Monday 5 September 2011

Cash Crop or the Oily Bird Catches the Worm


Abandoned Farm



Mark Lassiter parked the brand-spanking-new Mercedes in his designated parking space by the entrance to the shiny new office building. He regretted having come in his new car instead of using his shabby and worn old truck.The track from the main road to what he still called the farm was deeply rutted, heavy machinery and trucks had deepened the old hollows and potholes considerably. Everything was happening so fast, he was running just to keep abreast of developments. The track would have to wait.

Still, he was here now; as he took the few steps to the big glass doors he greeted several construction workers busy clearing piles of rubble from the front of the building. The sun reflecting from the plate glass windows stung his eyes; he made a mental note to get himself some of these large sunglasses he saw on the noses of many of his workers.

He entered his office. Here too everything was new, his big desk unused and clear, the leather chair plump and smooth. His secretary came in through the connecting door from her own, smaller office, holding a sheaf of papers in her hands. "Good morning, Mr. Lassiter," she said. Something else to get used to, all his life he had been 'Mark', the only Mister he knew was the bank manager. Even he called him "Mr. Lassiter, sir", now.

His own hands, calloused and sun-damaged, took the papers from her. "Must do something about these hands too", he thought. As he sat down, the chair deflated,  a rich sigh emanating from under his backside.

"The board meeting is at 10 sharp", his secretary advised him, "perhaps you'd care to read through my notes first?"

Damn the woman, he'd never taken orders from any female in all his years on the farm, and he wasn't going to start now.  He glowered at her.

He bent his head over the papers; for six months he had been telling her to use bigger writing, these tiny, faint letters were no use to him; he could barely make them out. That fool of a secretary kept the writing small deliberately, he was sure of it. He persevered, reading and trying to understand the intricacies of a newly established business, a business he apparently owned, although all these people, whose salary he paid, were telling him what to do.

Abruptly he pushed his chair back, got up, and left the building. Long strides took him across abandoned fields where he had not long ago  struggled to grow potatoes and corn. Breathing deeply, he came to a halt by the remains of  an old barn waiting to be pulled down. He leant on the shell of a rusty truck, half sunk into the earth, giving the worn tyre an affectionate kick.

He knew there was no going back to the old days, but since the day  they'd come and told him that there was oil under his poor fields  he'd been doing his very best to get used to being filthy rich.






54 comments:

  1. "The oily bird catches the worm." Okay, that was clever. So is this very well-written tale. You definitely have an ear for the creative side of life.

    Very nicely done.

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  2. so trade your piece of mind for a piece of the rock...figure i would probably regret it every step of the way...

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  3. Like it - mine was also a look back
    Nice to meet read your work

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  4. I love this!!!!!! Learning to be rich is not an easy task but I'd love to give it my best shot!

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  5. Great story! Enjoyed it very much.

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  6. Oil under the farm is one of the filthiest kinds of filthy rich, too.
    I don't think I'd like it any more than he apparently does.
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  7. Great story. They tell tales of the Osage Indians in Oklahoma who became instantly rich when oil was found under the reservation. Production was well under way by the early 1900s, and it's said Indians would buy a new car, drive it across the prairie until it ran out of gas, burn it, walk back to town, and buy another. Now, professional athletes are the ones dealing with instant wealth. Jim

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  8. We all should have it so hard. Actually, I've become a firm believer in the power of money to corrupt or at least, not make you as happy as you thought it might. Ah well...

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  9. experiences tech us stuff.

    one grows sober or smarter after many hard lessons.

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  10. fate! *sigh*



    Aloha from Waikiki;


    Comfort Spiral

    > < } } ( ° >



    ><}}(°>

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  11. A lot of getting used to I'm sure. Not sure I'd want to give it up and go back to the good ol' days myself.

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  12. To be rich is one thing, but it's not all. Enjoyed your tale.

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  13. ah, with great power comes great responsibility Good story :)

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  14. Hi Friko .. would love to read the whole book! Cheers - great story for Magpie Tales .. Hilary

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  15. Nice story, how to learn that everything has a price... especially wealth...love the photo as well!

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  16. Enjoyed this very much - THANKS :-)
    Di
    X

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  17. Love the paragraph where he kicks the truck - real life touch, as was his bottom on that leather chair... :)

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  18. It's always a pleasure seeing a short fiction response, and a great tale, at that.

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  19. I hope he reads the small print carefully - he could be duped!
    I loved the title:-)

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  20. Friko, you've written a fine portrait of a man who's still in the early stages of a life journey, taking his inner self along for the new ride.

    xo

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  21. Strangely, the end made me very sad. At first, I was half-smiling as I read but the very last bit hollowed me out.

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  22. Another charming and humor-filled tale. But I agree that the ending is very deep and thought provoking.

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  23. I hope some day to know the feeling. I'm still kicking old tires.

    Good piece. : )

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  24. Your talent, Friko, for storytelling, sharing, envisioning, and reflecting never ceases to amaze me.

    Peace.

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  25. Oily bird indeed. Is he from Brooklyn? You are too clever Friko. I enjoyed the laugh. Dianne

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  26. Thank you, Friko, for an enjoyable few minutes. While it's still light I'm going out to poke about forgotten corners of the garden. You never know...

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  27. Friko, I want to know what happens to Mark next, cos it sounds like he might almost walk away from it all, or wants to, but can't.

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  28. Poor man.

    Hollywood cashed in on this meme with the Beverly Hillbillies and their "cee-ment pond." By drawing that caricature so broadly, they missed the real, human stories. There must have been many of them in Oklahoma and Texas.

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  29. Another kicker of an ending from you. Nicely done!

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  30. You convey, so very well, the conflict this poor man is having with trying to adapt to a world so very far removed from all he'd known! As someone else already noted, it brings home the fact that there is a price to be paid for everything! Wonderfully told, as always!

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  31. awesome friko! you open up an entire book so quickly in this all too brief passage! steven

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  32. Very nice, Friko. Of course, he could just go on farming -- that woulld take care of all that extra money;

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  33. Bonza rags to riches story just like in a hollywood movie :-).

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  34. What a marvelous and inventive story! Thank you for pure enjoyment!

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  35. He'll feel more the part when he gets a hat like J.R. Ewing .

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  36. Friko, I'm fascinated . . . partly because he sounds so like the character Pierre in War and Peace which I am continuing to read (ad infinitum). He inherited a vast estate, and he just visited his serfs in the last chapter ...

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  37. GOOD MORNING FRIKO!

    Did you write this? I do see that like MYSELF, YOU enjoy poetry and literature, theatre and music!!!! WELL WRITTEN STORY!!!! And thank YOU for coming back to see my blog again. YOUR DOG is sweet...BENNO!!!!

    Well, I start school TODAY. I am trying to keep up with my blogging but it is tough!!! I try to post every Friday evening. I thank you for coming again. Enjoy a fabulous day!

    Anita

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  38. Ah, a deft eye, the writer. Golden.
    ~Mary

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  39. You really got a nice feel for
    West Texas, and a bottom
    land farmer who might have
    been raising melons and corn,
    who now has to fit into the
    niche he created with his
    new black wealth. Some very
    clever twists, and I love the
    details. We feel like we all
    know this poor rich bastard.
    When does he meet Bush, Jr.?

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  40. Hummm Much food for thought. I wonder how that would feel. Probably very uncomfortable.

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  41. Yes, I'd love the chance to prove whether or not money made me happy ... great story!!

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  42. What a beautiful story...and a perfectly illustration as to how money doesn't buy happiness!!!

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  43. You tell such a good story Friko.
    He'll get used to riches in no time.

    Anna

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  44. Enjoyed how you peeled back layers of change, including some indignities the character felt he and his farm had suffered with sudden wealth.

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  45. I was bothered by "backside" But of course, when we reach the denoument we see that's precisely the word Lester would use. Very interesting read.

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  46. Great story - liked it a lot. Clever use of the prompt.

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  47. That's about the only way a farmer today could become rich - finding oil!

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  48. Very little I can usefully add to the comments here. You write well. The reader doesn't notice the writing - the acid test.

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  49. Great twist, Friko. I feel sorry for all the beautiful land (and gulfs, etc) ruined by the refineries and oil rigs. I feel his frustration and pain... he went out to lean on the old barn... loved that.

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  50. Oh, man! I hate it when that happens. No, wait... it never has. Nice to dream about though. I wonderr where I can buy a small farm with a large deposit of oil beneath it? hmmm
    Love the story!

    Here's my offering for the prompt: http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/he-was-a-ford-man-2/

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