Raindrops
Quicksilvre
I don't own The O.C. I wish I did; the Rebecca storyline is crappy and pointless.
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Summer learned.
She learned how to hold the hatchet properly, in order to get the most force out of each swing. Given how little she was, it was a huge help. Within a few weeks she was able to knock over a few trees a day, with Jai's old truck pulling them away onto the beach.
She learned how to strip the branches off of a fallen trunk for kindling, and the best way to break up a log for firewood.
She learned how to ignore a broken fingernail.
She learned how to burn a tree trunk, after she learned how to make a fire out of two sticks. Then, she learned how to take a pick to break the charcoal up, and how to dig up the rest of it, leaving a clean spot of land.
She learned how to plant a tree. Unlike everything else, that one had no immediate reward. But the grove had plenty of young trees, showing well enough Summer's would be in ten years.
Summer learned how to chop a young orange tree in half, then carefully join on the branch of a seedless orange tree to the end and seal everything up, until the two halves grew together. The Tongau was supposed to be the only place in miles to have seedless oranges, and it was a crucial source of cash. And with those oranges, she learned how to trade. She was already good at talking; within a couple of months, she was as shrewd as a politician with five times the charm.
She learned how to plan her work. Her body screamed when she cut down trees every day; so one day would be for clearing land, and the next would be for planting, burning, and trading, with maybe some fruit-picking on the side.
She learned how to bend trees into patterns. Parts of the grove were ornamental as well as useful; several orange trees in two rows had been curved into each other until their branches interlocked into a roof. Others were pinched into arches or spirals. Jai even had a tree which was bent into a giant chair–his favorite place to celebrate a day of work with a beer.
She even learned how to hammer a nail.
Such was her life. Every day it would be her, Jai, Sonn, and whatever guests the Tongau had. All the light chores were reserved for the guests to barter, so Summer spent her days outside, shaping nature in her tiny corner of the afterlife.
Nature shaped Summer as well. Her shoulders were bathed in sun, and quickly reddened and peeled away. The skin left behind was bronzed and strong. Her arms strengthened from days of swinging and pushing, until one could see small but distinct biceps. Her back, her legs, her hands–everything shrieked with agony at first, but recovered stronger than ever.
As the weeks and months passed by, and as lip gloss and Jimmy Choo became less important than chatting down a customer or avoiding coconuts when a tree toppled, the Summer Roberts of Orange County faded away. In her place was a girl simply named Summer. Superficially they looked alike, if the second Summer looked a little wilder. No parties–just gatherings with friends. No fashion–just a couple of nice outfits for when she hawked fruit, and work clothes. No shoes, save her one pair of sneakers. No booze–well, almost no booze. Much less booze, to be sure.
The chaos and nameless despair slowly drained out of her, leaving only serenity.
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Jai and Summer were together one evening, by the grove of bent oranges. It was winter, but it wasn't at all cold–but it was cool; all of the fruit was green and the sand of the beach was hard. But the sky...it was around sunset, and the color and brightness had been just as it had been when Summer first came. The Tongau, without the income from the groves, was making due from the last year's crop and the dues they could collect from guests. It was a little more difficult than summer, but pleasant enough.
Jai was sipping a cold one, on his chair. Summer was doing the same, perched up where the branches folded into each other. Over time, the maze of wood had melted into a latticework that held her up nicely.
"Jai," she asked, "how did you get that tree to bend the way it did?" Summer had already started on her own project: a lemon and a lime tree, twisted together and then pushed apart until they were horizontal. The idea was to get a mass close to the ground, half lemon, half lime. It wasn't easy; after the whole summer, there was little progress.
Jai smiled at her question. "Slowly."
"I bet. But how?"
"A secret. I can't give them all away. I gotta legacy to protect."
"Legacy my ass." Summer chuckled.
"Don't laugh! I get to point at the thing whenever a guest or whoever comes along, and say, "See that? That took twelve years to get to that shape, and a whole lotta pruning to keep it that way. Now, if you stiff me, imagine how long I'll chase you down!" It was Jai's turn to laugh.
"That took you twelve years?"
"Sure did."
"How...long have you spent here?"
"On the Tongau? Oh...it must be seventeen, eighteen years now. Took control about four years after I came, from the old owner–he took the big step up. Floating with angels now, I guess. So...yeah, it's been fourteen years since then. Eighteen years."
"Wow." Summer looked out at the sunset.
"It's not bad. Never lonely." Another chuckle. "And I have my regulars. You coming in was a big help; ever since Wolfie left last winter Sonn and I would have to take care of all of this ourselves. You made things a whole lot easier."
"Who?"
"Wolfie. Came a few years ago, 'round the same time as Sonn. All banged up, like Sonn–like you. From...Germany, I think. He hung around and then he made his big exit, too."
"Huh." Summer looked down at Jai. "He took three years and you've needed eighteen?"
"Not too uncommon. I see folks here all the time, new to the afterlife, spend a couple months here and get called on."
"And not you?"
Jai smacked his lips. "Uh, no." He paused for a moment, then suddenly went on: "Back on Earth–this was, you know, early '80 or so–I was a fisherman. And I had my boat, my crew, everything."
"Loved the sea?"
"Loved the money. Some of the real cash fish were coming in, and...sent everything out with a storm brewing. I drove them in close, thinking we could back off if we had to. Plus we had sonar, and we could just see this massive school."
"And you died."
"Me and ten others."
"Oh, Jai."
"It's all right." He paused for a second. "One by one I met up with all of them and one by one they forgave me. After some seasoning, of course...I had some love for the green still up here, but a year in the grove changed that."
"Regrets?"
"Sometimes. But, there's no going back now." Jai got up to stretch. "All you can do is the best you can here. If you become a good person, you get rewarded."
"But you're a great guy, Jai–"
"Well, thank you, madaam." Jai's mispronunciation made Summer giggle.
"Seriously, Jai, you like a hard life scraping by."
"It's happy."
"You could be happy and be more comfortable, too."
"Yeah." Jai sat back down. The tree-chair shook a little bit, then settled under his weight. "I'm patient. Look at this chair. Fourteen years, Summer. I knew I'd get a reward, and I did. I know I'll get rewarded for hard work. I know it'll be great. I can wait. You and Sonn do a great job, keeping me company."
"And you and Sonn keep me company." Summer looked back over at the sky. She could feel her heart settle somehow, almost as if it was snuggling into her body. She could feel it being held up, imbued with strength from two others. Whenever a tear began to well in her eye, she let it be. The wind, though, kept any of them from crossing her face.
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