by Aqua Allsopp
“In this heat? Why don’t you wait for some more time and do what you need to do later on in the evening?” her mother protested.
“No it’s all right, I’ll manage. You don’t have to worry so much about me. Go back to the house and I will take care of everything out on the farm.”
Soon enough, they had finished laying down the food for the cattle in the barn and were on their way back to the house. As soon as they stepped outside, a blast of hot air hit them. There was a total heatwave-like situation that had been created, and the whole environment was as uncomfortable as they had ever imagined it to be.
“Oh my goodness, it’s so hot out here!” Annie exclaimed as they came out of the shade of the barn, which felt very comfortable all of a sudden. They had to cross the length of the cultivated land in order to reach the farm house.
“Are you sure you want to carry on with the harvesting? It does not seem possible to me, and besides, I don’t think it would be a good idea to stay outside in this terrible weather.” her mother said.
“Yes, I think you are right, mamma. Let’s go back to the house. I’ll see what I can do later in the day.”
They returned to the cool comfort of the house and shut all the doors and windows to keep out the hot air. Ruth served some cool refreshments as they made themselves as comfortable as possible while indulging in some talk about not-so-important matters.
Towards the evening, the heat wave subsided magically and was replaced by a cool breeze that soon gathered force and turned into a strong wind. Dark, ominous clouds gathered over the horizon, indicating that there was more rough weather in store for the townsfolk, albeit of a different kind.
“Looks like it is going to rain pretty bad,” Ruth remarked as she looked out of the window at the clouds. “Hope your father gets back soon.”
The two of them sat inside the house and watched as the wind blew outside, the crops swaying wildly. Their front door slammed shut, and soon they could hear footsteps walking up to the first floor. Jacob had returned home.
“Brace yourselves, there has been a storm warning for this part of the country.” he announced as he put down his belongings.
“How was your day honey?” his wife asked as if she had not heard anything about the storm. She was very scared of storms right down from her childhood and the news that one was likely to strike very soon made her feel uneasy like always.
“Not too good! This terrible heat kept out most of the customers from the market, so sales were bad. Many have even reported a loss of produce. Annie, did you manage to harvest the corn today?”
“No, papa. I could not. It was too hot during the day and working out in the field was almost impossible,” his daughter replied.
“Yes, I expected as much! That’s no problem but let’s hope that the crops are not too damaged in this storm. Look at the way they are swaying; I wonder how long the stalks will be able to hold up?”
The family gathered at one of the windows that looked out over the farm and watched the corn stalks swaying wildly in the strong winds. The clouds that had been hovering out over the horizon were now over the farm, and lightning and thunder rolled across the sky. All in all, it looked pretty mean and ominous for the harvest. The whole place was shrouded in darkness, and very soon after, they were unable to see anything outside their window. The wind gathered speed and was soon howling around the farm, its shrill wailing sound clearly audible in every corner. It was not long before the pattering of the rain could be heard as the musty smell of damp earth filled the air. Though the rain came as a huge relief for the people, they were all worried about the extent of the damage the storm would cause.
*****
Annie stood in front of the barn with the dark clouds hovering in the background. The red wooden barn in the front with the dark clouds in the background made for a very ominous atmosphere, and she felt a little scared with little chills and shivers running down her spine. She pushed the heavy door as it opened with a resounding creaking noise. It was pitch dark inside, and the roaring wind entered the new found space and was soon howling around in the underbelly of the barn. The shrieking sound further added to the fear-factor in the atmosphere.
Annie stepped inside – she felt more like being carried inside under the force of the wind – and closed the door behind her. Abruptly, the howling of the wind stopped and she found herself inside the pitch-black barn.
Slowly, she tried to make her way forward in the darkness. She was not sure where she was headed but kept walking ahead with unsteady steps. Annie stumbled on bales of hay and other rubbish strewn around on the floor inside the barn. From time to time, she could hear the thunder rumbling outside somewhere in the distance. The sound scared her, but she kept on walking.
All of a sudden, a horse neighed on her right. Annie was startled and just as she turned her head to the right, she hit something hard. She sat down on the ground with her hand on her head, trying to nurse the bruise. Just then she felt something beginning to shake. She realized that it was the ground shaking beneath her. She tried to get up but could not for the vibrations were too strong and overpowering for her. The ground went on shaking continuously as she cried out for help. And then, without warning, the roof of the barn came crashing down on her. Annie was buried under the rubble. The darkness seemed to gobble her up. In the distance, she could still hear the wind howling only this time it seemed to be calling her name!
“Annie, Annie!” someone was calling her. Annie woke up with a start and looked around her. She was in her own room at the farm, and her mother was shaking her by the hand.
Ruth wept, her tears rolling down her face. At one end of the room, her father stood quietly with a grim look on his face and his gaze fixed on the floor. Outside it was a bright, sunny day and she could hear the birds chirping. Annie breathed a sigh of relief. The barn and the howling wind had all been a nightmare.
“What is it, mother? Why are you shaking me?” she asked, pulling her hand away.
“Something terrible happened last night Annie dear,” Ruth replied, still weeping.
“What happened?”
“The storm has destroyed everything my child, everything! We are finished,” she said as her weeping rose to a wail. Annie looked at her father who had lifted his eyes and was now looking at the two of them. His face seemed pale.
“Papa, what has happened? Why is everyone looking so sad? And why is mamma crying like that?”
“Annie, we have something to show you. Please come here,” Jacob said through a broken, grubby voice. She was still unable to figure out what was going on and made her way across from the bed over to the window that overlooked the plot of farm below.
The sight that greeted her left the young woman in shock and totally speechless. For as far as she could see, there was nothing but barren land. Yet only the night before, the place was full of bountiful fields. At one end of the plot lay a rundown building. That was the very spot where Annie had been with her mother the afternoon before to feed the cattle in the barn. Everywhere around them were signs of complete destruction. Efforts were being made to salvage as much as possible from the rubble but as things stood, there wasn’t much to salvage. The storm had done the kind of damage that most farmers feared and dreaded, but there was very little they could have done against the forces of nature.
Annie stood looking out in shock and bewilderment at the scene that lay in front of her eyes. Her terrible dream had come true. She still found it hard to believe that the storm could wreck such havoc and have the entire area covered in such tremendous destruction. She sat down on the ground with her hands over her mouth. Jacob rushed in to steady her and prevent her from falling over.
“This is awful,” she mumbled. “Why us, papa?”
“It’s not only us, my dear child. Everyone who had farms in the area has been hit badly, and their crops have been destroyed as well. Thank God that our house was spared, I got news this morning that someone’s house collapsed last night in t
he storm. They are still bringing out the family members, and it doesn’t look like there were any survivors.”
“But what do we do now? This is a huge loss!”
“I don’t know, Annie. I really don’t know,” her father said, for once looking as if he was visibly moved by the whole incident. “I put a lot of money into the crops, and now there is no hope for recovery. Worse, even the barn has collapsed, and we have lost all the cattle. The chicken coop was also destroyed. In short, we are completely broke and bankrupt. Now all we can do is sit and wonder what to do and patiently wait if anyone chooses to send any kind of help our way.”
Annie looked out into the emptiness as the first drops of tears rolled down her eyes. Her beloved farm had been turned into a rubble and heap of rubbish. There was nothing she could have done about it. Even then, there was very little she could do going forward!
*****
James Bosman opened the window of his room and looked outside. The storm had passed, and the sky wore a sweet blue hue that was indicative of an upcoming bout of pleasant weather. The street below was littered with leaves and few small twigs and branches that had fallen in the storm of last night. A few miles up the road some trees had been uprooted, but apart from that, there were no other visible signs of destruction anywhere around the place. In any case, one did not expect to witness too much by means of destruction caused by a storm in a bustling metropolitan city like Lancaster.
“Good morning sir, you called for me?” a sweet female voice called out from behind. He turned around to find his secretary, Lisa, standing at the door to his office. She was a pretty blonde girl with very fair skin and an attractive smile that never seemed to leave her face. Lisa was wearing a pink off-shoulder silk dress and matching skirt. The dress did very little to cover her ample bosom, and her cleavage was visible from on top of her dress. Not that any of that mattered to James. He had seen enough of her without her clothes on, and these small matters had become inconsequential to him of late.
“Yes, Lisa, I did. What bad weather it was last night, wasn’t it? I hope you did not have any kind of trouble in returning home.”
“Oh no sir, not at all! I found a cab as soon as I had left your home. In any case, the rains did not start until well after I was safe in the comfort of my own place.”
“Good, I am glad to hear that. Now, we must get to work straight away for there is a lot of important business matter that needs to be taken care of.”
And so the two of them got busy with taking care of the important matters concerning their business. “Have you found a suitable plot of land for the new farm yet?” he asked his secretary.
“No sir, but I am sure we will come up with something very soon. In fact, if I may say so sir, this storm could well be the thing that we needed,” Lisa said.
James raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I know what you mean. Could you please elaborate?”
“Sure, sir! You see, every time there is a storm, the suburbs witness a good deal of damage and destruction, and do you know who lives in the suburbs? Well, it is mostly the country folk who farm and are involved in agricultural activities. When the storm strikes, some of them tend to lose their land, and with that their livelihood. So they are left with no option but to sell their land to the person who agrees to offer them money along with a job on the land. I have observed that every time there is a storm, within two weeks you will have classifieds filled up with ’Land for Sale’ advertisements.”
James looked at her for some time. “That’s all very fine, but I don’t know if such a ploy will find favor with me. Taking away someone else’s livelihood to propel my own business? No, that is not quite the way I love to work. But I’ll consider your suggestion nevertheless. And thank you for doing the research.”
“No problem, sir,” she said and left the room. James fell back in his chair and started to think. Whatever Lisa had said did not seem to have much merit on face value, but when thought about from a deeper, more relevant context, a number of parallels could be drawn. Any man who is broke and without any hope of financial recovery in the immediate future will want to sell off his land and recover as much of the money as possible. This way, too much demand for a single plot would cause the land prices to skyrocket through the roof. So it was always advisable that they be the one to make the first move to secure the booking.
Lisa had mentioned something about advertisements in the newspaper and James picked up an edition of the morning’s daily news. He looked around in the Classifieds section for a while, but could not find any kind of advertisement that would suit his needs. Then he came across the kind of group that he had precisely been looking for.
James looked with far more intent as one of the many advertisements caught his eyes. It was an extremely simple piece of information that was so easy to be missed by anyone who was not looking for the very thing. ‘Farmland for sale in the Lancashire County area. Interested buyers, please visit or write to the address mentioned,’ the advertisement said.
He looked at the name of the advertiser at the bottom and found the name, Jacob King. James recalled that the area around Lancashire County was home to a large community of Amish people and looking at the name of this advertiser, it seemed as if he was Amish as well. He wondered if it would be a good idea to go ahead with the purchase plan for he had known the Amish to be very attached to their land while most of them depended on it as their only source of livelihood.
Then, he told himself that if the person was putting the place up for sale, then there was quite obviously some kind of issue or financial distress that he was in. Besides, going by the location mentioned in the advertisement, the plot would be in a pretty prime location which could only mean good news for James Bosman and his business plans.
The businessman realized that time was of the essence here, and he had very little of it to lose. If he had to expand upon on his business empire, then this was as good an opportunity as any.
James got up from his chair and stood by the window one last time. Then he sauntered off in search of his secretary. There was a good deal of paperwork that had to be done.
*****
Jacob sat in the living room of his farmhouse discussing some important matters with a neighbor when the sound of a car pulling up at their front gate could be heard. He looked up from the papers that were strewn all over the table and then left his chair to walk down to the main door. Looking outside, he found a car parked outside, and a young man standing next to the car, having a look around the place. He spotted Jacob and slowly walked over towards him.
“Good morning sir!” he said as he walked up to the porch. Jacob took a good look at the man. He seemed to be around the age of twenty-five and had fair skin. He was dressed smartly in a cream-colored shirt and black jeans with navy blue sunglasses over his eyes to protect them from the glaring sun. His jet black hair was brushed back to reveal a wide forehead underneath. A silver watch on his forehand glistened in the sun and indicated that he was from a well-to-do background.
“Good morning, how can I help you?” Jacob asked.
“Is this the farm of the King family?” the young man asked.
“Yes and I am Jacob King. And you are…?”
“I am James Bosman, and I came down from the city of Lancaster. I saw your advertisement in the newspaper about wanting to sell your farmland. That is what brings me here.”
“Oh yes, I put that in the papers,” the old man said as his neighbor walked out of the home with the bunch of papers in his hand. James caught sight of him.
“I hope the land is still up for sale?” he asked in a circumspect manner as he glanced towards the man. Jacob caught his gaze and looked behind. Then he smiled at him. “Yes, it is still for sale. That is my neighbor, and he is here on some other business. Please come inside.”
“Thank you,” James said as he was led inside by the owner of the farm while the neighbor left. He entered the building and was taken to the living room where he sat down. “P
lease wait for a moment and I’ll get you some refreshments,” Jacob announced as he disappeared into an adjacent room.
“No thank you, I’m fine,” James began to say, but his host was already out of sight before he could finish. He sat in his place and continued to look around. It was a small room with wooden walls and mostly barren as far as the quantity of furniture was concerned. There were a few chairs around the walls and a center table. The house did not seem like it had suffered any kind of damage in the recent storm.
“Here, have some refreshments,” Jacob said as he returned with a plate of cookies and lemonade and placed it in front of him on the table.
“Thank you,” James said and picked up a cookie from the plate. The lemonade was certainly very refreshing especially after the hours he had spent under the hot sun. “Nice place you have here Mister King.”
“I’m glad you like the place. And please, call me Jacob.”
“Jacob, okay! So why are you planning on selling your land all of a sudden? Everything seems to be in perfect order. I thought that it might be something to do with the storm but that does not seem to have had any kind of effect on your property,” he said, putting on a pretty bemused look on his face.
Jacob sighed. “Well, James…can I call you James?”
“Yes, please do.”
“James, you see, the thing is, your line of thinking is absolutely right to start with. The storm led to severe destruction on your farm and many others. If you take a look outside, you will realize that there were crops standing over there until the night of the storm, and they were all destroyed. Maybe I would have been able to tide over that crisis, but then I lost all my cattle too. There used to be a barn at the far end of the farm where you will find a patch of barren, uncultivated land. The night of the storm the barn came crashing down, and all my cattle and horses were trapped underneath. They died before help could arrive. I was relying heavily on a good corn crop and had invested a good deal into the same only to come out with no returns. So I have no option but to sell the land.”