009. Hands - April/May - Rambles & Snippets - Fiction[NET]
Tait had been in Alice Springs for five weeks now. The journey there had been uneventful and peaceful and most of her paranoia had died away. She hadn’t released her cat from the carrier for the whole way though, simply not able to let herself risk the chance of the cat getting out of the car. She wasn’t worried about her cat running off and leaving her - she was worried about her cat getting hurt or scared by something and darting off - if Tait lost her cat… she didn’t know if she’d be able to pull herself back together again. It seemed weird to some, but that cat was special to Tait, significant, which was why she hadn’t just left her behind with her parents.
Alice Springs was different to what she had imagined. She didn’t know really what she was expecting actually, but she was surprised by what she was met with. It was a comforting town - that was the only word she could think of which described it well. Everything was relaxed and sort of book worn at the edges. She had found a little flat she rented cheaply, a good job, and a number of different cafes she ate breakfast and dinner in everyday, enjoying the idea of not having to cook.
From her job through her hands were red and aching, she wasn’t used to manual work with her hands but she found it wasn’t something she hated either. She slept better at night after a hard, physical day of work and she enjoyed being in the outdoors more than she thought she would as well. She felt healthier and after only a week she could see the difference in her physique.
She was helping picking fruit and tending to mango trees that sounded easy - it was the type of job you didn’t realise how hard it actually was until you gave it a try yourself. Her back ached; her skin was dry and cracked from the cold and turned blotchy from the mango sap. There were heavy bags to carry and they had to work fast, thousands of trees waiting for them to work through and pick every item of fruit before it turned bad and hit the ground.
To be truthful, Tait hadn’t realised how much money could be made on mangos. She had always taken them for granted; there was a tree at her parents house after all - she had never really thought there were places which had the wrong climate and had no trees - just like how they couldn’t grow strawberries up where she used to live.
“So you like the work, do you?” the boss asked Tait one day and she nodded breathlessly. It was after work now and they’d all just had a sack race from one end of the field to the other.
“Well any time of the year, even when we’re not in strict mango season, there’ll always be a job for a worker like you, Tait.”
<--- 008. Number Two || 010. Local --->
Alice Springs was different to what she had imagined. She didn’t know really what she was expecting actually, but she was surprised by what she was met with. It was a comforting town - that was the only word she could think of which described it well. Everything was relaxed and sort of book worn at the edges. She had found a little flat she rented cheaply, a good job, and a number of different cafes she ate breakfast and dinner in everyday, enjoying the idea of not having to cook.
From her job through her hands were red and aching, she wasn’t used to manual work with her hands but she found it wasn’t something she hated either. She slept better at night after a hard, physical day of work and she enjoyed being in the outdoors more than she thought she would as well. She felt healthier and after only a week she could see the difference in her physique.
She was helping picking fruit and tending to mango trees that sounded easy - it was the type of job you didn’t realise how hard it actually was until you gave it a try yourself. Her back ached; her skin was dry and cracked from the cold and turned blotchy from the mango sap. There were heavy bags to carry and they had to work fast, thousands of trees waiting for them to work through and pick every item of fruit before it turned bad and hit the ground.
To be truthful, Tait hadn’t realised how much money could be made on mangos. She had always taken them for granted; there was a tree at her parents house after all - she had never really thought there were places which had the wrong climate and had no trees - just like how they couldn’t grow strawberries up where she used to live.
“So you like the work, do you?” the boss asked Tait one day and she nodded breathlessly. It was after work now and they’d all just had a sack race from one end of the field to the other.
“Well any time of the year, even when we’re not in strict mango season, there’ll always be a job for a worker like you, Tait.”
<--- 008. Number Two || 010. Local --->