Orchards by Holly Thompson Page A

shorts
              over my big butt
    Koichi and Yurie
              stick figures
    sand castle
    water
    waves
    float
    and a mammoth jellyfish offshore
     

T he
mikan
    that we continue to thin
    are large as baseballs
    in some groves
    enough to roll an ankle
    if you step wrong
    and if you step right
    enough to make a juicy mess
    tree after tree
    row after row
    terrace after terrace
    we thin
     
    I ask when the fruits
    will finally
    turn orange
    September
    they say
    soon after you leave
    and I’m disappointed
    having wanted to see
    row after row
    terrace after terrace
    of orange-spotted trees
     
    the heat is brutal
    making us slow and dull
    as cicadas whine, drone and click
    and do their crazy calls
    so loud sometimes
    we have to yell
    to each other
    we take extra water in thermoses
    extra breaks in the shade
    and after lunch
    don’t ever go back up
    till after two
    when the sun is starting
    its slow track down
    toward the western
    horizon
     
    which means
    every day
    after lunch cleanup
    at the house
    I have a full hour free
    in Yurie’s room
    to nap or email
    even chat online
    with friends up late
    in New York
    and to the old atom of friends
    humor
    starts to return
    barely noticeable
    at first
    like a tide change
     
    summer will end soon
    then high school—
    private for Erin and Abby
    public for the rest of us
    bigger school
    more activities
    more options
    more atoms
    we make plans
    to meet for pizza
    the day before classes
    the day before the start
    of our next four years
    and we joke about
    what we’ll bring each other
    as gifts—
    moose turds
    rocks
    math books
    jellyfish salad

     
    I send a separate email to Lisa
    still quiet
    and ask
    how are you?
    how’s summer school?
    ready for more school?
    and she replies
    right away
    k
    btw, jake emailed
     
    I tell this to Baachan
    and all afternoon in the hot groves
    cutting the no-good fruit down
    and pruning twigs
    that will scar the rinds
    I think
    how cool is that
    that what
    Baachan said
    to me
    over here
    made that
    Jake-and-Lisa contact
    happen
    over there
     
    at night
    I think
    there must be a way
    to go beyond who we were
    when what you did froze
    the way we were
    in everyone’s heads
    I think there must be a way
    to show you
    we’ve grown
    and to show you
    that maybe now
    we know how
    we should have been
    with you, Ruth,
    and that maybe
    now we’d know
    how to keep you
    from walking
    up that hill
    that night
    to the orchard
    behind Jake’s house
     

O ne day we come down
    from the groves for lunch
    hot, beat
    drenched in sweat
    but before I finish my second glass
    of cold barley tea
    Baachan sends me out
    to buy tofu
    when I return she hovers
    says Yurie called to tell me
    the computer
    isn’t working
     
    all through lunch she repeats
    Yurie said don’t touch it!
    don’t even turn it on!
    which is weird
    because I was the last one to use it
    when Yurie went to bed last night
    and neither of us had it on
    this morning
     
    Koichi is off for the day
    dealing with some truck repair
    so Baachan tells me to take my after-lunch break
    with Uncle on the veranda
    and he’ll teach me how to play
shogi
    I sit down opposite my uncle
    thinking this is different—
    he always naps
    in this heat
    Uncle sets up the board
    starts explaining the sides
    sente
and
gote
    the moves of the king
    the gold and silver generals
    chariots
    knights and dragon horses
    and I’m thinking
    enough already
    let’s play
     
    but the phone rings
    Baachan answers
    and Aunt hovers
    like she caught it from Baachan
    and Baachan hands the phone to Aunt
    and Aunt disappears into the kitchen
    and Baachan orders us
    to stop
shogi
immediately
    and sends Uncle and me
    on an errand to get some …
     
    cucumbers?
    Uncle and me?
    Uncle never does the vegetable picking and
    Baachan never wastes two bodies
    on a task that
    could be done
    by one
    but we get the cucumbers
    though Baachan didn’t say how many
    and some peppers and
    eggplants to be safe
    but it is way too hot in the