Watermelon Summer (16 page)

 

    Oops.  I think my IQ dropped by about 50 points
when I turned 18...or maybe I was just having a hard time focusing on
anything other than Jacob now that he'd made his intentions clear. 
We hadn't done anything except hold hands, but I missed him when he was
gone, and when Jacob was present, I had a hard time thinking about
anything else.

 

    But this was important—the big Greensun meeting,
and our chance to try to dig up some more-experienced help.  If we
were lucky, one or two of the Exes (Kat's catchy term for Ex-Greensun
residents) might even decide to join us—after all, they wouldn't
have to live at Greensun to be part of the community.  And if we
had at least one more community member, we wouldn't feel so obligated to
keep Drew around.  Even Kat seemed to be getting sick of him, or
maybe I was just hoping that's why my sister hadn't woken her
late-rising boyfriend for our pre-meeting meeting.

 

    "I'll introduce our idea, but I think you two should
be the ones to go over our business plan," Kat continued, shattering my hopes that I
could be a silent participant in the upcoming meeting.  Just the idea of
being around a dozen people I didn't know had kept me from sleeping well
the previous night—I really didn't want to do any public speaking.

 

    Unfortunately, Jacob seemed to be on Kat's
side.  "That sounds good," he agreed.  "I've got some
paperwork on how many visitors have come to our website, and Thia knows
our CSA stats inside and out.  You've got those sample by-laws all
drawn up too, right, Thia?"

 

    Well, yes and no.  I'd read everything Carol
dropped off, and after three painful afternoons at a public computer in
the library, I'd drafted what I thought might be legal paperwork. 
But most of the text was just copied and pasted from books and websites,
and I
had no clue if Carol would laugh when she saw my attempt.  The
idea that I was responsible for writing something that would hold up in
court was terrifying.

 

    But I could hear the first strange footsteps on the
porch outside, so it was too late to make changes now.  "Here goes
nothing," I muttered, and put on my friendliest fake smile.

 

 

 

   "Forsythia!" Arvil called as I walked in the back
door of the old farmhouse, the screen slapping shut behind me. 
I'd been doing my best to hide behind the scenes for the last hour
as Exes arrived in ones and twos.  It was easy to keep myself busy
putting food away in the fridge and (when worst came to worst) hiding in
the back yard, but Arvil's greeting pulled every eye our way, putting
an end to my anonymity.

 

    All month, I'd thought of Arvil as an eccentric hermit, but he
was clearly right in the thick of the gathered Greensun Exes, and (I
soon realized) was the life of the party.  He introduced me to
the other adults gathering around the spread laid out on the
chipped formica counter, but I didn't really pick up the
names (and identities) of the Exes until later.  Some I missed entirely.

 

    "You look just like your mother!"  I must
have heard this five times, in between being enfolded in deep hugs
by people I'd never even heard of before.  But I was willing to
put up with a lot to get my hands on one of the chocolate-frosted
donuts someone had brought as their food contribution, and I knew I
needed to make a good impression if I wanted to hook more community
members.  This time, the speaker was Kitty, a wispy woman who
oozed New-Age flakiness as she told me all about how she and my
mother were best friends two decades ago.  I suspected the
relationship might have been all in Kitty's head since I'd never
heard her name before, but I smiled and nodded, then moved on down
the line to spend a minute talking to Carol and Susan, then to Bill,
who owned a business in
Asheville focusing on permaculture and edible landscaping. 
Thanks to Kat's permablitz, I even knew what Bill was talking about half
the time, kinda sorta.

 

    "Do you remember me?" asked a diminutive woman on
my left, filling my bubble of silence soon after Bill wandered
off.  I was getting ready to reiterate that no, I remembered
nobody here, when I noticed the twinkle in her eye.  "I
delivered you," she said.  "I'm Felicia."  A midwife, it
turned out, and a gentle presence in a room overflowing with egos.

 

    There were also a few men whose names I never
quite
caught, mostly because they were too busy talking about sports to
engage much with the rest of us.  And a clique of middle-aged
women who were more interested in catching up with each other than in
speaking to anyone else.  Storm was the last new-to-me member of
the gathering...well, along with her kindergarten-aged son Wolf who
was completely engrossed in a hand-held video game.

 

    I finally got a second alone after meeting Storm, and
I looked across the room to see Kat in the thick of the party, just as I'd
expected.  But I was more surprised to find Jacob blending in as
well, schmoozing the guests with alacrity.  He had met my eyes and smiled
when Arvil helped me make my big entrance, but Jacob had then let me get
swept up by the mass of Exes busily reminiscing about good times
before I was born.  I would have called him a traitor if his
actions weren't for such a good cause, and if he didn't seem to be
charming the Exes just as easily as he had the neighbors.

 

    "Who wants to make a bonfire?" Arvil called after
the donut box was reduced to crumbs.  After the unanimous "yes"
rang out, Arvil took over what had previously been Kat's job—dividing up the forces.  At Arvil's urging, the men became
engrossed in assembling a flammable
work of art in the middle of the lawn, while the women wrapped
potatoes in tinfoil to go in the coals.  I could see what Mom
meant about the division of labor, but I couldn't really find it in
myself to care since Arvil sent me and Jacob off together in search of
pine cones to add a sparkle to the flames.  Together at last.

 

 

 

    "Glen's not here, is he?" Jacob asked as we walked up
toward the pine grove together, traveling slowly enough that we could
go hand in hand and relish the relative silence.

 

    I let out a deep breath, realizing that my bio-dad
was one of the reasons I'd been so on-edge about this meeting.  I'd
been positive Glen would come to greet his old friends, letting me
finally get to know him in the flesh, and I was both scared and excited
to finally see what my bio-dad looked like.  Just yesterday, I'd
come across a note in the back of
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
listing food allergies of each previous community member.  If Glen
cared enough to make sure Bill didn't accidentally eat peanuts, surely
he cared enough to show up and say hello?

 

    But Jacob was right, Glen wasn't present.  And
try as I might, I couldn't help taking his absence as a personal
slight.  "He doesn't want to meet me," I replied, my words
pained.  "I've been here a month, and my father hasn't shown up
once."

 

    "His loss," Jacob said, giving my hand a squeeze,
then letting me go to start putting pine cones in a plastic grocery
bag.  "Did I ever tell you about the man I call Dad?"

 

    No he hadn't.  Jacob had let drop that Davey's
father was in prison, but his own father hadn't even been
mentioned.  "You must think I'm totally self-absorbed to be
complaining about Glen when I don't even know about your father!" I
exclaimed, ashamed of myself for not having asked earlier.  In all
the time we'd spent together, Jacob had told me little about
himself.  We always seemed to get sidetracked into planning
Greensun's future or worrying over freeloaders like Drew, but now I
regretted not pinning Jacob down earlier.

 

    "Well, my real father is who-knows-where, and good
riddance from all I've heard," Jacob told me, his hand grazing mine as
we accidentally reached for the same pine cone.  Despite all of the
day's drama, a brush of Jacob's skin on mine was enough to send a
tingle through my stomach, but I tried to focus on what he was telling
me instead of on what I was feeling.  "But the guy I call Dad is
still around, and he takes me hunting every year, which is pretty much
what it takes to be a father around here."  Jacob laughed quietly,
clearly remembering our gun conversation the first time I'd been over to
his house.  "He was married to my mom a few years ago, and he could have
dropped me at the same time he realized Mom was bad news, but he
didn't.  That's when I made a choice.  I could worry over
where my real father is, or I could decide to feel lucky that
I had another solid father figure in my life despite my deadbeat dad.  I chose the latter."

 

    Jacob was right—I should have felt rich beyond
words.  Glen's behavior aside, my own step-dad was always there to
back me up with unconditional love, and I was starting to think of Arvil
as a bonus uncle to go along with the bonus siblings I'd yet to
meet.  There was so much potential in the world, why should I focus
on the few negatives?  I took a deep breath and decided to forget
Glen and pay attention to all of the bounty around me right now.

 

 

 

    "Look up," Jacob said after we'd filled our bags
with pine cones and were standing in silence, regaining our composure
before braving the Greensun Exes once again.  The pine trees soared
over our heads, nearly blocking out the little bit of sunlight still
remaining in the quickly-disappearing day.  "My step-dad showed me
how to tell the age of pines like this," Jacob continued, reaching up
with our clasped hands to point at the lowest branches.  "All you
have to do is count the rings of limbs, one for every year of the
tree's life.  You'll need to guess a bit at the bottom," he
added.  "But you can usually see where old branches have broken
off."

 

    For a minute, we peered up and counted in silence,
the angle of my head making me slightly dizzy.  "They're not much
older than me," I said at last, surprised by the youth of such stately
trees.  Then I tilted my head back to human-level and realized that
Jacob's face was suddenly awfully close to mine.

 

    Jacob had warned me when he went to hold my hand for
the first time, but now body language was all the hint I needed to know I was
about to be kissed.  I would like to say I closed my eyes and
reveled in the moment, but the truth is that when I'm excited or
flustered, words flow out of my mouth before I can shut
the faucet between lips and brain.  This day was no
exception.

 

    "I've never kissed anyone before!" I blurted out,
but Jacob only smiled and shrugged.  He raised his eyebrows
questioningly, I tipped my mouth forward to meet his...and the
ensuing sensation left me weak at the knees.

 

    "I never would have known it," Jacob said at
last, and it took me a minute to realize he was referring to my lack of kissing experience.

 

    I think we both would have liked to stay in the the
pine grove and give kissing another whirl, but we could hear a whoop from the
farmhouse that sounded anything but distant.  I wouldn't have put
it past Arvil to show up if we took too much longer
with our task, so I just clasped Jacob's hand in mine and headed back to
the Exes.