Going to live with your Aunt Aurelia ('Ellie', your father's elder sister) and Uncle Leslie, as well as your cousins Matilda (age sixteen) and Phineus (age twelve), is a godsend. Your mother is never on-planet, your stepfather is verbally and physically abusive and neglectful, and your brother Sam had run away a year ago. Your trip to the colony on Tarsus IV is your mother's reward for your good behavior during your punishment for stealing and destroying your father's antique Corvette after Sam left, and you are all too happy to leave Riverside, Iowa for people who are actually excited to see you.
You have never met Aunt Ellie or Uncle Leslie in person, though you'd had some very nice conversations via comm. Ellie seems delighted to have her nephew staying for a while, and she's promised to tell you great stories of the father you've never known. Tillie and Finn are especially excited to have a new friend. When you arrive on Tarsus IV, Aunt Ellie sweeps you up in her arms, and the other family member quickly follow suit. Their love is overwhelming, something you haven't quite experienced in your thirteen years of life.
"Oh, Jimmy!" Ellie exclaims, "Look at you! Oh, you're so handsome. You look just like George did at your age. Now don't look like that. I know you're angry with him, so was I for a long while. Come along, sweetie, I've got crazy stories of your father for days…"
You like Aunt Ellie a lot. She resembles pictures of your father you've seen, with the same golden hair and sky blue eyes genetics handed you, her face very kind and gently lined. Uncle Leslie's face is similarly gentle, though his hair is a deep auburn and his eyes a warm brown. He would be considered tall and handsome in his middle age. Tillie and Finn both have their father's dark auburn hair, though only Tillie possesses the Kirk blue eyes. You imagine Tillie had several youths her age interested in dating her.
Aunt Ellie and Uncle Leslie lead you out of the transport hub and to their home, a cozy little place on the outskirts of town. It is a town that reminds you vaguely of Iowa, entirely comprised of about 8,000 colonists and a few Starfleet scientists working on agricultural issues. There is a sizeable town square surrounded by shops and the colonial governmental building reminiscent of a town hall from Earth's early 20th century. Everyone seemed to know everyone else, just like in any small town on Earth, and most of the colonists you pass greet Aunt Ellie and Uncle Leslie cheerfully and introduce themselves to you. You like the pleasant atmosphere of the colony, so different from Riverside where everyone either pities you or expects too much. It's nice to be just Ellie and Leslie's nephew instead of George Kirk's son.
Once home (and you do already think of it as home), Tillie and Finn have a minor argument over who gets to show you around the house that ends only when Uncle Leslie wonders aloud why they both can't do it. You find yourself quickly dragged off through the house by your cousins. The home is a charming one, one-story only with a crawl space attic and a small basement, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and nice-sized yard in the rear where they keep a small vegetable garden.
"See, Jimmy, we have a great big yard where me and you can play ball with my friends!" Finn chirped, "You'll probably meet all of 'em tomorrow or something. You'll like 'em a lot!"
"Yeah, and we'll set you up a little spot in the garden so you can grow your own veggies. It's a really good feeling, eating what you've grown yourself," Tillie adds.
"That sounds fun," you reply, "I've never had a garden before."
"Really? Well, you'll learn all about growing food while you're here," she states matter-of-factly, "Tarsus IV is an agricultural colony. The scientists here are studying how crops grow in varying soils and genetic modifications like hybridization to help crops grow better and different kinds of irrigation. It's all really interesting. We'll have to go out to the lab farms sometime. The scientists are super nice."
"I'd reckon they would be, if they're trying to find out how to grow food better to make sure no one goes hungry," you reply.
Tillie grins widely as Aunt Ellie calls, "Y'all come in now and help me with dinner! We've got a lot to do for Jimmy! Hurry up!"
The three of you run for the door, and you ask, "What can I do to help, Aunt Ellie?"
"No, not tonight. Tonight is your welcome dinner, so all I want to you to do is go to your room and rest up. You must be awfully tired. You'll be sharing with Finn, if you remember. You just go do whatever you'd like 'til dinner's ready, and don't you worry. Winona sent me a list of your food allergies," Aunt Ellie tells you.
So, you do as Ellie told you and head to the room you share with Finn; they've set up a comfortable cot for your stay. The walls are an off-white, but the ceiling has been painted like a night sky. Stars of white, yellow, red, and blue stand out against the inky black swirled with indigo. Finn has decorated the walls with old photographs of antique cars and trucks and tractors, as well as modern starships. (You recall from you earlier tour that while Tillie's walls are the same off-white, she has decorated with tractors and horses and landscapes from the American West, and her ceiling is a pale blue, painted with fluffy white clouds.) You flop down onto your cot, hearing it creak gently under your weight.
This is a fresh start. No one on Tarsus IV knows you as George Kirk's son. You are simply the new kid arrived from Earth, Ellie and Leslie's bright nephew Jimmy, here to see how colonies operate and experience a life different from the one he knew. You are expected to get your hands dirty in work you like, work you admire.
Agriculture has always held a special place in your heart. The local farmers around Riverside still worked the old-fashioned way, with mules and tractors and huge combines. They still raised chickens and pigs and sheep and cattle and horses, still needed to rise early to milk cows and feed livestock and bale hay. You like farming because it's so far from space, deeply rooted in the earth instead. It's so different from the work that took your father's life and kept your mother away, so different from Frank's work in the shipyard. While you feel an inexorable pull to space (it's where you were born, after all, and it's been said you have stardust in your veins), you also feel solidly tied to Earth, to terra firma. You've always loved hearing the old farmers talk about hard winters and great harvests and tough nights staying up with sick animals or newborn stock, and they loved talking to someone young and interested in that hard work. Yes, you're sure you'll like it here on Tarsus. Maybe your mother will let you stay if you ask nicely.
Today is a good day, you think to yourself, looking at the calendar on Finn's wall, March 3, 2246. I'm gonna remember this day as a good one. A very, very good day.
You give a quiet sigh, allowing the calm of this place to wash over you. There is the smell of fresh air mingled with earth and fertilizer. The scent of dinner cooking wafts through the cracked door. Strange, melodious birdsong can be heard outside. You take a deep breath and release it slowly, allowing a small smile onto your face. Maybe if you ask very nicely, you will be allowed to stay.
"Jimmy! Time for dinner!"
Aunt Ellie's voice pulls you out of your reverie, and you hurry out to the kitchen where Uncle Leslie gently orders you and your cousins to wash up, which you all do obediently before sitting down.
"You're gonna love it, Jimmy!" Finn says cheerfully.
"Here now," Uncle Leslie explains, setting a plate on the table, "We've got a nice bit of pork here, a nice tenderloin from a neighbor's pig they butchered not long ago. Here's corn, string beans, and some delicious mashed potatoes, all grown here on the colony."
"Sure smells great," you say, "I really appreciate it."
"Don't you worry about it," he replies, "You just eat your fill, Jimmy."
That's a phrase you're sure you've never heard before. Tillie goes about doling out portions of each dish to everyone's plate, trying to be a good hostess though you aren't sure why. You politely wait for everyone to be served and for Aunt Ellie to tell everyone to tuck in, then begin shoveling food into your mouth at record pace. (You don't see Aunt Ellie and Uncle Leslie sharing a look.) You hear Tillie say, "Hey, Jimmy, slow down! You'll make yourself sick. Y'know it's not gonna go away."
"Sorry, I'm just used to only having a certain amount of time to eat."
"What? What does that mean?" Finn asks.
You open your mouth to answer that Frank set a twenty minute window for dinner every night before he took away plates and put food away fro the next day, and woe betide if you weren't there for those twenty minutes because you wouldn't get dinner at all that night, but Aunt Ellie interrupted with, "You don't have to worry about that here, sweetie. There's plenty of food and plenty of time for you to eat."
You give her a smile and somehow manage to slow down your food intake just a bit. The food is even more delicious when you slow down to savor it, so much better than the prepackaged crap Frank would heat up. The other great thing is conversation. Tillie and Finn tell all about their days and what they've been doing in school. Uncle Leslie complains about his customers at the feed store, and Aunt Ellie talks about the work she does at the shop where she repairs farm equipment. It's a nice change from tense silence.
"So what have you done in school in Iowa, Jimmy?" Aunt Ellie asks.
"Just regular school stuff, I guess," you reply, "I've been doing real good in science and math. One of my teachers even said I was a genius and wanted me to move up a few grades."
"Well, that's wonderful! We'll have to have you tested to see what grade you should be in here… unless you just wanna be with kids your own age. I won't force you into anything you don't want to do."
Something else that's new. You contemplate her offer, then say, "Well… I guess I'd rather be with kids my age. It might be easier to make friends that way."
"Alright, then we'll go on Monday and get you all set up."
This must be what it feels like to be part of a family. It's pretty great. That night, for the first time in a long while, you fall asleep with a full belly and a grin on your face.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer...
...God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark.
It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners.
Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'"
So God made a farmer.
- Paul Harvey, 1978 speech to National FFA Convention