Can This Summer Get Worse? (Re-Written)

During the weekend, I decided that my first piece of writing wasn't really up to standard so I re-wrote it on Saturday later afternoon. I hope you like it :-)

It was a hot summer and work was harder than ever. The rice was dying quicker and the workers were getting slower and slower. Richard Henan, owner of the crop farm was getting worried. Every night after a long day of work he would send his workers home, have a quick dinner, shower and drop into bed. He had a few sleepless nights worrying about everything, about his workers, about his crops and about his health. Would this be the summer that it all goes wrong?

“Okay boys, we have two weeks to harvest these fields before they die,” exclaimed Richard as he pointed out towards all the crop fields. “I know,” he continued, “that this summer is extremely hot and it’s going to be hard but I believe that we can do it!” There was a loud shout and then everyone spread out and started work.

BANG!!! Richard raced to the west field, as soon as he heard it. “What has happened!?” he shouted fearfully. No one answered and he couldn’t see anyone. “Is anyone here?!” He continued yelling as he ran looking everywhere.

“Ahhh,!” Richard heard someone call out and sounding scared and hurt. He ran around the corner and saw two of his men lying on the ground. “What’s happened?” Richard now sounded scared.  His workers started talking “There, there, was a, a….” “A What?” Richard cried. The workers, named Jeff and John needed to be rushed to hospital but at the end of the day, Richard still had no idea what had happened.  

But he was determined he was going to find out.

Meanwhile, the sun had been shining hard and a lot of his workers were getting badly sunburned. Even though they were all wearing rice hats, the sun was just too hot for their bodies. Soon some of the workers started to get sick from the scorching, hot sun. Their heads were starting to spin and they weren’t feeling up to working anymore. Richard had to send all of the sick workers home for two reasons; one, so that the other workers wouldn’t get sick and two so that they can get some rest and hopefully get better soon.

“Okay, welcome everyone.”  It was the beginning of the first Saturday and Richard was leading his morning meeting, “today the main focus is to just finish off your half of the field.  I know that half of us are at home, but that does not matter to us!” Even though, he sounded enthusiastic, he had never felt so worried. As the men spread out talking as usual, Richard got back to work finding out about the accident two days before.

“Okay!” Richard had gone next door to the farm to ask some questions, he had a feeling that the accident had something to do with them so off he went to find out.

“Let me see.”  Knock! knock! knock! The door opened and a friendly smiled appeared. “Ooo, hello Richard what brings you here today?” “Hello Harold, sorry to disturb, but two days ago, two of my workers were put into hospital.” he started.  Richard told Harold everything and by the end, they had each finished a coffee and a packet of biscuits.

“My Bull broke opened his fence so that may have been the bang, since his ring is quite close to your field, but I put him into the barn until the fence was fixed so I’m not sure about the rest, I’m afraid,” Harold told Richard. Richard thanked him and returned back to the fields where he went straight to the west field.

When he got there, he saw a bent garden shovel and picked it up. He then headed towards the hospital with the shovel. “Hello boys!” he said as he entered the room where both his men were recovering. Richard was happy to see them both sitting up and reading the daily newspaper. “Oh, hey boss.  How are things?  We are both so sorry that we can’t be at the fields now.” John said happily. Richard answered, “Fine, fine I just came to ask you again, what actually happened on the fields?” Jeff decided to talk this time since he had a better memory of the time, “We were both harvesting when John heard a bang, he got so frightened that he grabbed his shovel and started running, he ran into me where the shovel hit me hard. Of course he was hurt too because he didn’t mean to run into me, the shovel seemed to bend on me but peirce into his chest which made it hard for him to breath.” Richard finally understood, he was happy to know what happened but was surprised at what had really happened, he expected something much more action packed but never mind about that, at least they were okay now.

The situation wasn’t so great back at the fields, more of the workers had been sunburned and had started to feel sick in the same way. It was the end of the day so all his workers were leaving, “Bye boss, see you tomorrow!”, “Yeah see ya!” , “Have a good night sleep and will see you tomorrow!” All Richard’s workers were happy which was good and so was Richard.

It was now Monday and already some of the rice and corn had started to die. It had only 25 workers left and there was still a whole lot of work to do. The men were getting sicker and sicker each day which made work harder for the ones that were left.  He didn’t want to do this but, “Hey cousins, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces I am in Vietnam and my crop fields are nearly all dead! I need help urgently.” He had just sent out a message to all his family in other countries on holiday. He didn’t know if they would actually come since they were probably having a wonderful holiday but it was worth a try. Within the next day, he had another 30 people helping him. He really hoped that they wouldn’t get sick or dread being there working while they were supposed to be on holiday.

Richard was delighted when he heard his cousin say, “Richard, thank you SOO much for letting us come here, the weather is so hot and wonderful compared to the country we have just come from! Plus this keeps us fit and working!” Richard was very surprised but replied back, “Ohh, no, thank you…. You have helped me so much, I thought that I would have to give up on these crops!”

By the end of the two weeks, his family and himself had harvested nearly all of the grains and his workers were all back to full health. The summer had turned out well after all. To thank his family and workers that had lasted, Richard cooked them all a big dinner with of course, lots and lots of rice and corn! Richard stood up, “A toast, to all my family who sacrificed their holiday to come and work here, Thank you, thank you all so much you don’t know how much you have helped us!” There was a cheer followed by a silence… an eating silence!

The End