Read Online Drifting into Darkness by J.M. La Rocca - Free Book Online

she asked as she turned to me.
    Crap! “Nope. I forgot. Hang on and I’ll be right back.” I turned to run up the steps, but Nan was there shooing me away.
    “Don’t worry about it, dear. I’ll sign ya in today. Just don’t forget to sign out at lunch.” She turned and headed inside.
    “Thanks,” I said to her retreating back.
    I turned around and jogged back to Lisa. “So where to first?”
    “Well, first we’ve got to do all the bins of green beans, and then we’ll head to do the corn. I’ll help you as we go because we’ve got to get enough bags done by eight so we can bring some up to the office.”
    “Why the office?”
    By the end of the day, I was sure she’d get tired of all my questions. I figured if I was going to be working here, I needed to know everything that was going on. I didn’t want to do something wrong and then be liable for it. “We’ve customers that come out first thing in the mornin’. We don’t just sell at the farmers market, so we have to bring the veggies up there too. Mrs. Johnson sells her eggs as well. So I’ll have to go over there in a few to get what she has.”
    We walked into the bean house and I could see a few people at the conveyor belt already. Lisa told me yesterday that there was a Mexican family who lived in a trailer on the farm, so this must be them.
    “Good mornin’, Layla, Marco,” Lisa said in greeting. “This is Sadie. She’ll be working here this summer.”
    “Hola.” Layla nodded to me and continued her work. She was short with long dark brown hair pulled back in a braid. She had a cute face, but it looked like she worked in the heat a lot. Her dark complexion looked like leather and her wrinkles were very pronounced. I’d say she was probably in her late twenties, but I couldn’t tell.
    Marco, on the other hand, gave me a megawatt smile. “Hola, señorita. Another pretty face.”
    I couldn’t contain the laugh that came out. I wasn’t laughing at what he said. I was laughing because he still had that megawatt smile on his face along with a huge bushy mustache. Who even wore a mustache anymore? I mean, this thing could be a country of its own.
    I looked over at Lisa who was also laughing. “All right, Marco. We don’t want to scare her off already.”
    I looked back at Marco and he gave me a wink as he turned to continue his work. I laughed again and walked over to Lisa who was moving buckets filled with beans over to the conveyor.
    “Wow,” I said with wide eyes.
    She looked up at me from her bending position with a smile. “Oh, that’s nothin’, girl. Just wait. I give it twenty minutes and he’ll start singing Elvis to ya. It’s hard to understand them sometimes with their accent, but he sure can sing some Elvis,” she said, shaking her head. “Anyway, if it bothers ya, just let me know and I’ll tell him to stop.”
    “I’m sure it’s no big deal.”
    “Okay, let’s get started.” She grabbed a bucket and replaced the empty one that was at the front of the conveyor.  She lifted it up and slowly poured half on the conveyor. Layla came over and spread them all out. The conveyor moved slowly, to give them enough time to pick out all the bad beans. When Lisa was done, she set the bucket down and I followed her to the other side, opposite Layla and Marco. She immediately started scanning the beans and picking out the bad ones in record speed. “See these.” She held out her open hand to show me beans that were brown and rotten looking. “These are the bad beans. If you see one that looks like this, obviously pull it out. The brown ones aren’t always bad, but if it’s questionable just pull it. Roll your hand around them as they are movin’ along too so you get a good view of them.” She tossed the bad beans into the bucket by her feet and scanned the conveyor again.
    “Doesn’t sound too hard,” I said as I started scanning. I saw two bad beans and picked them up and tossed them in the bucket.
    “Nah, it’s