by Anna Hess
My sister and I faced off for a moment, and I tried to gather up enough spunk to shoot down her statement. But the truth was that she was right—community members had been surprisingly hard to come by, and Jacob and I were the only ones now willing to commit to the project.
Or so I'd thought. "Ahem," Arvil cleared his throat theatrically, then waited until he had attracted everyone's attention before continuing. I looked around and saw that all of the funeral-goers had gathered in a circle around the grave—clearly a sibling altercation was prime-time viewing on the Greensun channel. Then I turned back to Arvil, who seemed to be addressing his remarks to me instead of to my sister. "Thia, I've been looking for a chance to ask you this, but it seems like there's no time like the present," my neighbor said. "As you realize, my cabin used to be located on a little corner of Greensun, and I've been so inspired by your hard work this summer, that I was wondering what it would take to merge the two properties back together. What I'm trying to say is—I'd like to become a member of Greensun again."
Kat stared at Arvil with her mouth open to refute his words, but before she could think of anything to say, our sister Jessica had chimed in. "I love the idea of Greensun too," she told me, ignoring Kat as Arvil had. "Unlike Arvil, I'm pretty sure I don't want to live here, but I'd like to be a community member in absentia, if it's okay with you."
"So would I," Angela agreed. "At least for now, although if you want to buy me out later, I wouldn't mind." And my oldest sister smiled broadly and winked. In other words, her face seemed to say, she wasn't going to get in my hair, but she also wasn't going to let Kat pull the land out from under our feet.
Kat turned to the sole remaining sibling who might be on her side. She must have met Peter at some point, or had him pointed out to her, because she looked straight at our younger brother and challenged him to join her. "Pete, this is our big chance to be financially set for life," she wheedled. "The rest of your sisters are so rich they don't need the money, but just think of what $80,000 would do for your future."
Of all the half-siblings I'd met this summer, Peter had the least reason to care about Greensun. From what I understood, he'd never set foot on the property before today, and, like me, had never met our bio-dad in person. I hadn't really been able to get a handle on his personality during our brief chat, either, and I was now kicking myself for running off with Jacob instead of becoming acquainted with my brother.
But I had felt that instant kinship with Peter, just like I had with Jessica. And I knew what he would say before he spoke. "I'm with Thia," Peter answered, refusing Kat's offer.
"I've been texting with your step-dad," Mom spoke into the ensuing silence. We'd discovered that, even though the reception there wasn't good enough to make a call, the cemetery got enough bars to send and receive simple texts. Still, this was the last thing I'd thought Mom would bring up in the middle of a heated confrontation. "He says we can put up the cash to buy out Kat's share in Greensun," she explained. "But there are strings."
Kat was less interested in the strings than in the money. "I want the full $80,000," my sister demanded, but I could tell that even she didn't believe she'd get so much. The mood of the crowd made it clear that Carol's suggestion was more realistic.
"We're going to offer you $4,000 in cash, and will drop the charges we were planning on pressing for the theft of Thia's nest egg," my mother responded evenly. "You do realize that's a Class D felony, right?" I almost laughed as I heard Mom parroting words that must have come straight out of Dad's keyboard...after a round of serious googling. "Take or leave it," Mom finished, and I suspect I was the only one who knew her well enough to tell that she was bluffing.
Kat wavered, but in the end there was no contest. My sister wanted a source of ready money, and $4,000 now looked better than $80,000 later. So she took it, and Carol drew up a document to ensure Kat was legally waiving her rights in exchange for the payment.
Which left me with nothing to do except sorting out the strings.
"I know you love this land," Mom said quietly as we walked together away from the crowd so we could speak in private. "And now the possibility will be there for you to come back to whenever you want. But, Thia, Dad and I feel strongly that you have to go to college first. Those are the strings. You'll try one year at school before making any decisions about Greensun."
Rather than answering right away, I looked out at the mountains I'd fallen in love with during my first day in Appalachia and felt a hole forming in my heart even larger than the one my bio-dad had torn away. Mom was right—Greensun would still be here in a year. But would I be the same person who was able to open her entire being to the farm? Would Jacob and I grow apart and never create the solid team I'd seen materializing before my very eyes this summer?
I could feel the pre-Greensun Forsythia already giving in and making the best of a bad situation. I'd find a way to come back during winter break, the older me argued, and Jacob and I might grow in the same directions. I'd always known college was my next step; I loved to learn new things. And how could I stand up to my parents?
The same way I'd stood up to Kat, of course, Thia answered. And I was surprised to hear myself bargaining instead of capitulating. "I understand your concern, Mom," I replied. "But if one year at college won't break my dreams for Greensun, then one year at Greensun won't break my dreams for college.
"Here's my counter offer. I talked to the admissions department last week and they told me I can defer my acceptance for a year—the same scholarships will still be there and I'll have an automatic spot in next year's class." Mom didn't say anything, so I kept talking. "I'll take a couple of courses online or locally this year," I promised, "And I'll decide about college after that. Maybe I'd rather go to Warren Wilson—it's only three and a half hours away, so I could come back to Greensun on the weekends. And they've got a really good agriculture department.
"You know I can learn a lot here, Mom—just give me the chance," I concluded. I understood that, despite my words, Mom and Dad held the final decision-making power. Yes, I was 18 and could do whatever I wished, but if I wanted college to be on the table at all, I needed them to pay those bills. Plus, I was still enough of my former self that I wouldn't go against my parents' mandate if it meant I'd be driving a rift into the heart of my family. If there was one thing I'd learned at Greensun, it was that family should stand together.
Mom looked me over, and I could tell she was torn between her dreams for her daughter, and the real needs of the person she saw in front of her. She'd left Greensun to give me a better life, and here I was throwing that life away to return to Greensun. Or maybe she was just remembering her own reasons for falling in love with this rough, but beautiful, tract of land.
"Okay," my mother said at last. Then, passing me her phone. "But you explain it to your father."
When I was first getting to know him, Arvil told me that I was looking for Greensun and that what I was looking for didn't really exist. But as I settled in for my first winter on Greensun soil, I felt like even Arvil might have changed his mind recently.
True, it might take years to build the self-sufficient intentional community Glen had dreamed of, and maybe our version would never live up to my bio-dad's idealistic standards. But Arvil had been part of my community before he ever stepped up to the plate and helped me save Greensun from my greedy sister, and each other neighbor I'd met had seemed like someone I wanted to learn more about as well. Thanks to Jacob's Mamaw, I felt like I had an instant family here in the mountains—even though I shared the old farmhouse with no one at the moment, I was a frequent visitor at their trailer, and Jacob himself often came to help on the farm (and to steal kisses).
And, although he was gone in body, Glen remained part of my community in spirit. Weeks after my mother returned to Seattle and I settled in for the second stage of my adventure, one last note in my father's handwriting had surfaced. As I poured the last of the cat food from its metal tin, out fluttered an oil-stained note w
ith words I hoped to live my life by. "Follow your bliss," Joseph Campbell and my father told me. This was one parental mandate I planned to pursue.
Greensun is based on several intentional communities, past and present, as well as on the remote farm where my husband and I now live. So even though my friends and family may recognize aspects of people they know throughout this book, I want to assure them that I've changed everyone's character for the sake of the plot, have merged several places and people into one, and have exaggerated many negative traits for effect. (In other words—none of the character flaws are yours, but if you want to see yourself in the more uplifting characters, go for it!) The average reader will also be heartened to know that the communities I've met haven't been as troubled as Greensun, and that some have stood the test of time.
In addition to my own experience growing up in the outskirts of the hippie migration to Appalachia, various books colored my rendition of Greensun's intentional community. Back From the Land, by Eleanor Agnew, is a vividly-portrayed (if depressing) account of why many back-to-the-landers threw in the towel and moved away from their farms. Creating a Life Together, by Diana Leafe Christian, records the traits of the more-modern intentional communities that survived those difficult start-up years. And memoirs like Melissa Coleman's This Life Is In Your Hands reminded me of facets of my own childhood on the farm before my parents moved us to town.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't take this chance to thank the many people who helped make my first work of fiction a reality. My mother, father, and husband read drafts at critical moments, and so did various friends—thank you Heather, Swati, and Frankie! Sarah Noce from www.sarahnoce.com built the most beautiful cover imaginable and Stephen Bublitz ([email protected]) cleaned up the text with a careful eye. (Any remaining run-on sentences are entirely my own.) Equally important were the many blog readers who encouraged me at all the right moments. And it helped that our cats were moderately content to take turns on my lap so the computer would have a spot to sit.
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/4 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/8 c. creamy peanut butter
1 egg (green-, brown-, or white-shelled!)
3/4 c. rolled oats
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 ounces dark chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325. Melt the butter, then add both sugars and mix well. Add the vanilla, peanut butter, and egg and mix again. Add the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix, then stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon twelve large cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until bottom is brown and top is just barely firm.
To read more about my own back-to-the-land adventures, visit the blog my husband and I keep together—www.WaldenEffect.org—or check out the ebook detailing our own journey to farm ownership—Growing into a Farm. If you want to branch out into how-to guides, The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency, published by Skyhorse Publishing in 2012, is available in both paperback and ebook form in bookstores and online. Self-published ebooks available on Amazon include books in the Modern Simplicity series (such as Microbusiness Independence, which would have given Jacob a head start on his online business), the Working Chicken series (for beginners), and the Permaculture Chicken series (for those delving deeper into poultry care).
To learn when these ebooks can be downloaded for free and when new books are published, go to www.Wetknee.com and sign up for my email list using the form on the sidebar. And if you can take a minute to leave a review on Amazon, I will be eternally grateful. Thank you for reading!
Table of Contents
Copyright
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR'S NOTE
EXCERPTS FROM THIA'S NOTEBOOK
MY OTHER BOOKS