The Summer's Harvest

                Eduardo had the experienced the most impactful week of his life. As the summer heat hit record highs this year, he and his grandmother had to tend the farm extremely cautiously this season. One wrong move and they could lose their entire year’s crop. Eduardo popped out his asthma inhaler and took a deep breath in it. His nosebleed from the wretched heat didn’t help with his allergies at all. Usually in harvest season, Eduardo had no responsibilities other than to feed and look after himself. It was always his grandmother and her sons that would take care of the harvest. But this year with the dreaded heat required more labour and Eduardo was forced to finally do his share of the work. He slugged himself over to the fields as he lazily picked out berries to eat. Ever since his parents left to the United States to find work, Eduardo lived a relatively sheltered life, with his grandmother providing him with all the food and drink he wanted. However this summer was the exception; all the food that was left had to be conserved and rationed. In fact the heat got so bad that the cow’s milk ended up spoiling which had made all the farm dogs sick. The smell of diarrhea was everywhere. Many days and many nights were spent keeping up with the harvest.

            On one cool night, as Eduardo was getting ready to pack up the beans he had harvested, he noticed a bear that had been rummaging the fields. Frightened to death, he gave a piercing shriek as he dropped his basket full of unprocessed beans. The bear instantly shot up and pounced after Eduardo. The men were unarmed and could not stop the brutal attacks by the beast. The bear cornered the men against the barn and savagely killed many and wounded many more. Eduardo had survived but with major claw marks across his swollen body.

            That was the last thing Eduardo had remembered when he woke up one afternoon in a hospital. The doctors informed him that his grandmother had passed away from a heart attack. He could not see any of his family members as many of them were also injured and were in other hospital rooms. Eduardo quickly gave a call to his parents and after explaining to them what had happened, they quickly arranged to come back to Mexico as soon as possible. But not before they broke the news to Eduardo; the doctor had told them that the baby was a boy! Smiling with some ease, Eduardo closed his eyes and ignored the fact that for the time being, he was all alone in Mexico.