A late morning filled with an endlessly blue sky.
“You all know we’re going out for volunteer work today, right? Everyone, get on the buses waiting at the front gate!”
For American high school students preparing for college, volunteer work is essential. American universities value not only an applicant’s grades, but also leadership, social responsibility, and contribution to the community, and they also require a certain number of community service hours for graduation.
On top of that, if you want to enter a specific university and a specific major, having volunteer experience—an opportunity to experience the profession in that field firsthand and build connections with practitioners and friends—makes an enormous difference in admissions.
So, for normal high school students who worried even the tiniest bit about their future, it was only natural to participate in volunteer work, no matter how annoying or tiring it was.
Seen in that light, the fact that Jacob, who had shown hostility toward Asians from the very first class, was following along without complaint proved that he at least had the basics down.
“Hmph! Bet you’ve never seen an almond farm before, huh?”
Though he was still sulking over having taken a hit before, so he had to pick a fight.
“Sorry, but I’ve probably seen more than you have.”
“What?”
“Why don’t you quietly review what you learned? Unless you want to get scolded by Mr. Miller again like last time?”
“......”
Seeing him open a book on the bus just because he was told to study—maybe he wasn’t bad by nature? The punk was kind of cute.
Just then, an attractive female voice came from behind me.
“Do you know a lot about almonds too?”
The owner of the voice was Chloe. Lately, she’d been taking an unusual amount of interest in me, probably because she wanted to win the cherry competition. So without even turning around, I looked out the window and answered.
“A little?”
“I heard you weren’t interested in farming before. So why did you only join our club now?”
“I was planning to go into tax or accounting before. I just changed my mind.”
“Ah... that’s interesting. Even the uncles on our farm wouldn’t tell me the hints you gave me.”
“That’s not because I’m amazing, but because the uncles on your farm don’t care much about a scientific approach. Or else they deliberately left you alone so you could figure it out and grow on your own.”
“Do you think so?”
“...”
I didn’t answer and only thought about how to maximize the farm’s profits. It would take roughly four to six months to complete the vinegar, which meant the winery would have to sit idle for at least six months. If we brought in cherries during that time and made wine, we could run the winery for six months and produce about a thousand bottles of cherry wine.
A bottle of cherry wine from Napa Valley cost around thirty-five to forty-five dollars, so if luck was on our side and the results came out as expected, the profit margin would be four to five times the cost.
Of course, that was assuming Chloe won and brought in one ton of cherries at a cheap price. If she lost, we’d have to give up on the profits from the cherries.
Since I didn’t speak, Chloe naturally closed her mouth as well, and we arrived at the almond farm about an hour away.
After passing through the farm entrance, endless rows of almond trees greeted us. It wasn’t the blooming season yet, so we couldn’t see the white blossoms that almond trees bore, but the sight of trees standing side by side across the vast space was magnificent no matter how many times I saw it.
After we got off the bus, a middle-aged man who appeared to be the farm owner approached, took off his hat, and greeted us.
“Good to meet you. I’m Jeffrey Holland. You look like a bunch with some promise.”
Jeffrey, who looked to be in his mid-to-late fifties, was a typical American farmer with rugged work clothes and sunburned skin. He looked warmly at the several dozen Agriscience Club students and said,
“What you’ll be doing today isn’t too difficult. First, when the tree shaker is operating, you’ll remove small branches or fallen debris under the branches and clean the area so branches don’t get caught in the binder or chains. And then you’ll gather the almonds that have fallen to the ground with forks or rakes and put them into baskets.”
A tree shaker was a piece of machinery used on nut orchards to make harvesting efficient, mainly for nut trees such as almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts.
At that, Jacob shot his hand into the air.
“Can we try operating the tree shaker?”
It was clearly a crazy thing to say, but the reason he could say something so fearless was that, surprisingly, heavy equipment operated on American farms could often be used without a license.
“Nope!”
As expected, the farmer wasn’t an idiot. He waved his hand firmly and refused with charisma, and Jacob looked disappointed.
After that, the students split into teams, looked around different parts of the farm, and began their volunteer work. I ended up in the same group as Chloe, Jaden with the dreadlocks, and that crazy Jacob, and we started picking up almonds that had fallen to the ground.
To be honest, I was uncomfortable being in the same group as Chloe and Jacob, but for some reason, Chloe stuck close to me the whole time, and Jacob got himself lumped into our group after pointlessly trying to pick a fight.
“California almonds are the best in the world. Do almonds even grow in your country? Where did you say you were from? China? Japan? North Korea?”
“That was so childish I thought for a second I’d regressed back to elementary school. If you’re still at this level now, how on earth did you make fun of your friends in elementary school? Don’t tell me it was something like, ‘He pooped his pants! Hahaha!’”
“...... I used my fists instead of my mouth. Want me to use them here too?”
Honestly, looking at Jacob’s build, there probably wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t be intimidated. His face even looked like Brock Lesnar’s, and when he got angry, his face turned red too, so wasn’t he practically a monster?
“Stop it, Jacob!”
Unexpectedly, Chloe stepped in and shouted again. Jacob flinched for a moment at the command of the school queen, then shut his mouth. Being a guy and all...
Sweeping up the almonds that had fallen along the path where the tree shaker had passed wasn’t that hard. Since it was volunteer work being done by students, the tree shaker hadn’t been moving quickly in the first place.
After we moved around like that for about an hour, our clothes grew damp with sweat, and conversation gradually disappeared. After all, picking fights required stamina too.
Around the time I had begun checking my wristwatch now and then, wondering when this would end, I saw something lying on the ground and bent down.
“What is it?”
Chloe was the first to approach.
“You think I’m working because I don’t want to rest? Immigrant bastards are so lazy...”
At the sight of Chloe whipping her head around, Jacob flinched and shut his mouth, and even Jaden came over and asked,
“What’s up? Huh? It’s a bee.”
“A bee? You’re making a fuss over just a bee?”
Jacob still spoke as if he didn’t like it, but I didn’t even listen and picked up the dead bee with my hand.
“There should be beehives nearby...”
“Beehives?”
“Bees are the key to an almond farm. Almond trees can’t self-pollinate, so without pollinators like honeybees, pollen transfer is difficult and they can’t bear fruit. That’s why it isn’t strange for there to be beehives on the farm.”
After explaining that, I immediately started running with the bee’s corpse in my hand.
“Where are you going?”
Chloe asked as she followed after me.
“There’s something I need to ask the farm owner!”
Because the farm was ridiculously huge, it took a full twenty minutes of running before we finally arrived at the storage shed where the owner was waiting.
“Huh? Brian? Why are you here?”
As the kids arrived one by one behind me, gasping for breath, Mr. Miller’s eyes widened and he asked.
“The bees... were dead. Do you happen to know where the beehives are?”
“Bees? Oh, you found them well.”
Mr. Miller’s face immediately hardened as he looked at the bee I handed him, and he turned his head toward Jeffrey, the farm owner, who had just come outside.
“Where are the beehives?”
Jeffrey’s face also stiffened, and he stepped forward.
“Follow me.”
We climbed into the pickup truck he drove—the students got in the back—and traveled for about ten minutes, feeling the warm wind.
When we arrived, I saw dozens of beehives lined up side by side. I jumped down from the truck and ran over to them. Sure enough, when I looked down at the entrance of the hives, countless bee corpses were scattered across the ground. Quite a few of them weren’t dead yet, twitching and crawling around, unable to fly.
“There are too many...”
With an anxious heart, I quickly inspected the other hives, and Mr. Miller approached my side.
“A lot of bees are dead.”
“This is serious. Did you know about this?”
Jeffrey, the farm owner, shook his head with a grave expression.
“Why on earth would this...?”
Mr. Miller patted my shoulder and said,
“As expected, Brian, you were sharp. You discovered a major problem in advance. This could have been disastrous.”
Jeffrey also took Useok’s hand firmly with a sincerely grateful expression.
“You’re a student? Impressive. With eyes that sharp, you’ll become a good farmer. But...?”
Praise was praise, but faced with a bigger problem right in front of him, Jeffrey stared at the beehives with his face twisted in distress. At that, Mr. Miller picked up a handful of dead bees and said,
“We’ll have to investigate. As quickly as possible...”
At that moment, I cut in.
“Is there another farm not far from here?”
“Hm? Why?”
I knelt and swept my index finger across the ground in front of the hive to examine it. Fine white powder clung to the tip of my finger. Then I picked up one of the bee corpses and examined it closely.
“I think it’s neonicotinoid.”
Startled, Mr. Miller stared at me, and Chloe, unable to contain her curiosity, asked,
“What’s that?”
“A pesticide for pest control.”
Everyone was shocked by my answer. Jacob, who had somehow come over and was sitting beside the beehive, stared at me with his mouth hanging open.
“How do you know that?”
I didn’t answer and asked Mr. Jeffrey again.
“There’s a farm not far from here, isn’t there?”
“Uh... yes.”
“Where is it?”
“Silver Oak.”