These are not phone messages. Nobody in this story has a working phone or a signal. Everything below is said out loud, one person to another. The colours are just how each of them would have texted.
Dani · 15
Kai · 19
Priya · 22
Theo · 26
Bree · 31
Jonah · 35
1
A back lot behind a closed hardware store. Six people in a half circle. Ines puts a cardboard box on an upturned bucket.
Ines · 60s
Seeds. Beans, mostly. Tomato seedlings, a bag of seed potatoes, some squash, some lettuce, two kinds of carrot. Soil's already turned over there. Plant the beans after the last frost, about as deep as your thumb is long. Water in the morning, never at night. Don't crowd them.
Her hands keep moving as she talks. Kai's right hand drifts to his pocket and stays there. Priya blinks twice, slowly, like someone coming up from underwater. Jonah is nodding at the wrong moments. Dani is looking at the gate.
Ines · 60s
There's something else about the second month, and something about what you don't do, and one thing about your pockets. I'll say it once. (She stops.) Say that back to me. Any of it.
Silence. Six faces. Somebody shifts a foot.
Bree · 31
And then what? Is there a, like, a guide? A link?
Ines · 60s
There's a bucket and a hose. I'll be back at the end of summer.
Dani · 15
What if we mess it up?
Ines · 60s
Then you'll know a lot more than you do now. The rations truck comes Thursdays. Don't eat the seed.
She picks up her bag and walks out the gate. Nobody says anything until the gate stops swinging.
2
The gate has stopped swinging. Bree is already digging in her bag for a pen.
Bree · 31
Okay. Everything she said. Everything. Go.
Nobody goes. Then, all at once:
Priya · 22
I zoned out around the potatoes.
Kai · 19
I was waiting for her to finish so I could check something.
Bree · 31
Check what? There's nothing to check.
Kai · 19
I know. My hand went anyway.
Jonah · 35
I was nodding. I don't remember to what.
Dani · 15
I got the first thing and then it was like a wall of, like, static.
Bree · 31
(quietly) I was writing a reply in my head. To a message nobody sent.
They look at each other. It's the first time any of them has said that out loud.
Dani · 15
Don't eat the seed.
Bree · 31
Got it. More.
Jonah · 35
She said calories. At the start, I think. Most people forget it, she said. It's all about calories.
Priya · 22
I thought she said colours.
Jonah · 35
Calories.
Bree · 31
(writing) Potatoes. Squash. Beans, dried. And lettuce is...?
Jonah · 35
Lettuce is for feeling better. Not for living.
Bree · 31
(writing, muttering) Lettuce, equals, vibes.
Theo · 26
She said hiding it's a bonus. Don't make it look like a garden. Crooked rows, tomatoes in with the weeds. Pick in the evening. Don't talk about it by the fence.
Kai · 19
And the pocket thing.
Priya · 22
What pocket thing? She did something with her hands. In her coat.
Theo · 26
Two hard things in your pocket. A bolt and a tin lid. Squeeze, and it goes clack-clack. If somebody gets ideas, they hear that, they stop having them. It's about the sound.
Priya · 22
Is that legal?
Theo · 26
It's a noise.
Dani · 15
She said something about next year.
Bree · 31
What about next year?
Dani · 15
I don't know. It was at the end.
Bree writes NEXT YEAR ??? and underlines the question marks twice. Four people lean over to read it. It's the first time any of them has read the same page.
3
Kai · 19
(holding his phone out at arm's length, thumb hovering) Okay so, day one, we're, uh. Guys, I'm literally. (lowers it) There's no one.
Priya · 22
There's still the camera.
Kai · 19
There's no one. It doesn't go anywhere.
Dani · 15
Can't you just look up how deep a thumb is?
Theo · 26
It's your thumb.
Dani · 15
But like, on average.
Priya · 22
Okay, I read a really long thread about this. It said you want to soak the beans overnight and plant them deep, like, deep deep. Hands deep.
Theo · 26
She said thumb.
Priya · 22
Threads can be wrong, but the one I read had like nine thousand likes.
Theo · 26
(quietly, already on his knees with a stick) Thumb.
4
Day four. Kai carries a full bucket across the lot, very slowly, chin up, jaw set. Priya watches.
Priya · 22
That's so aura.
Dani · 15
What's aura?
Kai · 19
(not breaking pose) It's like, points. For being calm. And not caring what anyone thinks.
Jonah · 35
I'm carrying forty litres, I care a lot.
Priya · 22
You're farming aura right now. Like, literally. You're farming.
Kai · 19
You can't farm it if you're actually farming, that's — (stops) — oh.
Bree · 31
Who's counting the points?
Kai · 19
There's no... they're not... (sets the bucket down very coolly, tips it, soaks his shoes)
Dani · 15
Minus aura.
A silence. Then Kai laughs, properly, and so does Priya, and nobody is performing for anyone.
Theo · 26
The bucket goes by the beans. Not on your foot.
5
Bree · 31
Okay, let's align. We need an owner for the beans, an owner for water, and a single source of truth for the plan. I can take the plan.
Jonah · 35
Can we count the seeds first?
Bree · 31
We'll get to that.
Jonah · 35
I'm just saying there's a lot of them, and the truck brought half a bag of rice, and I've got a kid at my sister's. If somebody put a few in a pocket, that's not stealing, it's insurance.
Dani · 15
She said don't eat the seed.
Jonah · 35
I'm not eating it. I'm holding it.
Kai · 19
We could do a vote. Like a poll. Who's for planting everything, who's for holding some back?
Priya · 22
I vote plant everything. Obviously.
Bree · 31
Obviously? Okay, so that's one for planting, I'm hearing one for holding —
Theo · 26
(not looking up) Half in the ground. Half in the box. Nobody carries any.
Nobody answers. Bree starts to say something, then writes it on her hand.
6
Evening. The truck has come and gone. A small radio sits on the bucket, mostly static.
Radio
...distribution delays at the regional depot are expected to continue through... power rationing in affected areas... residents are asked to...
Kai · 19
(too fast) That's the third time they said "delays."
Priya · 22
Delays isn't the word they use when it's a delay.
Jonah · 35
It means it's bad. It always means it's bad.
Dani · 15
How bad?
Bree · 31
We don't know.
Dani · 15
(small) Do you think everyone's okay?
Long pause. The radio crackles.
Theo · 26
The rice is in the kitchen. Four scoops a day each. I wrote it on the wall.
Kai · 19
You wrote it on the wall?
Theo · 26
There's no one to post it to.
7
Night nine. Kai's screen lights his face from below. Dani watches him for a while.
Dani · 15
How is that still on? There's power like four hours a day.
Kai · 19
Don't.
Dani · 15
Where do you charge it?
Kai · 19
There's a guy at the depot. Car battery. Twenty percent for a scoop of rice.
Dani · 15
That's a quarter of your dinner. For twenty percent.
Kai · 19
...Yeah.
Priya · 22
What's on it?
Kai · 19
Videos. Mine. And, like, screenshots. Of comments.
Dani · 15
Of what?
Kai · 19
Of people saying they liked it.
Dani doesn't say anything. Neither does anyone else. The screen goes dark and Kai doesn't wake it.
8
Morning. The six are crouched at the edge of the bed. Something small and green and strange has come up in each row.
Dani · 15
Omg. This bean plant is totally sketch.
Priya · 22
It's got only two leaves. Two. They're, like, fat. And there's a, there's a thing on top of it.
Kai · 19
It's got a little hat.
Bree · 31
That's... a seed coat. Right? Isn't that a seed coat? It's still stuck on.
Jonah · 35
It's sick. It's got a disease. We should pull it before it spreads.
Priya · 22
Or it's the wrong beans. Somebody mixed up the packets.
Dani · 15
Did anyone mix up the packets?
Everyone looks at Kai.
Kai · 19
I didn't. I don't think. I mean, I might have, I was filming, but there's no — (stops) — it doesn't go anywhere.
Theo has been kneeling the whole time. He leans in, touches one of the fat leaves with one finger.
Theo · 26
That's what they look like. That's the first two leaves. The real ones come after.
Bree · 31
How do you know?
Theo · 26
I used to pick for a garden centre. Before the warehouse.
A long beat.
Dani · 15
...Why didn't you say?
Theo · 26
Nobody asked me.
9
Week six. The pods are the width of a pencil. Kai and Jonah stand at the row, hands in pockets, not quite looking at each other. Bree pulls Priya aside.
Bree · 31
I need you to do the thing you do.
Priya · 22
What thing?
Bree · 31
The thread voice.
Priya turns around. Her whole face changes.
Priya · 22
Okay, so, I read something? Beans are toxic until they're about as long as your hand. It builds up and then it drops, like, all at once. Eat them early and you get really, really sick. People have died.
Jonah · 35
Who died?
Priya · 22
There was a case.
Dani · 15
What case?
Priya · 22
It was a thread. A long one.
Everyone nods. Kai takes his hand out of his pocket and looks at it.
Kai · 19
I ate one yesterday.
Priya · 22
(not blinking) You're lucky.
Kai goes the colour of milk. Later, at the bucket, Theo leans toward Bree.
Theo · 26
That's a lie.
Bree · 31
It's got a deadline.
Theo · 26
(a beat) Fair.
Priya has heard. She doesn't turn around.
Priya · 22
I'm good at it. Turns out. I just never used it for anything.
10
Five weeks in. The beans are knee high. Priya is on her phone-shaped habit: she keeps pulling out an empty hand and looking at it.
Priya · 22
There's, like, a swarm on the undersides. Tiny green ones. They're everywhere.
Bree · 31
Is that the disease?
Theo · 26
Aphids. Squish them or wash them off with the hose. Soapy water if you've got soap.
Priya · 22
The thread said you spray a, there was a whole recipe —
Theo · 26
Have you got the things in the recipe?
Priya · 22
...No.
Theo · 26
Then it's the hose.
Dani · 15
Can I do it?
Dani takes the hose. Kai, without thinking, lifts his phone to film it, notices, puts it down. Then picks it up again and films it anyway, quietly, for nobody.
11
Theo has a stick of charcoal and the shed wall. Numbers, small and square.
Theo · 26
Forty-odd bean plants. Say a handful each, every few days, if nothing goes wrong. A whole plate of green beans is about what's in a slice of bread.
Bree · 31
That can't be right.
Theo · 26
(tapping her notes) Calories. It's on your page.
Priya · 22
So this is, what, a side dish?
Theo · 26
This is a side dish.
Jonah · 35
Then why are we doing it?
Theo · 26
Potatoes are the point. And beans, when they dry on the plant, they're food that keeps. And next year.
Dani · 15
Next year?
Theo · 26
A plant gives back more seed than it took. If we're careful, there's a lot more than we started with.
Jonah · 35
And we're on rations either way.
Theo · 26
All of us. The whole time. Nothing here changes that.
Jonah · 35
And if the truck stops?
Nobody answers. The charcoal squeaks on the wall.
Theo · 26
Then we'll be glad we started.
12
Morning. Theo has the seed box open on the bucket. He counts, counts again.
Theo · 26
We put half in the box. Twelve less than that.
Nobody moves. Jonah stands very still at the edge of the bed.
Bree · 31
Okay. Okay. Nobody panic. Let's not make this a, we're not going to vote on this.
Jonah · 35
It's me. It's mine. I took them.
Dani · 15
You said you were just holding —
Jonah · 35
I know what I said.
A long quiet. He takes a small folded paper packet out of his jacket and sets it on the bucket.
Jonah · 35
My kid's eight. His mother's gone and my sister's got her own. If it all goes bad, I want to be somewhere that has beans. That's all. That's the whole thing.
Bree · 31
(to herself, then out loud) I was going to ask who's accountable. That's not the question.
Theo · 26
He can plant the twelve. Over there, in the corner. His row. We'll put it on the wall.
Jonah · 35
...Why?
Theo · 26
Because you'll watch it harder than any of us.
13
Afternoon. A woman stands at the gate with a small boy on her hip. She doesn't come in.
Woman at the gate
Sorry. The sign said, I didn't know if this was, is this the garden? We got turned away at the depot. They said come back Thursday.
Nobody answers. Six people look at each other. Kai looks at his hands.
Priya · 22
We don't have enough for ourselves.
Bree · 31
We don't have anything yet. The beans aren't ready.
Jonah · 35
It's not a charity.
Dani · 15
(low) Somebody was nice to the first of us.
Bree · 31
Who?
Dani · 15
Ines. She gave us the box and left. She didn't even ask what we'd do.
Theo · 26
There's rice. Four scoops. I'll put in one of mine.
Kai · 19
(very small) I'll do two.
The woman starts to say something. The boy is looking at the beans.
14
A chip of mirror in the shed, propped on a nail. Kai has been standing in front of it for a minute.
Kai · 19
So I haven't seen my face in a month.
Priya · 22
Same.
Kai · 19
My jaw's like, it's there. I had a routine. It was nine steps. There was ice.
Dani · 15
Did it work?
Kai · 19
(looking at himself) Rice and a bucket worked.
Priya laughs, then touches her cheek.
Priya · 22
My skin's broken out. It's so — (shrugs) — who's looking?
Dani tilts her head at Kai in the mirror.
Dani · 15
You look like you're from here.
Kai · 19
What does that mean?
Dani · 15
Like you're not doing a face.
Kai · 19
That's kind of a savage thing to say.
Dani · 15
It was a compliment.
Theo · 26
(from the doorway) Best I've seen any of you.
Kai takes his hand off his jaw. He hadn't noticed it was there.
15
Night. The power has gone for the third time this week. They sit in a ring in the dark with a single candle.
Kai · 19
Can I say something weird?
Bree · 31
Please.
Kai · 19
My phone has been off since the second Thursday. I stopped paying.
Bree · 31
And?
Kai · 19
I don't know what I think about stuff. I mean actually. Like, if you asked me about the depot or whatever, I don't know. I'd look at what everyone was saying and then say that, but louder.
Priya · 22
Same.
Kai · 19
And now there's nobody to say it, and I'm trying to think and it's like, it's just quiet in there.
Dani · 15
It's not quiet in mine. It's loud.
Kai · 19
What's it saying?
Dani · 15
I miss my mom.
A pause. Bree puts a blanket over Dani's shoulders without saying anything.
Theo · 26
When you pick all day, you get time. You think about a lot. You'll get used to it.
Kai · 19
Is it always like this?
Theo · 26
It gets less loud. Then it gets interesting.
16
A morning in late summer. The six stand at the end of the row. The plants are heavy.
Dani · 15
Is that, are those, are they ready?
Theo · 26
Snap one. If it snaps, it's ready.
Dani snaps one off and holds it in a flat palm. A green bean. A small, ordinary, perfect green bean.
Dani · 15
Omg.
Priya · 22
It's just a bean.
Dani · 15
No. We made it. Like. With our hands.
Jonah laughs, short and surprised, and wipes his face with the back of his wrist.
Bree · 31
Okay. Count them. Everyone gets the same. And we leave some on the plant.
Kai · 19
(eating one raw, standing in a row of things he planted) Why does this taste like I did something?
Theo · 26
Because you did.
17
Night. A scrape at the fence. Theo and Jonah, both awake, both silent. A shape comes over the top, drops into the lot, and starts toward the shed.
Jonah's hand is in his pocket. He squeezes. Clack-clack.
The shape stops dead.
Theo · 26
(low, steady) Hold.
The man's hands come up slowly. He doesn't turn around.
Man at the fence
Wrong place. Sorry. Wrong place.
He goes back over the fence faster than he came. The two men stand there. Jonah is shaking.
Jonah · 35
I didn't think it would work.
Theo · 26
It doesn't. It only has to work once.
In the dark behind them, Dani's voice, very small.
Dani · 15
Did anyone get hurt?
Theo · 26
No.
Dani · 15
Good.
18
Late summer. The bean pods on the plants Theo marked have gone brown and dry. They rattle when Dani shakes one. Six people sit around a board, shelling them into a bowl.
Jonah · 35
Three hundred and twelve.
Bree · 31
Nobody eats these.
Jonah · 35
I know.
Priya · 22
(writing, no question marks) NEXT YEAR.
Kai · 19
Bigger beds.
Theo · 26
Potatoes in the other lot. Tomatoes in with the weeds, again.
Dani · 15
And we're still on rations.
Theo · 26
Fully. Nothing changes that.
Dani · 15
Then what's it for?
Theo picks up one dry bean, rolls it between two fingers, puts it back.
Theo · 26
It makes us less scared. That's all it does. It's enough.