Birdsong and Sunrise

Abel stared at the ceiling, listening. He could hear quiet movement down the hall. He waited for Abigail’s voice, but only quiet breathing filled the early morning air.

It was strange waking in his childhood bedroom, so unfamiliar, and as if he’d never left all at the same time. His old baseball mitt still sitting on the shelf next to a polaroid photograph of him with Ben after their last high school cross country meet.

When he and Abigail arrived, Lucy insisted that he take the main bedroom, but he didn’t want to disturb the rhythm of a home that had long past filled the vacancies he and others had left. And, he did find some comfort or novelty, he supposed, in the full size bed of his youth. At least the sailing ship sheets had been swapped for a more mature 2000-thread count steel gray.

Lucy had done what she could to bring the house along each time the family moved forward from loss, and he was grateful to her for it. He had offered help in brief ceremonious visits, words, and money, but nothing more.

It had been a long time since Abel allowed himself to reflect on the family farm and how he got to the place he was in now. Over they years, he had watched the farms and orchards around his father’s slowly transition, bigger names coming in to replace the small town, family farms he had grown up with. Granted, this shift did provide some economic growth for the area, and while he felt the labor practices of those big companies were exploitative for the influx of seasonal migrant farm workers, some would argue that at least there were jobs.

His father had raised him to believe in the value of hard work. But, hard work that was fair. And, his father took care of the families that returned year after year to help with the harvest. The planting and maintenance was managed by a smaller local team, skills and knowledge passed down for generations. His father had imparted that knowledge to both him and to Ben as they grew, in hopes they would continue the legacy.

His parents, especially his father, had refused to sell each time a commercial buyer came out, despite Abel’s encouragement. He always said they would continue on with the plan of having Ben and Abel take over. Ben had been invested, or at least it seemed so, spending a handful of years studying horticulture and business close enough for weekend trips home, and then returning home to make a living and a life after graduation.

Abel had followed Ben, as he mostly had during their youth, and studied at the same university, also agri-business. But, he continued on to study law in a big city down the coast, drawn by the fast pace of business deals and acquisitions. Despite his long-held interest in ethics, Abel eventually found himself defending the very companies that were trying to eat up businesses like his own family’s. He found it hard to reconcile these contrasting parts of his life. But, it also felt like the part that kept him away and distracted all these years was the part that helped him survive the heartbreak of leaving in the first place.