DETERRENT - Apply Fic

11

They must have hit July, because Benji said it would be hotter then. Halfway through their second week, Gale dumps water on himself in the shadow of the farmer's home.

Benji created a rota for the week. The calendar is posted on the wall in the kitchen. The paper edges are fraying, already yellowing like the wallpaper below it. Now, Gale would look at it to hope tomorrow will be better than today, but Harvey is in the kitchen. Of course he is. Harvey is only ever in that damn kitchen.

There are only two others on break. Calath balances on her knees over the kitchen sink, using a wrench to pry open the tap. It's been dripping, a sound so constant it could be mistaken for the ticking of a clock. Harvey knows it is just a beat slower, a fraction of time off from the actual rhythms of a clock.

Unfortunately, Calath's tool clicks periodically, and it's driving Titus mad. Even though Harvey doesn't mind, Titus bends over, pressing his head in between his knees. Sweat rolls down the back of his shirt. Drip. Click. Click. Click. Drip. Click. Click. Click.

Harvey tries to eye Calath, he really does. He has seen all the tool belts; Calath shouldn't have a wrench. Yet, they do. The tap clangs as it comes loose. Calath pulls out a circular metal piece, and Harvey should look but instead he's got his eyes trained on Titus. All week, every break, watching and waiting for Titus to try to flee.

Being in the kitchen, Harvey knows the schedule well. He watches it every day, waits to see how it works. Over the weekend, Benji used a tractor of sorts to remove all of the corn husks after the first round of corn was collected. Now, they are getting ready to plant the second round, which will be ready in about nine weeks for harvest, so Benji says. The groups have been rotating through stations. Hoeing, laying compost and fertilizer, planting the seeds in identical rows, and watering rows of freshly packed dirt. If it weren't for the trellises at the front of the farm, the field would suddenly look barren except for the sweaty figures of the other delinquents.

The worst job, which Kae, Eurydice, and Gale have been assigned to today, involves weeding English ivy that has begun to creep around the back of the vegetable patch, at the farthest end of the farm. The first day, when Calath, Faris, and Rhiannon Rose were assigned the task, Faris came back and slammed his wedding gloves on the kitchen table. Yesterday, Norbu didn't tell a single joke after coming back from the fields, and Cosmia was quiet, somehow more terrifying than her usual snappy tongue.

Yet, Titus was no different. All of that back-breaking labour, and Titus made no comment, had no twitch to his face, and today he is just as tired as he was yesterday. It is rare that a clock stops working and Harvey cannot tell which cog needs replacing. It is even rarer he finds a working clock and can't understand explain why it continues ticking away time.

When it is Thursday, and the sun is breathing life into the pink sky, they gather at the porch. Benji is in his truck, pulling out from beside the house. He rolls down the window.

"I've got errands to run today," he tells them. "If the farmhands say things go well, I'll take off the English ivy from you list next week."

He switches gears and pulls out.

The thought of it would make Kae cry if she was not the daughter of her father. She is used to looking beautiful, to pleated skirts and folded legs, to goosebumps on her skin left unattended by her idle hands. Beside her, Gale does cry, tears leaking from his eyes at the thought.

The groups start to head out. Faris leads his group first, and then Norbu is heading out with Cosmia, Titus wandering along side them but several metres apart. Eurydice squares her shoulders and looks at Harvey.