Prolific: Farm Life Multiplied

I wasn't a separable cog in a machine so much as a newly welded in bit. I _was_ the machine, attached to all the other parts together to make the machine turn and work.

A part of that machine, this farm, had worn out: Agnes. I was the replacement part. Ann and Yee had just been welded in, very near me. We all had our parts to play. I knew that I could leave the farm anytime, and I would leave to go to classes daily. I could go and do anything, but it wouldn't matter because I would still be a part of the farm and I'd feel Just Very Wrong to be somewhere else.

The ritual wasn't brainwashing. The ritual was a way to make the welding work right.

Still. Odd stuff.

I got downstairs and changed the laundry to the dryers and put in more washing. Almost all of it had gone into the first load, the washers were so big, but I did have more, the clothes I'd worn the previous day and my laundry from my hamper in my old apartment, plus some dishrags and dustrags.

The amount of work facing us was going to be never-ending.

My worry was like a cloud over my head.

Worry came in my mother's yelling. Worry was her messy life. Worry was too many ongoing study-topics in my head. Worry was... two OHHHHH-so-FINE women upstairs, Sleeping, Who would Awaken and be Living With Me.

Murphy was a single-sex hall, male.

Fenner was a single-sex hall, female, next door.

My worry was - I didn't know how to live with women that were... Normal?

Really, mostly, as I thought about my worries, they were reduced now that I wasn't near my alcoholic Mom, they were confined to this place, and all the what the hell moments I was about to have.

I had a sense of that.

There were a shit-ton of what the fuck moments rolling down a hill towards me and I was going to mess it all up and someone was going to get hurt. I didn't want Anyone, ANYONE, to get hurt. I'd be okay it I was hurt. I just didn't want anyone Else hurt.

And, it seemed like I was just enough of an idiot to hurt someone, by accident and unintentional phrase or glance or putting things down wrong or something.

Plus, there was the whole Farm-As-Danger-Zone thing. I didn't want to burn down the place, or forget to do something vital, or just not know something vital about preventing a disaster of some other 'oh-yeah-that' type.

The foreboding sense of Too-Much-to-Do just stuck in my mind and spun, and spun...

My imagination in that spinning foreboding popped up images, branching dreams of what-if, and I'd have to sort all that out. Intellectually, I knew I could logic or intuit my way through this, but on an emotional level, I felt myself being latched into helping this place, this palace be better, get Better, get More Interconnected... But would I fuck it all up?

== Chapter: Encompassed ==

That night, I went up and checked on the girls, breathing steadily, knowing my life was probably going to be more complicated with two tenants. But, at the same time, I had more hands to help with the work.

It felt good to have a shower, and there was even enough hot water. Sure, the water went everywhere because there was no shower curtain, but it was a tile bathroom so I could not worry about that for a single night.

The only way to do shower without a curtain was with the wand, kneeling, and I wondered how Agnes did it.

There were lots of clean white terrycloth towels in the closet.

Sleep was sweet but noisy with insects buzzing outside the window screens. I maybe knew why Agnes had the windows closed.

== ==

The next morning, I awoke to the smell of bacon and rolled over on my freshly-laundered white sheets.

The bed I was in, though, needed help. Really, it needed replacing. It sagged heavily in the middle and had big lumps, so I had slept on the outside edge. How Agnes had lived here, I had no idea.

I was sure she'd lived in this room because the built-in drawers and closets were full of her clothes. I had no desire to wear them thank you, but they remained. Rearranging that was just one tiny job out of ten bazillion hanging over my head.

For the day, as I got up, I knew I'd have to come up with some set of first-tasks, the most-important ones, maybe. I pulled on clean shorts, put on deodorant, and did a quick version of the toothbrush-hairbrush-pee routine.

Coming out to the kitchen, I saw Yee was washing dishes and Ann was drying.

The cabinets were all open; it looked like they were going through everything, and I could do nothing but wholeheartedly approve, so I clapped and said, 'Yippee! Cleaning!'

They laughed at me, but as I came to the table to sit down, Ann walked over and gave me a big hug. "Thank you for letting us do this. This kicks ass!" I felt the hug, deeply, the contact giving me a thrill of 'wow, she likes me'.

Of all surprises, though, as she pulled away from the hug, she gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I was too stunned to do anything, and she laughed at my reaction.

I could only manage, "Uh..."

Yee laughed, too, having watched it, but then she came over, looking at the table like she was going to move some of the dishes, and instead, darted towards me and gave me a hug, too.

What's a guy to do but hug back?

She pulled away, and I didn't know what to expect. She didn't kiss me, though. Instead, she pulled out the chair and ushered me into sit, so I followed directions.

Then, once I was seated - she bent over and surprise-kissed me on the cheek from behind.

I laughed at that (along with Ann who'd watched), and said semi-formally to Yee, "Thank you."

Breakfast was amazing - hash browns, eggs, toast with some kind of rhubarb preserves. I knew I had to up my game if I was going to earn my keep at this place, given this good cooking, and said so.

Ann replied with a practical tone, "If you can get a working dishwasher, yeah, that'd be a good place to start."

I was finished, so I brought my dishes to the sink. "I'm pretty sure we can have another one installed, but I can't bike there."

Ann shrugged with the obviousness, "You need a driver's license, like, now. At least as much as we need a dishwasher."

"Granted."

We all piled in Ann's car, stopping at the bank my checks were from so I could get some cash and buy a full tank of gas since Ann was running on fumes.

From there, we found a mattress store and had fun testing out which ones 'felt right'. Yee wanted a hard one, as did I, but Ann wanted something softer.

Happily we didn't have to compromise since we were getting three mattresses. I insisted they all be king sized, though, so we could simplify bed linens and only have to get the one size. This they thought was extravagant, but then I was the one paying the bills and they weren't going to object to having a bigger bed.

Like the lawyer said, it's better to buy a good thing once than buy a crappy thing over and over.

It turns out, if you buy a mattress, sometimes they deliver same-day. When you order three, some with headboards and frames, they're Even More Happy to deliver same-day.

For us, they threw in sheet-sets and pillows for "free" (out of their significant profit margin, I was sure), which saved us a trip.

Delivery would be after 4pm, they said, and we were all happy. I was sure this was money totally well-spent.

Next up was an appliance store for a nice dishwasher, stove, range hood, and microwave.

Yee said she wanted an electric stove, but I had seen enough electric complications in the house already that screamed 'DANGER!' in my engineering mind. I tried to communicate that to her with "Boom" and "Zap!" (her English for 'short-circuit' didn't translate). She got the message. We went with a propane-version of a gas stove, and I promised if we could figure out where and how the power would work, I'd get an electric double-wall oven later.

(The giant propane tank was visible in the side yard near the lane so I knew we had that and not natural gas)

Next up, we got a TV and coffee maker at an electronics store, and a couple of boom-box portable radios so I could have one in the shop.

After that, a household-goods store for shower curtains, bathmats, towels, toilet paper, etc.

Everyone seemed to accept my personal check once I gave them ID and they could call the bank.

Ann and Yee were both impressed with the amount of money I was spending, but I insisted that this was an investment in the house, and I had to be very careful what I spent it on. I made a show of deciding not to get a riding mower and instead just get a pull-start one.

This last bit was a mistake.

We got home and had lunch. While Yee and Ann went into the garden to see what vegetables they could find, I got the lawnmower gassed up and started.

After about an hour, I realized how little of the lawn I had actually cut, mostly around the trees in the lane. I also had to constantly stop so I could move crap out of the lawn and onto piles near the barn or shop.

With the length of the grass, it was obvious that even going forward, I'd need something with a lot more Oomph. I had to give up on that idea for a while and pushed the mower back to the shop.

Hunting up Yee and Ann wasn't hard - it was so quiet I followed some distant voices to find them in the garden.

Yee was in 7th heaven.

Ann described what we had, and then Yee started pointing and naming them in Korean.

This was a blast. Some things were the same. Bean, pea ('pi'), blueberry, tomato, all those were the same. Squash was a different name. Bell peppers were 'paprika', which I thought was really funny, but both girls just blinked at me like I was strange, that I didn't know that.

I'd not had a garden before, but they both had, so it was familiar territory for them, but on a grand stage compared to what they'd seen.

There were volunteer or perennial onions and chives, a huge patch of beans growing on frames, ripe and unripe grapes, just hanging out on the vines. Cantaloupes, giant walls of tomato plants, potatoes, you name it. Cherries hung ripe on the trees. Pears, not-yet-ripe peaches, the amount of food on this farm just amazed me. I knew I hadn't seen but a tiny bit of it, just what was immediately around me.

A lot of the food was just rotting on the ground. Yee was upset, and asked me if we could sell it.

I said, "Sure! Glad if someone gets some use from it!"

We went back to the house, carrying baskets full of produce, and she set about sorting what we'd need and not need.

Standing there, her in her element, she turned to me. "Mr. Kevin?"

I laughed, "Uh... Just Kevin."

"Sir. Kevin. May I, phone call? Friends come. They help... harvest." Harvest was a new word for her. "They pay money. Good money. Restaurants. They want fresh! Fresh is good."

I thought about it, and something struck me, an inspiration that I am convinced was Agnes' ghost putting an idea in my head. I asked Yee, "Sure! But... what about the seeds?"

If we didn't keep the seeds, we couldn't grow things next year.

Ann understood my ideas and set about telling Yee what I meant, and I went back to look at the yard and the lawn.

I had to figure out something. The lawn, hell, the whole place was seriously overgrown. The amount of crap lying around in lawn/weeds (no difference) near the driveway? I was in total fear I'd chew up the lawnmower or hurt myself with shrapnel if I didn't get it cleaned before I cut stuff down.

The wheelbarrow was the more sensible solution. I filled it over and over, schlepping it over to a metal-yard behind the shop, or even taking it into the shop to pile it in a bin of similar stuff.

About four, a big truck came in the lane with 'Carson's Mattress" on the side. Two big guys got out.

Faster than I thought possible, they'd gotten the old mattresses out, brought in new ones, set up the new headboards since the old ones weren't all king sized, and happily left.

Yee and Ann sent them each with a couple of big sacks of fresh produce for each of their families, as a thank-you gift. I knew how much that might have cost in the store and it was more than any monetary tip I would have given them, but it was free to us and would have gone to waste otherwise.

Wow! We had mattresses!

Yee and Ann set about making beds and getting our purchases sorted, but I kept up the outside moving-stuff job, happy that I could make a difference there and still have progress inside, too.

About 6 pm, a pick-up truck drove in.

Visitors?

An asian man and his daughter were inside the cab. He called out, "Yee?"

I went over and said hello. He introduced himself and we chatted. He spoke much better English than Yee. The daughter, maybe my age but wearing a big floppy hat so I couldn't see well, just tagged along.

Yee came out, and took over in rapid-fire Korean. In this domain, she was an in-charge lady, and it was a sight to behold. I'd never heard her speak this quickly, it was like she was a different person.

They wandered over into the garden and she pointed at things; even though I didn't know the words I recognized the lilt of, "This-YES, and That-NO".

They came to some agreement, and the man came back over to me and shook my hand.

He said, "She explained it to me. I will take only what is ripe or near-ripe, but I will leave enough for your household to eat - 3 people, yes?"

"Yes."

"My cooks, they will separate out your seeds only, from things that make seeds, and I will bring the seeds back. We will be very careful. My cooks have gardens back in Tongduchon, they know seeds, the importance of good seeds. Some things, you need to go overripe in order to make seeds, and I'll leave that stuff in place and make sure we don't touch it."

I nodded, seriously.

He continued, "We can pay Yee, or you if you want?"

"Yee, it's better that way."

"No problem. So, you are a family farm, yes? I respect this. I respect Yee's family, we have history. I negotiate with corporation farms. But, you, here, I don't negotiate. I give you the Right Money, you deserve it, they don't."

Yee was standing right there, and they bowed to each other. She said to him, "Gamsahabnidah. Yes. Every day, or 2 days."

I bowed to the man, too, and the daughter, whose face I couldn't see, bowed back to me, too, deeper. I'd read a story once about people getting in a bow-ing war, one guy didn't know he was supposed to bow less deep, which made the other person have to re-bow, only deeper, and it led to a disagreement and stupid anger.

After I walked away, I realized that story had been set in Japan and not Korea, but maybe the same rules applied.

To Yee, I said, "You get the money, buy food with it." She nodded happily and went back inside.

The last vehicle of the day was the appliance delivery at about 6:30 pm, late for a delivery, but it was summer and still sunny. We were happy to watch them maneuver the old kitchen stove out and bring in the new one, with the range hood (a separate installer would come, they said), and then start on installing the dishwasher. There had been one, but it had a trashcan in the spot so Agnes had decided not to replace it at some point.

I came in about 8 and watched him finish and leave, and decided that clean was a good way to be so I headed off for a shower, and my first shave in almost a week since I'd chosen not to unpack that stuff the night before.

The shower was Hot and Nice and from 4 shower heads at once. Wow.

But... where were my towels? I hadn't checked. They were all gone! Someonehad been ambitious in getting the dirty laundry swept up and handled.

I knew my apartment garbage-bag trove in the library had some. Could I get there, unobserved? The coast looked clear, and I did find a single hand towel, so (still dripping) I put it in front of myself and crept out, then dug through bags hunting.

I failed.

No bags had clothing? I was sure I put them there...!

Just about then, I felt a hand on my shoulder, startling me. I looked up at Ann, rubbing my back in encouragement and smiling.

She said, "Oh! You're looking for underwear, I bet. All cleaned. We weren't sure if you'd packed your hamper or your clean clothes, so we washed it all. It's in your drawers."

"I have drawers?"

She laughed and her eyes went down to the meager hand-towel that covered my front. She waggled her finger to point at my backside closer to her, "You have drawers, but not drawers." This apparently was very funny, and she laughed and walked back to the kitchen, leaving me rolling my eyes.

As I thought about the interaction, though, I got way more appreciative.

For one, she'd not made fun of me being nearly naked. Two, she'd touched me when I was naked, without worry or making a big deal, something girls just didn't do around me before. Three, she'd seen my bare butt, which wasn't nothing. And, four, she'd made a joke about the old term for underwear being drawers.

I took some delight in having possibly found another vocabulary nerd.

With nothing to retrieve there, I slinked off back to my bedroom and found I had actually did have drawers in my drawers.

Dressed and walking into the kitchen, Ann's attitude hadn't been changed by our encounter, and she simply recounted how the plumber had told her (while I wasn' there) that the pipes were old and needed to be replaced, that the wall insulation wasn't thick enough and it might freeze in the winter, and that the sink needed better plumbing.

There was no end of repairs to be done. My foreboding-worry got worse hearing this, and I think Ann noticed it at least. Yee was busy at the new stove.

We ate a late dinner, a stir-fry with fresh veggies and fried rice that tasted like Yee really knew what she was doing. It had more spicy-heat than I would have liked, though - a small thing to some people but I'd never really been into hot spicy stuff. I asked Yee to cut down on that and she bowed like she'd hurt me, so I smiled and thanked her, and then it turned out I had to hug her to make it okay again.

Yee finished the hug by looking up at me and saying a long and complete sentence: "You are welcome for Food." Then, she kissed me!

Oh-my-goodness! From Yee, too!

I was surprised, yes. It wasn't romantic, exactly, just a quick peck on the lips, but her broad smile told me good things.

I thought that was it, but it wasn't. Yee kept going - looking me in the eyes again and saying, "You are welcome for more," and kissed me more soundly, with softer lips and a more prolonged touch.

I was pretty sure I knew what she meant.

Ann was standing right there, smiling. I looked up at her as Yee pulled away, and she said, walking over to me, "I cooked, too..."

Confused but happy, I got a hug from her and said, "Then, thank you also."

She pulled away from the hug far enough to exactly parrot Yee, saying, "You are welcome for food," a quick kiss, "You are welcome for More," and then a more significant kiss.

They were both kissing me. In front of the other one, they were kissing me!

I didn't quite know what to do, and maybe my face showed it.

Ann explained, almost laughing, "Yee and I talked. We are both here, and you're here, and we agree it is okay with us, for both of us to kiss you. We've said we'll be honest with you, and honesty means kissing, we think." Her tone was like someone who had decided something and there was no real way to debate it now.

"Okay?" I was confused, "Is it okay if I kiss you back?"

Ann rolled her eyes, and even Yee understood. Ann said, "Duh."

Yee said, carefully, "You ask? With love? Answer is yes."

Ann's smile expanded at hearing this, and went over to Yee with open arms, gave her a hug, and said, "Yes, exactly right! Good words!"

Ann turned back to me and said, her head tilting playfully, "Yee is right. If you ask with love, you will probably catch a 'Yes'...?"

I grinned back at Ann and tilted my head playfully. "I would love to catch you, the way you caught me today."