by Alan Black
“I’m glad I caught you,” the man said.
She recognized him as an arborist from the south part of the continent. His land was too dry to grow the apple, pear, and peach orchards he originally planned. Part of her contract with him was to allocate land for an orchard and set him up in business. She owned the land, but he worked it, much like the Deep South sharecropping from her history books. The primary difference in their agreement was for the arborist to get the lion’s share of profit from his labors.
Choosing good land for an orchard was on her to-do list. She actually had to write the list down, because her list was too long to trust to simple memory.
The arborist said, “I have the plans on your…” he looked around, glancing at Tucker, before focusing again on Veronica. At her nod, he continued. “On your special trees.”
Veronica caught movement from Mags out of her peripheral vision. Did her ears perk up? She appears to be paying special attention, though she continues watching everywhere at the same time.
The arborist pulled out his own map and spread it on top of Veronica’s. “We can domesticate them, but, they only grow near large water sources. They suck up water like teenage boy sucks up french fries.” He jabbed a finger in wild enthusiasm at the map. “If we flood this here, and dam that stream there, we’ll make an enormous shallow lake. These things will grow like weeds in a few inches of water, from sapling to full maturity, in three to four months.” He paused and sighed. “It won’t leave much land for the fruit trees I brought from Earth, though.”
“I’ll find room for your trees. It’s happy to hear good news about our native fruit trees.” She highlighted the points he indicated on his map. “I don’t own that land. It’s north of my property, though it is unclaimed.”
Mags said, “Say, Veronica? Suppose Auggie and I gave up the title to our land down south, could we reapply for new land, say…this unclaimed land north of your property?”
Veronica nodded. “Sounds right, I haven’t read anything that says you can’t. It might be valuable land once it’s flooded and you can start harvesting.”
Mags shook her head. “There’re too many problems for my way of thinking. Watching you administer all these things is giving me a headache. Would you be interested in buying our claim from us?”
“Name your price, or we could be partners. You own the land and I’ll manage it. We split the profits. Yes or no?”
Mags shook her head.
“Get Auggie on the phone right away and talk it over. Where is he?” Veronica asked.
“He’s sampling quartz outcroppings in Dillon’s section. I have to say, he’s not much on any scheme involving profit sharing labor. His old bosses back on Earth claimed to be communistic, yet they abused their workers. It’d be best for you to just buy us out. In fact, you should buy us out at today’s prices. Then we could leave if you didn’t treat us right. You should get all the profits since you’d be the one risking all the money to develop the land and plan the crops. They have a saying back home, ‘You caught the wave, ride it with your own board.’”
“We can manage ownership and partnerships in a dozen different ways. I suggest you and Auggie go into town as soon as you can to switch the titles and deeds.”
Steve interrupted. “Sorry for interrupting, Mags, but I have another issue I need to take up with the boss.”
Veronica nodded. “Fire away, Steve.”
Her foreman said, “Well, we have half a dozen new families on the books. You have the mining engineer working with Auggie over on Dillon’s section, and your tree guy.” He grinned at the arborist and continued. “Plus, the extra field hands we had to hire since we’re doubling and tripling your tilled acreage. Now, pay isn’t the problem—you have payroll covered—not to mention future harvests will more than cover all payroll in the long run, especially since food prices are still rising in Landing City. But, the new housing we have coming in from Tucker and Karen is going to get set down right in the middle of a field that…well…frankly, is suitable for planting or grazing.”
Steve spread his personal map on top of the arborist’s map.
Looking at Tucker, Veronica shook her head. “I need to get me a truck that has a desk for a hood.”
Tucker laughed. “I can do better than that. I have a used construction office. It’s as mobile as anything else you own and it has built-in desks and cabinets. Not to mention that it has a built in bathroom, kitchen, and comes with air conditioning.”
Veronica laughed. “Perfect. However, if you supply everything I start to wish for, dream about, or even casually mention in conversation, then I’m going to go broke sooner, than later.”
Steve pointed at the map. “My point is, all I want to do is move these houses up here by the new lake above the wheat fields. Right here. We can set them up like a little village and the children will be right near your school. We can even call it Veeville or something.”
Veronica laughed. “Veeville? That sounds like an old Dr. Seuss story.
‘Ronnie built a town named Veeville.
She built her town high on a hill.
It was tiny and small,
it was built for all.
All she had to do was foot the bill.’
So much for what I remember from my sophomore extemporaneous poetry class. Well, what are you waiting for, Steve? Get to it. Move everybody but me. My house is not a pre-manufactured building and I don’t want to rebuild.”
The arborist pushed his data-patch in front of her. It showed an open call he had made with the called party waiting on hold.
She recognized the name of her next closest neighbor to the south, Candor Vandersleuu. She raised an eyebrow.
The arborist pointed at his chest and mouthed the words. “My trees will grow there.”
Veronica released the on hold button and stared at Vandersleuu until he spoke.
“If I had known it was you, Smith, I wouldn’t have answered the phone.”
Veronica laughed. “And I wouldn’t have called you, since the last time I called, you refused to talk to me. So, why not hang up on me?”
“You know why!” Vandersleuu said through clenched teeth. “My crops are drying up, my cattle are going thirsty, and they’re starving on native grasses.”
Veronica snorted. She did not attempt to hide her contempt. “Didn’t you plant Earth grasses to feed your cattle? These native grasses will fill a cow’s belly, but they don’t have the nutrients necessary to keep even the smallest calf from dying of malnutrition.”
Originally, she and Cal planted acre upon acre of Earth grasses. They spread rapidly, pushing out all native grasses. Now, much of her unplowed land was thick with lush green grass. A little irrigation on Vandersleuu’s sections would cause her Earth grasses to jump her land borders and fill his land in no time.
She felt no need to mention to him that digging a well to reach the underground aquifer to water his cattle might be a good idea. If he did not know enough to research nutrient compounds in native grasses, then she was not sure he could figure out how to dig a hole.
“You’re the one who shut off my water!” Vandersleuu’s face was turning red.
“I am truly sorry about that. I did want to work out an arrangement with you a while back, but you decided to side with Manning Tatum against me.”
“I didn’t side with him or with you,” Vandersleuu spat. “I just wanted to be left alone to work my own land. But, I would’ve picked him over you, if I was picking sides.”
“Is Tatum offering to buy your land or just take it over?”
“How did you know he offered to buy me out?”
Veronica shrugged. “I believe his original plan was to run all of us out and take over the whole countryside for himself.”
“What?”
“Think about it. How is it that Tatum’s friends and relatives won the best land in the lottery, while folks like you, the Halberds, and me got the land farthest from town? We were all granted land that looked
bad on the map.”
“I don’t know about that. My place has good land, better than my old home in North Dakota.”
Veronica said, “I’ve been keeping track of deed changes for every property between here and Peaceful Junction. Tatum’s already bought out Wiggins, Lamont, and the two properties north of them, but, he made two mistakes: me, and the water rights.”
“I have rights to the water that I need.”
Veronica shook her head. “You have the rights to what I give you. You have the right to watch your cattle die of thirst and your crops wither in the sun. Or, you can sell out, and get out.”
“Tatum is only offering me pennies on the credit. I can’t afford to sell for what he’s offering. And he’s only offering me a mortgage, where I have to wait for my money.”
Veronica hesitated. She hated being ruthless, but Vandersleuu had never been neighborly toward her. “I don’t feel sympathy for you. I should, but I don’t. I will offer you fair market value for your land, your crops in the ground, and your cattle in the field. I’m offering cash for the land. You can move your house, but everything else stays. That way you can release your title here and move somewhere else, to start over. Allow me to ask; were you a farmer in North Dakota?”
He started nodding, hesitated, and then shook his head. “We tried, but it was hard country. I supplemented our farm income by running a franchise store in town, called Your Neighbor’s Garage.”
Veronica remembered those small corner stores popping up on every other corner in Phoenix. She had never entered one but remembered they claimed to offer everything a person might need at the lowest price in town and even rented a few expensive items that only a good neighbor might loan.
“You’re offering fair market price?” Vandersleuu asked.
“Fair market price,” she agreed. “You’ve already got Manning Tatum’s quote. You call Chuck Reynolds in Twisted City and he’ll give you a fair market quote. He may even quote enough for your cattle and crops to make you think you can hang on until next year. However, let me warn you, Chuck can offer you everything you need, but water. No water moves downstream from my property until Manning Tatum is gone and Peaceful Junction is a ghost town Mark my words. However…” She let the word hang.
“However, what?” Vandersleuu asked.
“However, you have a wife and children, correct?”
“Yes. What of it?”
“You can starve or go to work in some factory in Landing City, for all I care. I hear they’re opening up a new rock quarry out east and are hiring manual sledgehammer operators at a credit a day if you don’t mind making small rocks out of big ones. However, I won’t do that to your wife and children. I’ll buy you out and set you up to run a new store in Peaceful Junction. You run Jackson’s General Store out of business.”
“I won’t work for you, Smith.”
“Not for me, Vandersleuu, with me. I provide the capital, you provide the labor and expertise. We’ll be partners. I take sixty percent and you get forty. I’ll give you full title to the business once Jackson is gone from town.”
Vandersleuu looked thoughtful but unconvinced. “I don’t have supplier connections for goods.”
“I do. I’ll have him call you if we have a deal. You think about it, Vandersleuu. Call me back before sundown today. It’s your choice. I can drive you out, or you can climb onto my side of the fence.” She closed the connection.
She looked up at Steve. “You still here?”
Steve nodded. “Yeah, boss. Speaking of general stores, I got a call from Josh Jackson in Peaceful Junction. He wanted to know if he could put up a quick stop convenience store in Veeville. It seems his business in town is dwindling down some.”
“Two things: first, we’re not actually calling it that, and second, no. Call the general store in Twisted City. See if he wants to do the same thing.”
The arborist raised his hand. “Um, Mrs...um, boss? My wife and I talked about opening a place of our own someday. We wanted a little store where we could offer produce from my orchards and other items, too. If you’re not charging too much for lots, we’d like to open a store. I mean, I know I won’t have fruit for five years or so, but we can always start with milk and bread. She has experience because she managed a place on Pennsylvania Highway 95.”
“Charging for lots? There’s no cost for lots on Maine’s Section. Chat with Steve and get a place marked down on his map then talk to Tucker about the building and any equipment your wife needs. Steve, merge your map with…” She dug through the maps on the truck hood, pulling out the bottom sheet. “With this one. We need a master plan for…School Station. Not Veeville—School Station.”
Steve said, “What do I know about drawing up master plan maps? I’m a farmer, not a city planner.” He backed up a step like he was trying to distance himself from an unexpected project.
Veronica grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close. “Just don’t put a cemetery next to a kindergarten, and don’t put a parking lot on land you can grow watermelons on.”
“We can’t grow rocks in Maine Country.”
Veronica smiled, “My plan is not to grow rocks in School Station, but to cultivate people in Maine Country. If we don’t prepare our children better than we prepare our fields, your grandchildren will be living in caves like animals.”
Polat and Kat whispered over the hill on an air ski. Polat flared the vehicle’s skirts to blow sand and stone away from the group around Veronica’s truck, as he slid the vehicle to a stop. He had jury-rigged a second seat on the back of Maine’s old air ski and dashed about the countryside, much to the embarrassment of their children.
Polat waved at Veronica. They both looked excited.
Veronica waved back. “How is it that everybody knows where I am?” She checked her data-patch. The GPS function was not active so the Landing City global positioning satellite was still not operational.
Polat laughed. “I called Auggie and Mags. They always know where you are nowadays.”
Kat nodded. “You are not hard to find. That is why Auggie and Mags watch you. Many people in town talk bad about you.”
Veronica said, “You went to town?” She was not questioning where her employees were in the middle of a workday, that was an issue between them and her foreman, Steve. Just because she worked nineteen and a half hours a day, seven days a week did not mean she expected her employees to do the same.
Polat said, “We did what Steve and Pushta did.”
Veronica looked directly at her tall foreman. “What did Steve and Pushta do?”
Steve answered, “We were going to tell you when you had the time, but you’ve been so busy since…well, since your wedding night.”
“And?”
Steve said, “We released our claim on the land down near Bedrock. We just let it go. We gave it back to the Pioneer Compact for nothing. That made us eligible to claim new land.”
Veronica smiled. “Good for you. I’ll be sorry to see you leave, but I understand if you want a place of your—”
“No. No. No,” Steve interrupted. “Pushta would kill me if we left you.”
Veronica laughed. “Well, without her fixing my meals, I’d probably starve to death. Besides, I’ve never been all that good at making friends and I wouldn’t want her to go.”
Steve laughed. “Her? What am I, a leftover bologna sandwich?”
Veronica blushed from the bottom of her neck to her cheeks. “Wait. That isn’t what I meant. You’re both paramount to me. I don’t know what I’d do without either of you or your children.”
Noticing her blush, Steve laughed harder. “Pushta says you’re more like her sister than a boss. I guess I can live with being second in both your eyes.”
“Well, if you don’t get a place too far away, we can still get together.”
“We filed for the title on the land just east of yours. It has a few small creeks, but once the lakes fill up and we build a few holding reservoirs, we can make that land more
than productive.”
“Good long-term planning then—”
“Wrong again, boss lady,” Steve laughed. “We want to sell our claim to you, right now. For what it’s worth, right now. Pushta is pregnant again and we want to buy a few things for our place in—School Station, Maine Country.”
Veronica grinned, “Pregnant? That’s wonderful. I’m—wait, I thought you wanted a place of your own?”
Steve shook his head. “Pushta and I wanted a home of our own. We wanted a place for our children to grow. Farming is my work; it’s not a dream or a passion. My kids are my dream, and Pushta is my passion. You can keep the ownership headaches.”
Veronica now wondered whether she wanted the ownership headaches. She always assumed farmers wanted to farm their own land and cowboys wanted to herd their own cattle. Now she realized it might be a relief to do your job and then go home to play with your children and not worry about the beet crop.
“Why do I need the land to the east of me?”
Steve replied, “We need to expand the size of our wheat fields as soon as we can. We need more tillable fields soon so we can get land with enough water. We need all of our crops in the ground as fast as possible. We need to start rotating soybeans too, both as a crop and to replace soil nutrients.”
Veronica nodded, already lost in thought. There is more to this equation than planting more crops when the prices are high. People in Landing City are getting hungry. Half of the farms and ranches to the south are failing or have already succumbed to the dry season’s dustbowl conditions. They were already suffering from a significant drop in the planned agribusiness output. Even with modern—and sometimes not so modern—farming techniques, there’s only so much food a farmer can pull from an acre of land.
People are becoming hungry everywhere. No one is starving to death yet, but many people are beginning to do without. Even in the most industrialized cities on Earth, people die without food. This planet is far from safe and much less industrialized than Earth. People are already dying and leaving children behind to fend for themselves.