606s

Digging through his cards, tickets and old bus fares, Josh was aggravated at how he could have lost something so important. The sheet of paper that held the phone numbers of his friends from the plant nursery was missing and he had no idea where it was. In his mind’s eye, Josh could see the familiar faces of Li, Q, Val, Mike, Jackie and Drew; friends that he had grown to care about and respect. It was in 2008 when he had asked for the phone numbers of his colleagues, but over the years, the numbers were all but forgotten as Josh left the job and failed to stay in contact with them.

Taking a breather from combing through his stuff, Josh lay on his bed remembering the good times spent working with his friends.

“Ha ha, armpit in Chinese? Is that a fetish?”

Mike and Josh smiled at the joke and continued shoveling soil into the empty baskets then adding plastic threads that hooked the basket to a hanger.

Sneezing as the dust wafted into Josh’s nose, he knew that when he got home, he would have to clean out his nose as dust and grit were commonly trapped in his nostrils. But the dust was not as bad as the mundane jobs he had to do, such as laying out 606 flats into trays that held each six-pack in place.

Josh had gotten to know his co-workers fairly well and he acted as the translator between the English-speaking bosses and the Chinese speaking workers.

Seeing Val and Mike take off their shirts in the heat, Josh was too shy to expose himself and only rolled up his T-shirt revealing an apparent farmer’s tan on his arms. Having been working for several months now, Josh had built up quite a bit of strength, and was the fittest he had ever been from lifting metal shelfs, and from the constant cardio when walking.

On a particular day in the middle of the growing season, Drew told Mike that the two inspectors were checking for levels of pest infestation. He chuckled as he told him that he had closed the gaps in the greenhouses, causing them to be suffocatingly hot. Seeing Josh, Drew smiled and offered a bet for him yet again.

“Yo Josh! Me and Mike will give you fifty dollars each if you lick the insect trap paper. Com’on it’s just like a lollipop!”

Shaking his head to reject the offer, Josh continued laying down flats of newly planted flower sprouts, carefully balancing a one on each arm.

As the crew waited for the gator to pull the carts back to the front, Josh pretended to box Mike and took a swipe at his nose, accidentally grazing him. Mike retaliated by picking up Josh and hanging him on the top of a cart, and Josh was unable to get down himself. Everyone laughed at the scene and prepared to go sweep a greenhouse and prepare it for new plantings.

As they walked back, Josh admired the tattoo that Mike had on his shoulder and arm. It depicted a large dragon covering most of his back as well, which Q quietly told Josh would’ve scared some girls away from Mike.

Putting a new set of sprouting marigolds into a greenhouse where they will mature, Jackie told Josh that he knew a girl called Mary-Ann who he could introduce to him. Josh was shocked, but he hadn’t thought of having a girlfriend before, so he dismissed the offer.

Tightening his belt around his jeans, Josh recalled when he first started working how the other coworkers were suggesting that he get a belt as his pants were far too loose and constantly dropping. It was a good thing too because not long after, a girl was hired to work with them, and Josh was glad his pants didn’t drop in front of the girl.

Seeing a pair of gloves on a shelf with flowers ready to be shipped, the boss Drew told him those were his gloves and Josh rashly commented that it made sense that the gloves were his because they were so new.

Drew and Mike immediately asked what Josh meant by that and he nervously explained that he was saying Drew knew how to take care of his gloves better than them, hence they looked newer than everyone else’s gloves. Having evaded the accusation that his boss didn’t work hard, Mike and Drew smiled as they commended how fast Josh got out of that situation.

Sitting in the resting area, everyone got out their lunches and as usual, and Lee’s breath smelled like herbal tea again, but everyone had gotten used to the odour. Josh took out some edamame beans his mom had boiled for him and he popped each pod’s seeds into his mouth with relish. The fried rice in the thermos was a bit of a let down though for Josh, as the rice became slightly mushy and was fairly bland in taste.

Having heard about Josh’s family situation, Mike wanted to help him out by swapping one of his paychecks with Josh’s, as it was significantly higher. Josh declined the offer as well, stating that his mom and himself were doing fine on the disability insurance income. Drew also tried to help by raising Josh’s hourly rate to ten dollars, but dropped it back down after Josh performed poorly in the following month.

“Okay we need four trays of mixed violas, yellow pansies and blue wave petunias. Q, can you get four trays of red begonias? Finally, we need eleven trays of mixed alyssum.”

Sitting down for a coffee break, Q took Josh aside and told him that he should look up to Lee as a role model and not himself. Josh took a shining to Q despite the fact he smoked and was prone to get angry often. In fact, Josh admired Mike and Val as well, as they were like older brothers for Josh, who was a single child.

Having been caught by Val, Josh and him fought playfully and Val pinched his trap, forcing him to submit. Smiling at Val, Josh threw a chunk of dirt at Val who retaliated by smudging some weeds into Josh’s face. Laughing hysterically at one another, they went back to work, holding a temporary truce from the shenanigans.

Late in the summer, some of the plants had gone unsold and were getting too large to be suitable for sale anymore. Working among giant white marigolds, they tried their best to salvage as much as they could, but the white flowers were top heavy, too tall and prone to falling over after being watered. Many of the plants ended up being thrown out into the compost and the 606 flats thrown into the garbage in case they held diseases or pests, which would endanger the new flowers if they were reused.

“A mouse! Get it!” Mike stomped around the floor where the rodent had crawled under the tarp flooring.

“Too late man. Ha ha!”

Taking a heavy broomstick, Josh pounded the ground to try and scare the mouse back out.

“Yo, Josh! I got a job for you.” Drew flagged him down and gave him a sheet of paper with orders.

“It’s Canada day coming this week and we’ve got some large orders for red and white petunias. Can you handle one of those orders? The petunias are in greenhouse number seventeen.”

“Yeah sure Drew, I’ll get on it!”

Pushing two carts to the correct greenhouse, he opened the sliding door and felt a gush of hot air blast in his face. In addition to the heat, the air was also very humid, smelling of fertilizer and the sickly-sweet aroma of the blooming flowers.

Starting his order, Josh made sure each tray that he selected contained six healthy, blooming plants, with no signs of wilting, dead or unhealthy plants. Picking a few trays that were missing one or two flowers, he simply squeezed out the empty soil and inserted a substitute to make the tray full.

Using his bare hands as the gloves only made handling the flowers clumsy, he could feel the stickiness from the petunia’s leaves, and the fertilizer stung his hands thanks to the many cuts and scrapes on his fingers.

Having finished the order of petunias, Josh headed back to the loading bay where Drew double checked Josh’s order before sending it out.

“Thanks Josh! You can join the others hanging baskets in greenhouse five.”

Grabbing a stick with a notch on the end of it, he joined with his coworkers snagging the baskets by their hooks and hanging them onto a metal bar and ensuring that a watering line was properly inside the basket.

Taking advantage of Val not looking his way, Josh threw another weed at his friend, scoring a direct hit on his back. Val put down his stick and chased Josh around the greenhouse, much to the amusement of the other workers. After hanging the baskets, the male workers all worked together to fill the orders, as it was planting season and several big orders had come in. Working past their normal hours, Josh noted that it was getting dark as dusk crept closer and closer.

“Thanks guys for working late today to help fill the orders. We’ve ordered beef noodle soup as dinner for everyone. Enjoy!”

Pretty soon, the slurping of noodles and gulping of soup was heard all around the rest area, and when everyone finished, they headed right back to getting orders, despite the lack of light.

In the end, it was getting too late and Drew had to call off the work to be finished tomorrow, much to the relief of Josh.

The next day, it was pouring rain and Josh was soaked to the bone, even with a raincoat on. Mike laughed at the sight of Josh in his attire, which was bright orange, typically made for construction workers.

“You look like a caution cone Josh! Ha ha ha!”

Not only did the rain make everyone wet and miserable, but it also made keeping track of orders very difficult as the papers would all get wet and would be impossible to write on.

Thankfully entering a greenhouse to be out of the rain, Josh shook the excess water off himself and started on the order along with the rest of the crew.

Taking another coffee break, Drew’s wife Tina found out that Josh was a talented drawer and asked if he could draw a picture of a fighting robot for her daughter. Josh agreed and worked on his sketch everyday when he was off work.

As the planting season neared its end, the chores around the greenhouses focused more on cleaning everything rather than picking orders anymore. Josh was assigned to organize all the plastic tags showing which flowers were growing. Grouping all the similar tags together, he would tie them with an elastic band and put them in the properly labeled box.

Having been accepted into a university program in the fall, Josh spent the last day of his work saying goodbye to everyone and getting their phone numbers on a sheet of paper so he could stay in contact with them. Handing over the finished drawing to Tina, she was amazed at the detail and realistic nature of the sketch and thanked Josh for the picture.

Waking up from his daydreaming on his bed, Josh was glad he could still remember his friends and coworkers, but without the sheet of paper with their numbers, it would seem they were still worlds apart. As time went by, their friendships disintegrated into acquaintances, but with the memories they had of each other, mending their friendship would be as simple as giving them a call.

The End