But I was working, and there were kids present.
So, I had no choice but to let the tension build between us.
Once we were all safely in the wagon, Riggs stowed the stairs and closed the back gate. Then he walked to the front and hopped on the tractor it was attached to. Not even a minute later, we were moving.
The next thing I knew, we had all the kids seated at a row of picnic tables with small pots, soil, and seeds set out in front of them. Sam, Leo, and Layne had joined the group. They all looked like they’d been working hard on their regular farm tasks that morning. I knew they had been because while Riggs was giving us a tour of the farm, we had seen his brothers working. They were either tending to the livestock, harvesting crops, or working out in the fields.
Riggs got the attention of the students and explained in detail exactly what they were going to do, demonstrating everything for them using the same items they had. When he finished his explanation, he told them to get started and assured them that he and his brothers would walk around to help anyone who needed it.
The kids started chatting amongst themselves as they began assembling their very own vegetable garden. Riggs set out a variety of seeds, so the students wouldn’t all be growing the same thing.
I’d been walking along the back of one of the rows of tables as Brent’s hand shot into the air. I shifted my direction and started moving toward him, but Riggs made it there first.
“What’s up, kiddo?” Riggs asked him.
“Do you have to have a farm like this?” Brent questioned him.
Riggs tipped his head to the side, clearly a bit confused. “What do you mean?”
“To be a farmer,” Brent clarified. “Do you have to have your own land to become a farmer?”
“Well, to do what we’re doing here and grow crops for lots of people, you do need a lot of land,” Riggs replied.
“Oh,” Brent mumbled. His disappointment at Riggs’ answer was obvious. “I thought I could grow food at my house.”
“You probably can,” Riggs assured him.
Brent’s face lit up. “Really?”
Riggs nodded. “Of course. There are certain things that fruits or vegetables need to be able to grow, but farmers aren’t the only people who can do it. Lots of people plant vegetable gardens in their backyard. It’s a great way for kids to start learning about growing their own food. I know all about how to do this because I learned that same way. My backyard just happened to be bigger than most, that’s all.”
“So, I just need to figure out how to get all the seeds and the soil and then I can grow them?” Brent pressed.
“Well, you’ll need to make sure you give them the attention they need so they grow properly, too,” Riggs reminded him.
“Right,” Brent said.
Looking down at Brent working, Riggs encouraged him, “In my professional opinion, just judging by what I’m seeing you do right now, I’m going to say that if you decide to grow your own garden at home, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble. You’re doing a really great job right now following the directions exactly as I gave them.”
“Thanks.”
Brent didn’t look up again. He was focused on what he was doing, but I knew the words Riggs had just delivered settled somewhere deep inside him. Knowing Brent’s situation wasn’t the best at home, I had no doubt he was trying to figure out ways that he could help his family. Riggs didn’t know that Brent was the boy who’d basically pushed me to do what I was doing now about the school meal debt, but in that moment, he’d given a little boy the confidence he needed to believe he could accomplish what he wanted.
And because I wanted to help foster that sliver of hope in Brent, and any other student who felt the same, an idea came to me.
I was going to see what we could do about taking a small part of the school’s land and turning it into a garden. The land was there. It could be a project that the entire third-grade class worked together to get set up and planted. While it would provide them with valuable life lessons, it could also be used to help reduce the costs associated with feeding the children at school.
Of course, as a million thoughts about how we’d accomplish that were running through my mind, there was one additional thing I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Two and a half weeks ago I told my best friend that I was falling in love with a man she’d managed to set me up in a stranger photo shoot with.
That was now no longer the case.
I wasn’t falling in love with Riggs anymore. I’d already fallen. Hard and fast. And it felt better than I could have ever imagined.
Adele
“I love you.”
Blinking my eyes in surprise, I sat back in my chair.
“I’m sorry. I know that’s probably a bit creepy, but I’m not sure what else to say to tell you just how I feel.”
Shaking my head, I insisted, “It’s not. You just… well, you just caught me off guard with that.”
I was sitting at a table in my classroom with Brent Lohan’s parents across from me. We were currently in the middle of a parent-teacher conference. Apparently, Mrs. Lohan felt compelled to express her feelings.
“Bill and I are just so…” She trailed off as tears filled her eyes. I gave her a sympathetic look and waited as she pulled herself together. When she took longer than expected, Mr. Lohan leaned forward and explained, “What Wendy is trying to say is that we’re incredibly grateful for what you did for Brent. He came home and told us how you helped.”
Tipping my head to the side, I smiled at Brent’s parents and felt something warm seep through me.
“It was nothing,” I assured them. “I became a teacher because I wanted to teach children. I can’t do my job very well if my students are distracted because they’re hungry.”
Brent’s mom had pulled a tissue out of her purse and dabbed under her eyes before she maintained, “But it’s not your responsibility to pay for our child to eat. We just fell on some hard times when Bill got hurt at work a couple months ago. We were doing okay for a little while with the small savings we had, but that’s since run out. This has been soul-crushing.”
“Mrs. Lohan, I never meant to make you feel any discomfort about it,” I began. “I saw a kid who needed to eat, and I did what I could to help.”
Shaking her head, she clarified, “You’re misunderstanding me. I’m humbled by what you did. I simply meant that it has been devastating to Bill and me to know that we are struggling to do the basics right now. We have a child, and we can barely afford the minimum. He’s not getting enough food to grow. As parents, it’s the worst feeling to know that we’re failing our son.”
This was it.
This was why I was so adamant about making the effort to volunteer. It wasn’t about people taking advantage of others. It was about real people suffering from unfortunate circumstances.
Brent’s parents were living modestly. They weren’t trying to take advantage of the school or me. I could see the stress and despair in their faces. Mrs. Lohan’s clothes hung loose on her body. I’d seen Mr. Lohan’s sneakers when they walked in. They were beat up and well worn. This wasn’t a case of people living beyond their means. It was clear to me just how embarrassed the Lohans felt about their predicament.