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When she fills a tub with the berries, she brings it to the shack in the middle of the fenced property and sets it on the porch Then she goes back out into the fields Five ti the little tubs in a row

This is a no-count business, she says to Albert, the freckledon a wicker chair in the shade of the porch

I told you it weren’t gonna be easy

He sips so from a plastic tumbler

What you drinkin? she says

Lelass when you’re done

She looks at the glass in the ht I’berries for anyway?

Trade eive for fresh-pick berries

I guess so Listen, I been irl, on your travels you happen to notice some dead people walkin around? What state are you in? I’d say you are in a state of denial

His hacking laughs turns into a cough She takes a deep breath and waits for the man’s fit to pass

I’s

Alaba frooin--the roads you got here are a ress occurs to him, and he looks around the side of the house in the direction where Maury continues to chop wood

You keepin an eye on that feeb?

He’s all right He does what he’s told

Albert leans forward

Listen up to what I told you before, he says I don’t know if you quite got it You come inside with me for a little bit, you can have all the berries you want

Yeah, I heard you the first time I’ll pass

He leans back to indicate the conversation is over

Suit yourself, he says You best get back in that field if you wanna be done by noon

She didn’t think it would be so difficult, picking the berries, but the plants are thorny and if she pulls at the berries too hard they crush to purple sap in her hands She picks on, crouching like a toad a the bushes By noon she is stained sapphire all over and when she sucks the blood froberry oes back up to the porch for the last time

There, she says That’s ten tubs

Good work, he says That one’s yours

What do you mean that one?

She looks down and the other nine she lined up before are gone

You said for every five tubs I picked I got to keep one I picked ten tubs What you tryin to pull? And where’s the eggs you promised for Maury choppin that wood?

Freckled Albert squints at her

I don’t care for the way that feeb chops I wanted eer

She brushes the hair back from her forehead and licks her lips

Open up your ears now, Albert, she says You wanna listen to what I’m tellin you--and what I’ain Albert laughs until the cough overtakes him and he hunches over, his body craain his eyes are circles of red

What you gonna do, girl? You gonna get your feeb to sto, he reaches one arun thatjust inside and points it at her

Now shoo, he says I ain’t a bad et one tub of berries at all