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Fruit of my Labor

Ruben Ramos

By Ruben RamosPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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Beep. Beep. The past few days were filled with the beeps of scanning items at the grocery store. This job was one of the few that I could work at due to my weak ability. In the aisle next to me, Bart used his ability to levitate items to be scanned and bagged. Only when a gallon of milk came by on the conveyor belt did he manually scan it. Hours went by and our shift finished as I went to talk to Bart. “You know with a power like yours why don’t you work in the postal industry? They pay better.”

Bart smiled, “Thank you, but I tried before. They’re looking for people that can work faster, not float things around. I can’t lift heavy objects either so it wouldn’t work out for me.”

“Oh you’re young, your power might get stronger soon, you never know.”

“I hope so but until then, here we are.” Bart looks over my shoulder, leading me to look as well. My boss waved me over and I said my goodbye to Bart.

“Emily, we need to talk.”

‘Ah…A talk she says…’ I thought.

“I don’t believe you are working at the level that we need you to. I think it would be best if you looked for work elsewhere.”

“Can I at least finish the week? I could stay until you find a replacement.”

“We’ve already found someone whose ability fits well with the job. You can pick up your paycheck next week.”

Unable to respond, I nodded my head and left. I waited silently at the bus stop until the bus arrived and swiped my pass. The transaction was denied and I contemplated when the last time I put money on the card was. “I’m sorry.” I said to the driver who had been waiting on me as I turned around.

“Miss.” He said as he waved for me to sit on the bus anyway.

“Thank you so much.”

During the ride, I started contemplating other jobs I could look for. It was difficult for someone like me to find work in an industrial city since the majority of the low skill jobs were taken. ‘It’s still the beginning of the month, rent is paid. Utilities are fine. Food is…enough.’ The price of food tends to increase since it is shipped a long distance away to get here. ‘Ken is a sweetie but I can’t keep relying on him. I need to find a steady income.’ The bus pulled up to my stop and I hopped off. After a short walk I arrived home.

“Mommy!” I was greeted with a hug as I walked through the door.

“Hi baby, what did you do today?”

“I drew a picture! Come look!” Petal said as she dragged me to the dining table. Crayons were scattered everywhere as she grabbed a paper, “It’s you, me, dad, our house, and a beautiful garden with all the flowers.”

“That looks beautiful. Do you want to hang it on the wall?” Petal nodded and I began to scotch tape it to the wall with her other drawings. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes.” Petal says. I go into the near empty fridge and reheat the soup that probably has more broth than anything else. I make three bowls and leave one in the microwave. “Can we have pizza? We always have soup.”

“Sorry Petal, we can’t afford that right now. Just eat your soup okay?”

“Okay.” She says with a frown but doesn’t complain. As I sit at the table I can hear the door knob jostling.

“I’m back.” Ken says as he places his lunch bag on the side. He held a constant tired expression from the long hours at work and had bags under his eyes.

“Hi, daddy.” Petal says.

“How was work?” I ask as he reheats the food in the microwave.

“A couple more guys got laid off. The fire power ones like me. I warned them they needed to start skipping lunch break and eat while they work but they didn’t listen.”

“So much for skipping lunch being optional.”

Ken sighs, “Yeah, they’re hiring more electricity users for the power plant. It’s more efficient than converting our flames into energy. But at least they get breaks. They want us doing nine hours straight producing fire.”

“Mommy, can I have more?” Petal asks as I see she already ate through the portioned soup I gave her. My mind debates how to best handle this situation budget wise and I ended up sliding my bowl over. “Thank you!” She smiles and digs in.

Ken then slides his bowl of soup in front of me, “We can split it.”

“No no no, you work. You need to eat.”

“Well you work too…” As he spoke I looked at him and shook my head, holding back a tear in my eye. He then wraps an arm around me and kisses my forehead. “Well, better luck next time. We’ll make it work.” He says as he sits down to eat. As they eat, I go to do the dishes and notice the leaves of the potted plant on the counter starting to brown. I gently grab the damaged leaf and heal the plant back to a vibrant green.

‘It’s a shame we live in an industrial city. If this was a suburb I could take care of people’s lawns. But here, all few of those jobs are taken care of by people who can grow and shape plants. All I can do is heal them.’

Time passed and the next day came around. Ken has been working weekends the past few months so he left early in the morning. Petal and I ate the last of the soup as I looked for our savings jar so that I could go food shopping. “No this isn’t right. I thought we had more than this?” As my mind wondered where the money went, I received a phone call from Petal’s doctor. “Oh right, it was the copay.” I said before picking up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Mrs. Rondell?”

“Yes. Is this about Petal’s test?”

“Yes, I just wanted to inform you that the test came up inconclusive. As you know, testing for abilities is still a new science and the more unique abilities are still hard to discover. So until we figure out what it is, it seems as though Petal’s magical growth will become stunted.”

My heart dropped, “Is there something else we can do? If she doesn’t start practicing soon she’s not going to develop her power far. I don’t want her to end up like me.”

“I’m sorry, the only thing I can suggest is to play around and have her pretend to use different abilities. If you want, I can recommend a counselor who specializes in these cases.”

‘As if we could afford it.’ I thought. “No thank you, we’ll try it ourselves first.”

“Very well, if anything feel free to contact me and you have a nice day.”

After we hung up the phone, I sat down and rested my head in my hands. I take a deep breath and try to plan out what I can manage. ‘Okay, I don’t need a bus pass. Petal and I can just go for a walk to the store. I’ll cut a few veggies from the next soup. Then as soon as I’m done cooking I’ll apply to more jobs’

“Mommy, I’m hungry.” Petal says.

“I’m about to go to the store and get food. Do you want to walk with me?”

“Yes!” Petal says as she runs to put on her shoes. “Why don’t we grow food in the yard anymore?”

“The soil is barren so it’s hard for me to take care of it by myself. I couldn’t keep up with it.”

“The pear tree too?”

“The tree died so we had to cut it down and sell the wood.”

“Oh.” She says, having satiated her curiosity.

As I am about to leave I see from the corner of my eye that I had left the electric stove on from the last time I used it. “Oh shi-” I catch myself before running over to the stove to turn it off. I opened the oven but to my surprise it was cool to the touch. I rushed to turn on all the knobs but stove refused to work. In desperation I checked if it was plugged in, but it was. Having done everything I could I realized the stove might be broken and need replacing. I bit my lip to try to calm my nerves. “Petal you can go back to playing, we’ll leave in a bit.” My heart raced and I rushed through solutions. ‘Okay, we can use Ken’s next paycheck and cut foo- no we can’t keep cutting food. We can avoid paying the electric bill next month for a week as long as we make rent. If the stove doesn’t work, Ken can use his flame to cook…no he’s too tired after work. Wait, I can just use a lighter. I can make a fire in the yard and cook outside.’ I peek out into the yard to see what I could burn. Aside from the stump of the pear tree, there was nothing but stone and the dirt that even grass wouldn’t grow in. As I think about chipping off wood from the stump, Petal tugs on my shirt.

“Mommy, when are we getting food?” She asks as I can hear her stomach growling. I clench my jaw and hold back tears so I don’t scare her.

“I’m sorry sweetie; we’ll leave in a minute.”

“Okay.” I watch Petal as she goes back to playing with her toys. The pain in my chest prevented me from taking a step. I look back to the yard I struggled for ages to grow vegetables in and rested my eyes on the stump. My own weak will that I fought against ever since Petal’s birth began to encroach on me as I stepped toward the tree’s remains. I sat down on the stump as tears rolled down my eyes as I resolved myself to bring the tree back to life. Vines wrapped around my flesh and consumed my body as nutrients. It was the only way I could revive a dead plant and I desperately wanted to put food on the table. The tree grew rapidly as it greedily coiled around me. Leaves sprouted as branches spread their arms above me. My limbs were gone as my face slowly sunk into the bark. My senses grew dull as I saw the blurry image of Petal running towards me. “Mommy! Mommy!” I could barely make out her screams as she approached me. As she grew closer I can see her begin to glow and turn incorporeal and dive into the fully grown tree. My consciousness returned to me as Petal tackled me out of the tree. To my astonishment, I still had all of my limbs even though the tree had just consumed them. Petal hugged me tightly as she cried while I lay on the floor. I sat up and hugged her back, brushing my hand across her hair and crying as well.

“It’s okay baby, mommy’s okay. I’m okay.” I look up and reach for a pear from the tree. “Look, the pear tree is back. It was your favorite right?” Petal refused to answer and dug her face deeper into my stomach and shook her head. “Everything’s okay now Petal. I promise I’ll never do that again, okay?”

“Promise?” She asks as she lifts her head.

“I promise.” I respond, wiping the tears from my eyes and handing her the pear. As I watched her eat I was unsure if guilt, pride, or a bit of both dwelled within me but all my emotions were suppressed by the joy of seeing my child eat.

Short Story
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