to market, to market (tom)::

[august vance d7b [Bella]]

N O R Ihalliday

There were a lot of bad things Nori could say about the summer so far. It was mostly the heat, the unforgiving sun that seared at her shoulders, turning them an even darker shade of brown. It was the beginning of the orchard season, so her arms ached from climbing, reaching out to the edges of the branches, so there was that. But there were good things, too. No snow, no frigid nights spent under threadbare blankets. The swimming hole was cold and refreshing, and not far from her house.

And the summer had been good to her garden. Most years, there was at least a little drought to parch the plants or make the bees drop dead from thirst. This year hadn't been too bad, though. She felt like someone was watching over her, making sure the plants got a good drink even when Nana couldn't find enough money to pay the water bill.

This year was the first in a few years where Nori had reaped a bigger harvest than they needed. Nana appreciated the extra crop, but this year it was just too much—tomatoes and cucumbers especially were not the base of a meal, and there just wasn’t enough meat to go with all of it. So Nori had packed a basketful and set up a little folding end table—one of the ones her family used to eat in front of the television— in the marketplace to have a go at selling a few vegetables. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. At home, the strawberries were a delicacy, and she would never allow herself to sell them, even though they would probably fetch a pretty penny out here.

As the people passed her by she let a smile radiate from her feature, blinking at the dust kicked up by their feet. She held up a sign that she’d made out of a cardboard box flap: FRESH VEGTABLES. It was missing a letter, but Nori had never pretended to be a master speller. “Fresh from the garden! Good prices! Come and get em!” she hollered in the least obnoxious voice she could manage. All that was left was to be patient.