sight of a flustered but oh, so beautiful Melanie almost running in the kitchen from stove to oven to fridge to hand basin to stove.

"lost something?" I called and she almost tripped over her own feet. She ran to me, gave me a very quick but forceful kiss before pulling away.

"Wallace and Mom are coming for dinner Johnathan!"

"Who invited them?"

"We did."

"We?"

Melanie looked up with a smile. "Not you and I. Tammy phoned and between us it seemed like a good idea. I have not met..."

"Yeah. I know. Maybe you should have invited.."

"They are coming."

"Tammy?"

Melanie grinned. "I need a mother in law buffer and I have to admit, Tammy is out of this world."

"You like her?"

"You know I love her!"

I groaned loudly. "I hope my mom dislikes you intensely."

"Why?"

I pulled a tuft of Melanie's hair to make her look at me. "Three women who agree with one another can be a little too much. Men need a break."

I got two glittering eyes and a tongue stuck out through smiling lips. "Go clean up before I give you some domestic chore."

I had a long and leisurely shower and by the time I came downstairs again, Mom and Wallace were already there. I had time to shake Wallace's hand before my mom pulled me into a hug so forceful that I grunted.

"Glad to see me or happy with my choice of women?" I chuckled and my mom gave me a peck on the cheek.

"Both."

I poured them each a glass of wine and shortly afterward Tammy and Devon arrived. Three women in the kitchen were too much and I pulled the two men outside to the patio.

Most of the conversation went about my time on the farm and I found myself telling a number of exciting stories to a rapt audience. Devon had grown up on a farm down Tennessee way and even Wallace had spent a few happy years on a ranch before his parents moved to the city.

It was a warm evening and we had dinner outside on the patio. We were about halfway through when Tammy leaned back and looked at me with a knowing smile.

"I guess you have been given a new laptop?"

I chuckled and made a circle with my fingers. "The bestest, fastest, biggest and baddest in the whole US of A."

"May I see it?"

I sat there looking at her as realization dawned. "It is in my office."

Tammy almost choked. "You left your computer at work?" I nodded and she laughed. "I don't believe it!"

All I could do was shrug. "I promised not to do to Melanie what I did to you. Maybe my sub conscious kicked in." I felt Melanie gently take my hand under the table.

"It will be ok if you worked here," she said softly and I turned on her.

"Like hell" I shouted. "I'd rather spend a full day ploughing in the sun or have a steer kick me. Never again!"

My mom gasped and I looked up into shocked faces around the table. I took a couple of deep breaths and kissed Melanie gently. "Sorry Love. I did not mean to yell but it is how I feel."

"Do you miss the farm?" Tammy asked with devils dancing in her eyes.

I sat there looking at her. Memories flashed. How I loved her and still do. How it fell apart. The pain. The pressure of Corporate life and deadlines. The joy of Melanie. And the satisfaction of looking at upturned soil, waiting for germination. Seeing something grow. Smelling the earth we are born from.

"Yeah, I do Tammy." I sighed. "I think I miss it more than I realize. At the farm I was ALIVE."

Wallace winked at me. "Why don't you find yourself a smallholding and do a little scratching around in the soil? In time you will learn the finer tricks and even find yourself farming full time?"

I chuckled. "I will have to spend a long time in Colorado to learn the finer tricks but yeah, it sounds like a great idea."

The conversation dwindled to generalities but in the back of my mind a seed had been planted. Late that night with Melanie cuddled into me I lay awake and had different visions of different farms flitting through my mind. Somewhere I drifted off to sleep and woke early, almost expecting Mary's voice from the kitchen.

At work I was in a hurry to finish the Joice program and hammered away. Around lunch time I sidled up to Jenny.

"Is the company researcher too busy to do me a favor?"

She smiled up at me. "Whatcha need mister?"

"A farm."

She looked me up and down, got up and pushed me on my shoulders into a seat. "You just sit down there young man. I will go fetch some coffee. I think you have a bug."

With a fresh coffee in my hand she leaned back in her chair and smiled. "Spill it."

"I'm thinking of selling my house," I started. "With the money I may be able to put a down payment on a smallholding or maybe even a rental deposit on something bigger. With the remaining bits I can finance a start-up crop. I don't know yet."

Two puppy-dog eyes looked at me. "You gonna resign?"

"No. Not yet."

"So your farm has to be close by."

"Yip."

Jenny chuckled. "You realize that decent arable land is a long way from this city?"

I nodded and left to carry on with my work. I felt dejected. My sudden dream was being shattered even before it had a chance to start. But maybe....

By the time I left for home Jenny had found four smallholdings of varying size but the closest was a two hour commute from work. The nearest farm for sale or rent was nearly three hours away. My dejection grew.

Melanie cheered me up a little but I sat outside on the patio, nursing my disappointment like a naughty child. Just before dinner my phone rang. It was Mark.

"We found your neighbor," he said after the formalities.

"Oh."

"His car was spotted near Traverse City and they traced him to a hospital in town. It seems he was found wandering around the woods in a dazed condition with no ID and not knowing who he was or where he was from."

I sighed loudly. "Thanks Mark. I appreciate it. What about his house? Should we go and have a look? See if it is still ok?"

"His sister and some friend are on their way there. Can I give them your details for assistance should they need some?"

"Sure. They can pop in any time. Melanie will be here if I am not." I could hear him draw a hard breath and chuckled. "We are engaged."

He guffawed. "She there?"

"Speak to her?"

"You bet!"

I went on speaker and Melanie barely had time to say hello before he yelled; "Way to go partner! I knew there were sparks between you two that night the dog was killed. Just tell me, who proposed to who?"

Melanie laughed merrily. "Actually, he abducted me to my parents in Colorado and I had no choice other than accepting his proposal as I was threatened with having to stay at home again if I refused."

Ten minutes later he was up to speed about what had happened and with a promise to come visit, we ended the call.

"Still upset because you need a farm and cannot find one?" Melanie quizzed while we ate and I shrugged.

"Quite honestly, I think I am just at odds with myself at the moment. The job I have been doing until now was what I had known almost all my life. It gave me a living but also robbed me of precious bits of life." Melanie nodded. "Tammy?" and I shrugged with a nod. "While I studied in Stellenbosch I visited numerous farms and even though it was diverse, I never WORKED on any of them. The two weeks in Colorado woke something in me that I never knew was there. As I said last night, I was ALIVE."

Melanie smiled. "Can you imagine how difficult it was for me to adjust to the city when I came here?"

Realization flashed through me and I gaped at her. "You know what? I have gone off half-cocked here wanting to scratch dirt on some little farm and I never asked how you felt about it."

Melanie smiled and held out her hands to me. "I grew up with dirt mixed with manure under my finger nails."

"And?"

"I miss it."

I hugged that astonishing woman to me and we got carried away from there. Well, actually, I carried her. To bed.

Two months later I was still no nearer to my little farm as I had been when I started looking but the tendency to feel dejected due to no success was softened by the knowledge of Melanie sharing it with me. I arrived home one afternoon to find my SUV parked outside. Washed and polished. I crooked my eye at it and walked inside.

"What did you break?" I laughingly called from the door and watched Melanie come around the corner from the study, still in her clothes from working at the dog training centre. She had a mischievous smile with maybe just a little tinge of insecurity in her eyes.

She clung to me after kissing me with the abandon I was so fond of. "I have a lot to say. Do you want coffee first?"