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Dusty Fields

 One thing about living in the middle of nowhere is that the people who come to see you are from far away. They show up in droves when the air turns just cold enough for laughter to break out, instead of wilting in the summer heat. They stand by the apple trees with plastic bags in their hands, lifting up children on their backs to get the best apples from high branches. 

Ruby ducks under one of the Pink Lady trees, cupping a dropped apple in her small hands. It has a bruise from the fall.

Rubbing it against the patch on her jeans to get the shine just right, she climbs out from under the tree. A family of four stands a few trees down, laughing as the younger child grasps an apple in his hand before turning to show off his prize. 

A lot of the people who come to the farm are like this. They bring their families, making more people than she’s seen all year. Ruby watches some of these children before she keeps running diagonally along the ground scented with apples, arriving at a small wooden building.

Her family is all there, colorful sticks wrapped with twine. Brothers and sister, aunts and uncles, everyone. She holds the apple out to each of them, asking if they can make apple tarts, but each turns her away. The customers are growing impatient, and they don’t have time to make apple tarts now. Ruby’s family needs the money it makes here to live through when nothing will grow. She knows that. 

So many people, all of them too busy to notice her. What is the point of being a flock if you’re left behind?

The visiting children see her, standing there with the apple in her hand. A few of them begin to gather around and ask her what it’s like to live on a farm. It’s been adults asking Ruby this question until now. People that are bigger than five of her stacked on top of each other!

 A smile grows on her face as she listens about the world beyond her apple farm. There are even more children living at the bottom of the hill, where the visitors go. 

Shiny boxes that take away people and leave nothing behind for her.




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