HARVEST MOON

By Gary Val Tenuta


John sauntered into the kitchen and leaned against the pantry door. “I dunno, Sara-Jean. I just don’t know.”
Sara reached up to the top shelf and took down a box of baking powder. “What don’t you know, John?”
“We been farmin’ this nine-hundred acres of moon dust for seven years now and what’s it got us? Nothin’ but an achin’ back and a bill from them crooks at the Galactic Farm Loan Company that we’ll never get paid off. That’s what.”
“Where else could we have gotten the money, John?”
Sara adjusted the temperature control on the AtomRange. It was the one modern appliance she had left after hocking the Solarator to pay off part of the loan. John bought her the Solarator as a gift for their 32nd anniversary.
“I dunno. Nowhere, I guess. But if we hadn’t taken over this useless farm we wouldn’ta needed the money.”
“But we didn’t know it was going to go bad, John. My own father worked this farm for all his life and it always done real good for him. And it done good for his father and for his father’s…”
“But not for me.”
“John…”
“No, Sara-Jean. I shoulda stayed in school back on EarthTwin. I had a future planned out. Deep space architecture. EarthTwin Two and Three were in the planning stages and there woulda been plenty of jobs. Good payin’ ones too. I coulda done it, Sara-Jean. I shoulda done it. Dammit.”
Sara sighed deep within herself. She really didn’t want to continue the present conversation. She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a small black cartridge. She held it up for John to see. “By the way,” she said, “we got a HoloGram from John, Jr. this morning.”
“Seen it yet?”
“Soon as I got it. He looks fine, John. Just real fine, I’d say.”
“What’s he doin’?”
“He’s still at Steven Hawking University on EarthTwin Two. Says he’s been marching for clone’s rights.”
“Damn clonies.”
“John…”
“Can’t help it, Sara-Jean. They got their freedom from slavery…what…a hundred years ago? Hell, they been declared citizens for at least fifty years. Now they want more education. Shoot, they ain’t got the brains to warrant an education! I tell you, Sara-Jean, we’re gonna wake up one of these morning and find them clonies are takin’ over the galaxy.”
“Seems to me that’s a mighty big step for a bunch of folks what ain’t got enough brains to be educated, John.”
“Don’t ride me, Sara-Jean. You know what I mean.”
“No, John. That’s a side of you I have never understood. Thank goodness our son never picked it up. Anyway, that’s not the big news.”
“What do you mean?”
She handed him the HoloGram and switched on the old player. She had set the HoloGram’s digital sequence indicator ahead to avoid the part about the marches and demonstrations. John slipped the cartridge into the player. Their HoloGram player was old but the full color, life sized, 3-D moving image of their son was as clear as any new model could produce. The machine projected a beam toward the middle of the room where John, Jr.’s image suddenly appeared as if he were standing right there, alive as could be. Just one problem. His mouth was moving but they couldn’t hear him.
“Damn sound board,” grumbled John, taking the back cover off the player. “Time we got us a new machine. If we could afford it, that is.”
“You might try the volume, dear.”
“What?”
“Here,” she said, pointing to the volume control. “It’s on mute.”
“Damned old machine,” he grumbled some more. “New machines don’t make you have to fool with all the little stuff.”
“I know dear.”
He set the volume control to 3.5 and John, Jr.’s voice came in clear as a bell:

“So, if things go right, S. H. U. will be the first university to accept clone students!”

“Damn clonies.”
“John, shush. Listen.”

“But mom, dad… I’ve saved the best for last.”

John, Jr.’s image faded into a column of shimmering colors. In a moment another image began to appear. It was a beautiful young lady whose smile immediately captured John, Sr. Sara noticed the sudden spark in her husband’s eyes.

“I want you to meet Anna,” John, Jr.’s voice continued.
“Hello,” the girl said. “Nice to meet you. John’s told me so much about you.”

The young lady’s eyes sparkled and her smile was truly beautiful. Again the image faded into a column of shimmering colors and John, Jr.’s image reappeared.

“Anna and I are going to be married. I hope it isn’t too much of a shock for you. I’ve known her for over a year now. I would have informed you sooner but we’ve been so busy, Anna and I, with the demonstrations and all.”

“Well,” said John, “I can’t say much for his politics but he sure has an eye for beauty!”
“Got that from you, John,” Sara said with a grin.

“Well, what do you think? Isn’t she gorgeous? And dad, she’s really interested in agriculture and she has some terrific ideas for new farming techniques. Anyway, I told her about your LunarFarm and we were wondering if,  sometime in the not too distant future, we could come to live on the farm and help you turn it into something you can really be proud of.”

“Shootin’ star!” said John, turning to Sara. “I’d be proud just have that daughter-in-law around here even if she didn’t know a dust tractor from a moon rake!”

“Well, I see I’m running out of memory on this disk so I’d better say goodbye and, oh… by the way! I almost forgot to tell you about Anna! She’s a…”

Sara quickly switched off the machine and ejected the cartridge.

John looked surprised. “She’s a what?” he asked. “Why’d you do that, Sara-Jean? The boy wasn’t done talkin’ yet!”
Sara fumbled with the cartridge and tucked it back into her apron pocket. “Oh, I’m sorry, John. Didn’t mean to snap it out so quickly.”
He gave her a curious look. “She’s a what, Sara-Jean?”
Sara couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. “Oh, nothing, really. She’s a student at the university. That’s all.” At least, Sara thought to herself, she will be if some people come to their senses. Her husband seemed satisfied with the answer. For the first time in a long time she actually saw her husband enthused about something.
“The boy done good, Sara-Jean. Real good! Beautiful girl he got for himself there, don’t you think?”
“Very beautiful, John.”
“And smart too!” said John with a gleam in his eye. “New farmin’ ideas! Techniques and all that, he said. Did you hear him say that, Sara-Jean?”
“Yes dear, I did.”
“Can’t figure why a smart young gal like that’d want to spend her time marchin’ for them clonies, though.”
“I’m sure she has her reasons, dear.”
“Well,” said John. “anyways, it looks like we raised our boy right after all, didn’t we, Sara-Jean?”
Sara switched off the AtomRange and brought her husband’s breakfast to the table. “Yes, dear,” she said. “We did.”
John picked up his fork, took a bite of Sara’s homemade mooncakes, and glanced out the window at his nine hundred acres of moondust. “Got a feelin’ there’s gonna be some real changes around this ol’ farm once they come home,” he said.
Sara sat down at the table and smoothed her apron. “Yes, dear. I suspect there will be.” Then she smiled. If you only knew, she thought to herself. If you only knew.