The Year Money Grew on Trees by Aaron Hawkins

becoming much colder and darker. No one said anything, except for Michael, who complained under his breath about frostbite and losing his fingers and toes.
    Amy finally said, "Why don't we go in, because I can't see anything."
    I wanted to throw down the pruning scissors and run for the house, but I said, as calmly as I could, "Amy's right. Good work, guys! Let's just leave the ladders here and take the tools with us."
    We walked quietly home, the boys blowing on their hands. I said goodbye as we reached my house. I left my pair of pruning scissors outside by the front door and then went in and headed straight for the heater. It took half an hour before I felt like none of my body parts were going to fall off.
    "You cold out there?" Mom asked as we sat around the table.
    "Not really. The work keeps you warm," I replied as cheerily as I could, looking at both of my sisters.
    After dinner I went to my room and drew a map of the orchard on a piece of paper with all three hundred trees. I put an X through the tree in the farthest corner we had finished. Given how long it had taken us to prune one tree, we were going to have to get a lot faster to finish by spring. I wasn't exactly sure when that was

    from an apple tree's perspective, but I figured we better be done by the end of March. It was already the middle of February.
    ***
    The next day after school, I put on a knit hat, an extra coat, and the warmest gloves I could find. I grabbed my pruning tool from beside the front door and headed toward my cousins' house. Before I could knock, Amy came out leading Sam and Michael, who were dressed in as many layers as I was.
    We picked up where we left off, and I noticed the apple book had been left on the ground overnight. I cringed, imagining what the librarian would say if she knew. There was a steady sound of
click, click
and the buzzing of Sam's saw against the tree. I kept saying encouraging things like "This really looks like the pictures in the book" and "I think we're moving a lot faster than yesterday." I also thought it was a good idea to keep everyone's minds off the cold by talking about shows like
The A-Team.
This made Sam and Michael wish they were watching TV while Amy ignored me completely. She kept snipping away at branches, but her face looked bored and almost angry. My mind kept imagining her throwing down the pruning scissors and just walking wordlessly away. I frantically tried to think of something to say that would keep her there.
    "You know what this reminds me of?" I said. "That
time last year when Bobby Cluff was running for student council and we were hanging up signs."
    "What?" Amy called back sharply.
    "You know, when you were his campaign manager and I helped you hang up signs in the middle of the night so the whole school would be surprised the next day."
    "Yeah, I know. I was there. But why would that remind you of anything?"
    "It's just that my fingers were really cold then, too, and it got pretty dark. And there was a lot of reaching up to try and hang the signs so no one could pull them down. You know, kind of like reaching up for these branches."
    Amy gave me a dismissive look that let me know she could see right through my weak attempt at psychology. She shook her head silently for a minute and then said, "I think we need a radio out here. Michael, go get the radio that Dad keeps in the washroom."
    Michael trudged off and returned with the radio and began flipping through the stations. Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" came on.
    "Oh, I love this song! Leave it right there!" Amy yelled. We didn't dare argue, and she began to sing along softly to most of the songs on the station.
    Counting the tree we had started on the night before, we finished three trees that Friday—and I really did think we were getting better with each one. As we were
walking back home in the twilight, I asked very timidly, "So when do you want to get started tomorrow?"
    "When is all this pruning supposed to be finished?"