A New Leaf Turned

Author Details: Kavya Pothapragada 8th Grade Tellapur
Hi! I am Kavya. I like reading and travelling.

I hopped off of the train, relieved to escape a fitful night’s sleep. Immediately, the ferociously pungent odour of manure and the muddy paddy fields reached my nose. I wrinkled it and occupied myself with searching for Anne. I found her and it was all I could do to conceal my utter disgust.

She was wearing a checkered dress in a variety of browns. Her freckled pale face pulled into a smile when she noticed me. Layers and layers of filth were plastered onto her face and caked under her nails, but one could tell that a perfect beauty lay masked beneath, comparable to Aphrodite herself. Her slender nose and thin blood red lips were pulled into an enormous grin. Her auburn curls matched mine and her eyes, filled with all the possible shades of blue, fell over themselves trying to observe every part of me and cherish it forever. I lifted my only piece of luggage, a duffel bag, and braced myself for how I would look in a month.

“Hey George!” Anne greeted me, not at all let down by the fact that I hadn’t replied.
“I can carry your bag for you!” she offered in a singsong voice, her eyes glistening like the ocean.

“It’s okay,” I replied, doubtful. I wondered if she would have been able to lift it with her petite frame and bare feet. I also didn’t want to get my bag dirty because of her grime.

We walked to her farm about ten kilometers from the station, towards my room. The room was hardly fit for a human being, with its cracking walls and a bundle of hay instead of a bed. I bit my fist to keep from hurting her feelings in my disappointment.

As I watched her flit away, I wondered how a girl, who was sixteen years old like me, could act so childish and vulnerable. I walked back into my room and changed to get ready to help Anne in the farm.

I walked out and noticed Anne busy milking a cow. She beckoned for me to come join her and showed me how to do so.

“Just squeeze and pull the different parts of the udder like this,” she demonstrated gracefully.

I tried to copy her but ended up getting milk all over myself and a bad day. I huffed off to my room and slammed the door, which ripped it off of its hinges. I groaned and flopped myself on to the bed of hay. I mulled to myself in self pity, thinking about how such a good looking guy like me, with auburn curls and eyes as green as emeralds, a boy who lived in the city, was stuck milking a COW!

Days passed. I finally got the hang of milking a cow, but I had to wake up at five, which really bugged me. Days soon became weeks and those weeks became a month.

The reason I came to this farm kept haunting me every night, still trying to explain to me that this was not a giant nightmare. Every night it replayed the same scene over and over. Me lying on the couch, with my legs splayed wide and listening to my favorite music. It was so vivid that I even remembered the song I was listening to. My mom walked into the room, livid. “George, how dare you ask me for water, didn’t you at least check to see if I was free or not?”

I obliged with a “Woah, calm down, mom. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

“I was talking to my boss! He was just giving me a new assignment. Okay, fine, forget about that. What happened to thinking about giving your parents a break, huh! You should learn to self sufficient. When you go out into the real world nobody will be waiting at your doorstep eager to help you out, okay? You do know that you’re not the only one getting older, so are me and your dad! So quit being a couch potato and be a bit useful.”

Mom sometimes had these weird mood swings where she’d randomly just erupt into shouting and lecturing me for something that wasn’t my fault. I could see that her strings were pulled tight.
“Maybe it’s just one of your mood swings, the ones you get randomly.” I realized my mistake too late.

“Mood swings?” she bellowed, her face mottled red with rage, “Mood swings? This has been going on for too long. You are just growing into a useless sack of meat that takes up space and all your food as well. You know Anne? She works all day long without thinking about her free time and when she can take a break. For all I know she probably doesn’t even have a phone. Maybe she could teach you a thing or two.”

That night at the dinner table, my mom narrated the entire scenario to my father. They both came to the decision that they would send me to Annee for the summer vacation and “become a man”.
The astonishing thing though, was that they had successfully managed to ignore me the entire time they were discussing their plans.

Sadly, the next thing I knew was that I ended up in this unsightly garbage heap for the rest of my summer vacation.

I woke up shocked to find my face wet and Anne hovering over me with a concerned stare.

“Are you okay?” she asked placing the oil lamp aside.

“Yeah,” I answered, surprised to hear my voice so brittle, “I just missed home so much.”

“Okay fine.” She frowned and settled down next to me. “You know, sometimes I miss my parents too. I had an argument and I moved out, but I was too poor to get a job.” She kept her eyes downcast reliving the nightmare.

“Hey, hey,” I comforted her softly, “You know, you’re always welcome to come visit us, I mean, you don’t have to worry about being dirty, just look at me.”

She laughed softly, “I’d love to.”

I smiled. I had finally found happiness in a useless grimy farm that had become my new home for a month.