SATURDAY STORY, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022 - APPLE PICKING

 SATURDAY STORY, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022

I'm trying to write some fiction.  This is a continuation of the last five Saturday Stories. Emmalee Smith and Penny Krause were teaching at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon.  Last week they were at Multnomah Falls on their way to pick apples - and Emmalee saved a boy’s life.

*****

Izaak had worked as a seasonal employee at “The Farm Place” in Hood River in the past and had dropped a note to Roger and Frieda Johannson that he was going to come up that Saturday.  

At the front gate, he told the greeters he was a friend of the Johannsons and they were expecting his group.  The greeters directed him to park on the left side of the sales barn, and they quickly texted Frieda Johannson that they were here.

Frieda Johannson met the car in the parking area.  She hugged Izaak, and then met Emmalee (who had been in the front seat with Izaak), Raymond, LaToya, and Penny were in the middle seat, and Micah and Janniece climbed out of the back seat.

“I thought you’d be here an hour ago”, said Frieda.

“Well, Emmalee here decided she wanted to play in the water at Multnomah Falls”, was Izaak’s quick retort.

He went on, “No, really.  There was a boy who fell off the ledge and was slipping into the gorge and the waterfall.  Emmalee jumped over the ledge and helped him back to safety.  But, then she was all wet and dirty so we had to buy her some used clothes in Hood River”.

Emmalee interrupted, “That’s almost right, except Izaak organized a rescue squad, and knotted about fifty belts together to make a temporary rope that we tossed to the boy.  He’s the real hero”.

Frieda laughed “Izaak, you do make up the stories.  We are glad you are here, and Emmalee and all, welcome to The Farm Place.  We have lots for you to do today - including a petting zoo, and apple picking, and of course, apple pies and more in our cafe.”

Turning to Izaak, she asked, “And who are all these people?”

Izaak introduced the group.  Emmalee noticed that Izaak was standing next to her, and Penny was standing next to Raymond. Emmalee was thinking, ‘Hmmm - is something going on here.

Frieda yelled back into the barn, “Rosa could you help these friends with some apples today?”

A girl - may be still in High School - came out and Frieda introduced her.  “This is Rosa.  She’s a senior at Hood River High School and the daughter of friends.  Rosa.  This is Izaak - who worked for us a few years back and his friends.  They want to pick apples today, and I’m not sure what else - could you help them?”

Rosa’s bright eyes lit up, “Of course, Mrs. Johannson, I’d love to help them get the best apples in the orchard.”

The crew got baskets from Rosa and all admired the view of Mount Hood.  Today was a crisp fall day and the mountain was a pinnacle of white against a bright blue sky.  Raymond came up behind Penny to look at the mountain.  

“They say it could erupt any time”, Raymond said.

Penny replied, “Like Mount St. Helens?”

Raymond nodded, “They are part of the same range and while Mount Hood and Mount Rainer are dormant, the geologists say it is possible, although not very probable.  

Penny asked Raymond, “Have you ever skied on Mount Hood?”.

Raymond laughed, “Only about a million times”.  I grew up in Sandy and my family loved to ski, so from the age of five, we were skiing at least once a month during the summer and fall.”

Penny replied, “I’m impressed.  I’ve only skied once on a bunny hill back near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.” She stopped to giggle, “With my Girl Scout troop”. 

She continued, “Have you ever climbed the mountain?”

Raymond answered, “Only once, and it wasn’t much fun.  We left Timberline lodge about midnight and got to the top at about 7 a.m. and then back down.  My legs ached for weeks afterward and I thought I was in good shape.”

Penny asked, “Why so early?  Can you see in the dark?”

Raymond said, “You want to be off the mountain by 9 a.m.  When the sun really hits the mountain there is a much greater chance of ice falls, and avalanches.  And, if you go with a guide, you will follow a pretty regular path - stay on the path and things will be safe.”

Penny wistfully replied, “I’d like to climb it someday, but I’ll have to work up to it”.

*****

Soon the crew was in the orchard.  Rosa was a lot of help - asking them about what type of apples they liked - tart, sweet, firm, not-so-firm, - and then directing them to the particular rows for apples that appealed to them.  The actual picking was fairly easy.  The trees were kept fairly low so there was a lot of low-hanging fruit.  For higher fruit, there were poles with cords that could capture the higher level fruit.  No ladders (as people could fall).  

Emmalee and Izaak had decided on their competition.  

Emmalee made the offer, “Okay Izaak, time to show your stuff.  I know I can pick more apples than you, but I don’t need or want a million apples to your thousand of apples.  So, my bet.  In 15 minutes we pick apples and count that.  The apples we pick must be keepers, so, no picking any that we are going to throw away.  You can pick any variety, any rows, and any trees, but you must be back here at the check-out stand in 15 minutes.”

Izaak took up the competition.  “I don’t know why you are doing this because it is obvious that I am going to kick your butt”, he stopped and leered at Emmalee’s butt, “but, you’re on babe”.  

The group laughed as Izaak ogled Emmalee’s butt in jest!!

Izaak turned to LaToya. “LaToya, can you be the judge?  We have 15 minutes and you will be both the timekeeper and the counter.” Turning to Emmalee, he continued, “Do you agree with LaToya as our judge?”

Emmalee took up the taunt, “She’ll be better than any weightlifting male.  I might have to give you a handicap of twenty apples”.

The group was laughing at the two.  Izaak turned to the others.  “Any bets?”

Janniece took up the offer first.  “I will give a dollar for each apple the winner picks, with the money going to the Multnomah County Homeless Shelter”.

Soon the others joined in the bet.  

Emmalee said, “I hope you all have lots of money to donate since I’m going to be victorious over this hopeless bouncer.”

Emmalee and Izaak got a basket.  Penny was going to be Emmalee’s second - with extra baskets as needed, and Raymond was Izaak’s second with extra baskets.  

LaToya yelled, “On your marks, get set, GO”. And the two were off into the orchard.  

Emmalee went left and Izaak right.  Fortunately, there weren’t many other apple pickers in the area, so they wouldn’t have to dodge other people.

Izaak started on the Cortland apples, and Emmalee started with Gala apples.  Soon Penny and Raymond were hustling out to their picker with new baskets and carrying the full baskets back to the check-out stand.

LaToya kept the time on her iPhone and called out how much time was left.  “Ten minutes left”; then “Five minutes left”; “Two minutes left”; “One minute left”, and then “Times up” as the two raced back to the stand.  Izaak had six baskets to Emmalee’s five baskets, but Emmalee’s Gala apples were smaller than Isaak's varieties.  

Penny and Raymond as the ‘seconds’ watched as LaToya and Janniece counted the apples.  First, they counted Isaak's apples - 137 apples.  Then they counted Emmalee’s apples.  

And, Emmalee had 140 apples - three more than Izaak.

Izaak was a good loser.  “I should demand a recount, but I concede that Emmalee beat me fair and square.”

Emmalee gleamed.

Then Izaak came over to her and planted a big kiss on Emmalee’s lips, and the two soon were lip-locked.  

“Ooh”, cooed the friends.  Emmalee took a big bow.

As they weighed the apples, the result was slightly different.  Izaak’s total was 43 pounds and Emmalee’s was 40 pounds.  

“What am I going to do with 40 pounds of apples?” Emmalee commented.

Raymond piped up, “I’m going to take my apples to my Mom who will make chunky applesauce!” 

With five people kicking in 140 dollars, the Multnomah Homeless shelter was really the winner.

*****

The contestants rested while the rest picked the apples they wanted

They each picked at least one basket and brought it to the weighing station for payment.  

They stopped at the Farm Place store for a light lunch.  The store sold almost all produce things native to the area.  There was Hood River honey, about fifty different varieties of apples, apple pie, peaches, peach pie, chunky applesauce, rhubarb, figs, currants, applejack (an apple liquor), and apple cider.  

There was a deli window where they could order sandwiches and light meals.  Penny, trying to lose a few pounds had a Waldorf Salad with apple chunks on top; Izaak had a ham sandwich smothered with a hot cheese sauce, Emmalee settled for a pastrami on rye bread - a Chicago favorite, Raymond and LaToya had ham and Swiss Cheese, and Micah and Janniece shared a chicken salad sandwich.

Over lunch, they chatted.  Micah and Janniece had been dating for some time.  Emmalee asked Izaak about his physical therapy work in addition to his helping clients develop weight training programs.  Emmalee talked about her Black Lives Matter mural that was in the approval process for the town of Gresham.  Penny was just kind of shy around new folks and didn’t mention her research into fungi and water ecology.  

Frieda popped in for a few minutes and sat with them and had iced tea with the group.  Izaak asked where Roger was.  

Frieda said he was under the weather with some kind of allergy or something.  Penny asked more about that - as a biologist she had taken quite a few health care classes.

Frieda said he was just lethargic, hard to get rolling, nose always dripping.  

Izaak asked if he had seen a doctor.

Frieda said, “No, the old fool won’t see a doctor unless he had nowhere else to turn.”

She excused herself after getting a text. She said, “A toddler somehow got into the petting zoo pen and needs rescuing.”.

They all said goodbye.

After she left, Izaak said, “She’s a good lady, and normally you can’t keep Roger away.  He loves people, and he loves this farm.”

*****

As they left, something wasn’t quite right for Penny.  

Penny asked Izaak and Emmalee, “Excuse me for a few minutes, something just doesn’t smell right,”  I think there is a pond that has problems”. 

At first, she had ignored the smell - they were on a farm with animals and fruit - some of which had fallen and rotten - but this was something else.  Penny wandered away in search of the odor.  

Over a rise, there was a pond, and as she drew near, the odor was stronger.  As a biologist, she recognized some pond odors like algae bloom and dead fish, but this was different.  Raymond had followed her. 

“Can you smell that?” she asked Raymond.

“Yeah, really smelly”, he replied.

They walked down to the pond.  Normally a farm pond would have cattails and reeds growing in the water, but this pond didn’t have vegetation other than a heavy green scum on the surface.  On the edge, where there might be weeds or even ducks, it was pretty barren.

Around the pond, the only life Penny saw was flies.  No water skimmers, no dragonflies.

She asked Raymond, “Could you go back to the shop and ask for maybe five to ten empty jars that I could use to collect water samples?  And get a marker so I can keep track of the samples.”

Raymond said “Sure.  You think something is wrong?”

Penny said “Yes, the smell is bad enough, but this isn’t natural for a farm pond.  I wonder if something is trickling into the pond that is upsetting the ecological balance.”

Raymond went back to get the jars and some help.  

Penny noticed a small intake stream coming in from Mount Hood.  Climbing over rocks, she arrived at the stream.  She managed to put her hand in the stream just above where it entered the pond.  Pulling it out, she smelled her hand - and it definitely was putrid.  She tried to follow the creek upstream but the going got hard.  It did seem to come from Mount Hood and it was COLD.  What could it be?  

She found another rivulet about 40 yards to the left of the one she was following.  Climbing over the rocks, she did the hand check on the water - clean, fresh, and still icy cold.  

“HEY PENNY”, interrupted her thoughts.  It seems like the whole crew, including Frieda Johannson, was coming in her direction.

Before she was bombarded by questions, she started.  “The pond stinks.  I sense that is not normal.  I followed a small creek to the right and it seemed to also be smelly.  Another stream on the left seemed normal.  I want to test the water to see what might be happening.”

Turning to Frieda, “Has this pond smelled like this in the past?”

Frieda answered, “Well in late summer, it does get the algae, but this year it has been exceptionally bad.  Do you have some ideas?” 

Penny answered, “Not yet, but hopefully, the water samples can help out.”

Micah asked, “Do you have the lab resources to analyze the water samples?”

That was an easy question.  “Yes”, was Penny’s quick response.  “I’ve been doing some testing of water runoff on the western slopes of Mount Hood.  Emmalee has even helped me with this”.

The crew sat about to gather water samples.  Four jars were filled from the pond, another jar was filled from the runoff creek from the pond, two were filled from the incoming stream that Penny thought might be a source of contamination, and two were filled from the incoming stream that seemed to be okay.  

The jars were numbered, labeled and tightly closed.

Penny asked Emmalee and Izaak to take pictures of the water gathering sights and to go upstream to see what might be flowing downhill.  

Frieda was excited that Penny was doing this work.  This pond normally supported life, fish, frogs, egrets, cattails, reeds, and normal pond life, but it was already a dead pond.

Then Frieda had another thought.  Roger had been trying to improve this pond.  Maybe there was some sort of contamination going on that affected him.

*****

They wrapped the water sample jars in paper and carefully stowed them in the trunk of Isaak's car with the bags of apples.  They had made sure the bags were well marked so each person got the right apples.  The group chatted amicably on the way back.

Penny was noticing that her feet itched.  She had gotten her feet wet while gathering the samples.  She mentioned that to LaToya and Raymond who helped with the samples.  LaToya didn’t think she had gotten wet, but Raymond said he felt some itching but he hadn’t been in the water as much as Penny.

In the front seat, Emmalee fell asleep even though she fought it.  The rescue of the boy from Multnomah Falls, the apple picking challenge, the late-night last night, and maybe falling for Izaak had zapped her strength.  

They pulled into the Walmart parking lot and Emmalee and Penny got out.  Penny put the water samples in her car, and Izaak moved the two bags of apples to Penny’s car.  Emmalee and Izaak had a long kiss goodbye.  

They all said ‘goodbye’. 

As Penny drove away from the parking lot, she asked Emmalee, “Are you falling for Izaak?”

Emmalee said “Yes.”  

Penny tried for more conversation but she could see that Emmalee was drained and tired.  And, maybe falling in love with Izaak.

Penny dropped Emmalee off at her apartment and watched as Emmalee walked up to her door.  

She was happy for her friend, but she really wanted to test the water samples.

*****

Well, another episode of Emmalee and Penny.  I’m trying to get more excitement (apple picking and water testing), and romance, and make it flow better.  We’ll see where it goes next week.

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen

Saturday, April 16, 2022

“Easter Eve”