Rebekah Postupak hosts Flash Friday, 140-160 word stories based on a word (Friendship) and a photo prompt (Below). After reading my story following the picture, please click > HERE < for the rest of the entries. Enjoy!!!
Source: “Rose Biodo, Philadelphia, 10 years old. Working 3 summers, minds baby and carries berries, two pecks at a time.” Photo by Lewis Hine, National Archives public domain. Share this:
I remember it as if it were yesterday. The beautiful ten-year-old girl, Rose (Rosalina to me), marching her berries (always two pecks at a time) up for payment. This being done on the hot sand (barefooted, of course), in a dress and kerchief, all the while making sure the little one, Saliette, was well.
We grew together, my immigrant background and book-hungry thirst for knowledge always at odds with each other during picking season, and fell madly in love. This love surviving the bone-breaking stress of never knowing at the end of a field when we would see each other again. But, a soul kiss, given at eight, kept our hearts and minds pure. I do wish my body had done the same.
Now, two marriages and five children later, I have traveled six states, in a car of my own at last, to see my Rosalina.
I put my withering hand on hers, at least it was an open casket, and cry.
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Namaste,
Scott
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