Saving Grapes - Madeline Kirby Page 0,43
harvesting these grapes right away. Anyone, it doesn’t matter. If they’ve got friends over they can bring them too. Thanks.”
“Okay,” Ben said when Thom hung up the second time. “Now what?”
“Now you get a crash course in harvesting grapes.”
Thom led Ben over to the shed, and they started pulling out five-gallon buckets and clippers.
“The guys from Bend or Break will bring buckets and tools, but we’ll get started with these. If you see your cousins arrive, show them where the buckets and clippers are. They’ll know what to do, they’ve helped out before.”
They headed for the end of the top row, and Thom showed Ben what to do, where to cut the stem and how to place the grapes in the bucket so they didn’t bruise. Then Thom grabbed his own bucket and shears and started down the other side of the row. They were making good progress when Lorraine arrived with three of her daughters. A few minutes later, the men from Bend or Break arrived.
They’d all been at it for a while when Thom heard the rumble of distant thunder. He looked up to see the sky to the north had gotten even darker and flashes of lightning lit the mountaintops on the horizon. He turned his head and saw Jonathan Haywood’s car coming up the drive. Damn, he’d forgotten that Jon was coming for dinner this evening. He dropped his shears and jogged to meet Ben’s father.
“Hi Thom,” Jon greeted him as he got out of his car.
“Jon, hi,” Thom panted. “Sorry, we’ve had a bit of an emergency and we forgot to call.”
“No worries. Is there anything I can do?”
“Really? Because if you mean it I’ll put you to work.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Okay, we’ve all been at this a couple of hours. If you’ll go inside and make some coffee and sandwiches that would be great. Just rummage around, everything’s in the kitchen – thermoses and platters and stuff. When it’s ready, just bring it out to the picnic table and give a shout.”
“Got it.”
“Thanks,” Thom called, already jogging back towards the vineyard.
“Dinner!” Thom heard Jon calling a while later.
“Dinner break!” Thom called out, in case anyone hadn’t heard Jon. Everyone made their way quickly to the picnic table behind the house where Jon had put out a spread of sandwiches, some cans of pop, a couple of thermoses of coffee and some bags of chips.
While everyone was grabbing something to eat, Thom ran into the mudroom and grabbed some headlamps. There weren’t enough for everyone, but he figured the guys Dean had sent would have some in their truck. He had Ben bring some lanterns from the shed. They would be able to keep going when it got dark.
One by one the workers and volunteers finished eating and headed back to the vineyard. Thom showed Jon what to do, and he joined them.
Thom’s phone rang around nine o’clock.
“Thom! It’s Dean. We’re finished over here, so I’m heading over with the rest of my crew. The storm has stalled out and looks to be headed east, but I don’t want to take a chance that it won’t change course again.”
“Okay. Thanks, Dean. See you soon.”
Thom headed over to where Jon was working his way down a row. “How’s it going, Jon?”
“Good! I’m glad I don’t have to do this for a living, though.”
“We’ve got another crew coming, so you don’t need to stay. I know this isn’t how you planned to spend your evening.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll stick around.”
“Thanks. Look, would you find Lorraine, and maybe the two of you could make some more coffee, put together a snack or something? We’ll need a break, and I’m estimating about twelve to sixteen more people are on their way over.”
Jon headed off to find Lorraine and Thom went back to work.
The sun was coming up when Chuck and Donna arrived with big pink boxes full of donuts. Thom dragged himself over to meet them as they got out of the truck. Donna took one look at Thom and went into the kitchen to fix some coffee.
“You look like hell, Thom.”
“We’ve been up all night, Chuck. What’s your excuse?”
“Same. I was meeting with the emergency response team last night. There was a freak storm to the north, but I guess you know that.”
“Yeah, that’s why we’re all picking grapes like mad. Was there a problem in town?”
“Not yet, but the storm was bad – real bad. And the weather conditions aren’t looking good. We’re expecting more. A