“I would think so. It’s not an easy life out here.”
“I mean, she’s really tough. Ignores pain, never complains, doesn’t whine or cry. Three years ago, she broke her wrist falling off a horse. So what did she do? She said nothing, worked the rest of the day, cooked dinner, and then afterwards, she drove herself to the hospital. I didn’t know a thing about it until I noticed her cast the next day.”
Sophia stepped over some wayward vines, careful not to damage any of the pumpkins. “Remind me to be on my best manners.”
“You’ll be fine. She’ll like you. You two are more alike than you’d think.”
When she glanced over at him, he went on. “She’s smart,” he said. “Believe it or not, she was valedictorian of her high school class, and even now she reads, does all the bookkeeping, and stays on top of the business. She’s opinionated, but she expects more from herself than from others. If she had one weakness, it was that she was a sucker for guys in cowboy hats.”
She laughed. “Is that what I am? A sucker for cowboys?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
She didn’t answer. “Your mom sounds pretty amazing.”
“She is,” he said. “And who knows, maybe if she’s in one of her moods, she’ll tell you one of her stories. My mom is big on stories.”
“Stories about what?”
“Anything, really. But they always make me think.”
“Tell me one,” she said.
He stopped and then squatted down near an oversize pumpkin. “All right,” he said as he shifted the pumpkin from one side to the other. “After I won the High School National Championship in Rodeo —”
“Wait…,” she said, cutting him off. “Before you go on… they have rodeo in high school here?”
“They have it everywhere. Why?”
“Not in New Jersey.”
“Of course they do. Contestants come from every state. You just have to be in high school.”
“And you won?”
“Yes, but that’s not the point,” he said, standing up and taking her hand again. “I was trying to tell you that after I won – the first time, not the second time,” he teased, “I was jabbering on about my goals and what I wanted to do, and of course, my dad was just lapping it up. But my mom started to clear the table, and after a while she interrupted my grand fantasy to tell me a story… and it’s stayed with me ever since.”
“What did she say?”
“A young man lives in a tiny, run-down cottage on the beach and he rows his boat out into the ocean every day to fish, not only because he needs to eat, but because he feels peaceful on the water. But more than that, he also wants to improve his life and that of his family, so he works hard at bringing in bigger and bigger catches. With his earnings, he eventually buys a bigger boat so he can make his business even more profitable. That leads to a third boat and then a fourth boat, and as the years pass and the business continues to grow, he eventually accumulates a whole fleet of boats. By then, he’s rich and successful, with a big house and a thriving business, but the stress and pressure of running the company eventually take their toll. He realizes that when he retires, what he really wants more than anything is to live in a tiny cottage on the beach, where he can fish all day in a rowboat… because he wants to feel the same sense of peace and satisfaction he experienced when he was young.”
She cocked her head. “Your mom’s a wise woman. There’s a lot of truth in that story.”
“Do you think so?”
“I think,” she said, “that the point is that people rarely understand that nothing is ever exactly what you think it will be.”
By then, they’d reached the entrance to the maze. Luke led her through, pointing out openings that dead-ended after a series of turns and others that led much farther. The maze covered nearly an acre, which made it a huge draw for kids.
When they reached the exit, they strolled toward the harvested pumpkins. While many had been placed up front, some were stacked in bins, others clustered together in loose piles. Hundreds remained in the field beyond.
“That’s it,” he said.
“It’s a lot. How long did it take you to set all this up?”
“Three days. But we had other things to do, too.”
“Of course you did.”
She sorted through the pumpkins, eventually picking out a medium-size one and handing it to Luke before they walked back to the truck, where he loaded it into the bed.