Chapter 17: Pest Control (2)
TL: Hanguk
Wearing faded blue jeans and a loose button-up shirt, Chloe stood at the entrance of the farm, taking a deep breath as the wind blew through the leaves. The white latex gloves on her hands looked oddly out of place.
“Are you guys ready?”
Behind her, Armando and Jacob stood awkwardly, then glanced at each other. Jacob started grumbling.
“Ready for what. What kind of preparation do we need just to catch ladybugs.”
“But I kind of do need to prepare.”
As Armando took a deep breath like Chloe, Jacob spoke in disbelief.
“I hate bugs too, but you’re a bit much, aren’t you?”
“Before... I’m fine with most things, but spiders are really scary. As long as I don’t run into spiders, I’m good.”
“That... I can agree with.”
Chloe shot them a light glare and ordered them.
“Stop complaining and follow me. The staff said there are a lot of ladybugs near the cedar bushes over there. Let’s move quickly.”
The place the three arrived at was a cedar thicket leading to the back of the farm. Beneath tall trees, thick and dense bushes were spread out. Chloe put on her gloves and carefully slipped her hand between the bushes, then immediately recoiled in horror and staggered backward.
“Eek! A praying mantis!”
When Chloe screamed, the two friends jumped back together in surprise. Armando stared at Chloe with wide, startled eyes.
“A praying mantis? Was it really big?”
“It was huge! Something this big climbed onto the back of my hand!”
“... So what about the ladybugs?”
“I didn’t see any.”
“......”
As the two boys looked at her with dumbfounded expressions, Chloe shook her head briefly, then clenched her teeth.
“That’s right, get a grip, Chloe! It’s your farm, so you have to do it.”
“...”
“What is this? Is she acting or something?”
Ignoring the boys’ muttering, she started pushing through the bushes and moving around. Then Chloe spotted a small red ladybug. She slowly bent down and approached it.
“Come here...”
Gradually bringing her hands closer, she suddenly clapped them together at the last moment. The feeling of the small bug wriggling around in the hollow space between her palms was unpleasant and strange, but Chloe did not shake her hands away until the end.
“Oh... good.”
“You’re good at catching them.”
When Armando, who had been watching from behind, said that, Chloe furrowed her brows.
“Ladybugs are fine. And one at a time is even more fine.”
Steadying herself, Chloe carefully placed the ladybug into the plastic container she had prepared. Watching her, Jacob bent his large frame and picked up a ladybug with the tips of his fingers.
“They’re really cute. Some have lots of spots, and some have just one.”
Even though Jacob disliked bugs, once he got started, he was fairly good at catching them, and Armando also collected them while checking from time to time to see if there were any spiders.
“Armando, if you want to eat with Christina, shouldn’t you pick up the pace a bit?”
“Ah, okay!”
With a tearful expression, Armando started speeding up as well, but before long, the sun went toward the west and the surroundings gradually grew darker. Seeing that the number of ladybugs they had caught was less than expected, Chloe let out a regretful sigh.
“The time was too short. We have to come out early tomorrow for sure. Got it?”
When Chloe spoke seriously, the two friends nodded at the same time with expressions that said it couldn’t be helped.
Early the next morning, around the time the morning sunlight illuminated the farm, Chloe was already near the cedar bushes. Unlike yesterday, she was quickly capturing bugs with eyes full of firm determination.
“Chloe! You were already here?”
When Jacob, who arrived late, asked in admiration, Chloe nodded with a complicated smile.
“It’s my farm and my trees, so I have to work harder. But ladybugs are easy. Lacewings are hard.”
Seeing Chloe work that diligently, the two boys could not slack off. As a result, the three naturally caught far more ladybugs than the day before.
When afternoon came, Chloe finally carried a container filled with ladybugs and moved into the cherry orchard. Standing in front of trees suffering from aphids, Chloe spoke with a serious expression.
“You guys have to save our trees. Please, little ones.”
She gently opened the container and carefully placed the ladybugs onto the trees with her fingertips. Armando and Jacob followed suit, scattering the ladybugs onto the branches.
Before long, the ladybugs began roaming among the aphids in search of food. The sight of ladybugs, their natural enemies, dealing with the aphids carried a tension like a battlefield, and Chloe quietly smiled as she looked at the trees.
“Ah...”
How should she describe it? The small red ladybugs slowly devouring the aphids that were tormenting the cherry trees looked mysterious yet admirable. Until now, all bugs had only seemed disgusting, but now the ladybugs no longer looked disgusting.
“Did you catch a lot?”
Startled by the voice from behind, Chloe turned around.
“Brian! When did you get here?”
“Just now. I came to take a quick look at how things were going.”
After answering casually and briefly checking the ladybugs Chloe had released, I spoke.
“You caught them well without injuring them. But this is far from enough.”
“I know.”
As Chloe grew dejected again, I said to her.
“Don’t worry too much. It’s not like today is the end of it. You know you’re catching them every day for a whole week, right?”
“I know!”
When Chloe scowled sharply, I smiled faintly.
“On top of that, just the ladybug packs Armando brought will amount to quite a lot, and the office will help too. If we secure more from the office the day after tomorrow, pest control will speed up. Oh, what did the cherry association say?”
“Seems like we’re not the only ones with aphid outbreaks. They said it won’t be easy.”
“Sounds like there are quite a few places using organic farming methods.”
I recalled Pierce Morgan, whom I had met yesterday. If it were him, he would definitely recommend natural enemy pest control to the farm owners when something like this happened.
“What if we miss the harvest season at this rate?”
“Then it can’t be helped. You chose it, a method that can become healthy in the long term even if this year is a bit tough. If you feel wronged about losing, then spraying pesticides would be the right choice.”
After a brief moment of contemplation, Chloe shook her head.
“No. I’ll just do it this way.”
I pressed my lips together and looked anew at Chloe as she stared at the ladybugs with a resolute expression.
“You’re starting to look like a real farmer.”
At that, she brushed her hair back with a prim expression as if nothing had happened.
“Well, when was I not?”
At that moment, the sound of a vehicle came from far away. Turning my head, I saw Chloe’s older brother Brandon and the farm manager Raymond approaching from a pickup truck that had just parked.
“Why are they coming?”
“I don’t know.”
At my question, Chloe shrugged, then shouted sharply toward her approaching brother.
“You should’ve just stayed asleep, why did you come again!”
Brandon lumbered over with his broad body, thudding as he moved, and shouted.
“It’s not like I wanted to come! Dad told me to stop this right now and use pesticides for pest control!”
“What did you say?”
“He said not to ruin things with useless nonsense!”
“I’ll talk to Dad myself! So don’t you dare touch my trees! And Mr. Raymond, don’t touch anything without my permission!”
Pointing her index finger at Raymond and delivering a firm warning, Chloe stomped away, thudding just like her brother. They look completely different, but I guess that’s why they’re siblings?
But Brandon, who stayed behind instead of following Chloe, suddenly looked at me and let out a snort.
“Hmph! You’re Chloe’s friend?”
How was I supposed to respond to this?
“Why? What’s the problem?”
Jacob came running over in a hurry, stepping in front of me as if worried I might get hit. This kid, that’s kind of cute.
“What seems to be the issue?”
Pushing Jacob, who was blocking my view like a dump truck, aside and asking, Brandon sneered with his thick lips.
“Don’t ruin the farm with your weird farming methods and get lost.”
“Huh? But I understand this place belongs to Chloe... We’re friends who were invited by Chloe.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! This is my farm!”
At that, I looked at Raymond.
“Is that so?”
“Huh? Uh... well...”
“If Mr. Raymond confirms that this place belongs to Mr. Brandon, then we will leave. We can’t stay long on someone else’s land.”
Raymond was greatly flustered by my words. If he said it was Brandon’s land while Brandon was glaring at him, he had no idea what kind of repercussions might come from Chloe when she returned later.
Moreover, Chloe’s father had not yet formally carried out the inheritance, so saying it belonged to Brandon was nonsensical.
“It’s my land!”
“Mr. Raymond?”
Swallowing hard, Raymond finally ended up saying this.
“It is land that is expected to become Mr. Brandon’s.”
“Oh-. Then it’s not yet, right?”
At my words, Brandon’s face turned red again and he shouted.
“I’ll show you that it’ll be my land soon!”
With that, he turned his body and stomped away, thudding loudly, and Raymond followed behind him with an embarrassed look.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Jacob answered Armando, who had appeared before anyone noticed.
“No idea. He looks furious. But where are we eating lunch?”
“Let’s just eat pizza.”
Armando and Jacob glanced back at me.
“I hate pizza. I’m sick of it. I’ll go home and eat. If you want, you can come eat at my place together.”
As if it were something they absolutely could not eat, the two looked at each other.
“It can’t be helped. Let’s eat by ourselves.”
“Yeah.”
“Hmph! A bunch of Americans who don’t know good food...”
I glared at my friends who had no respect for Korean food, then looked at Brandon’s vehicle disappearing into the distance.
The place Chloe ran to in anger was a mansion in Crockett, about thirty minutes away from the cherry farm.
“Dad!”
Frederick frowned at his daughter, who was shouting at the top of her lungs.
“I told you not to shout in the house, didn’t I?”
“Why did you say that to Brandon? You said you’d leave it to me!”
Elderly Frederick looked at his daughter with a look of exasperation.
“I got a call from the cherry association earlier. You requested bugs? They’re already worried, asking if there’s a problem with this year’s harvest. The rumors are already spreading.”
“Just for that reason...”
“Do you even know how large the farm I entrusted to you is? Do you know how much fruit it produces?”
“That’s...”
“We have contracts to sell a fixed amount every year. We have to meet that. If we can’t, we suffer a huge loss. No matter how smart your friend is, dealing with what’s right in front of us is more important right now. Farming is not child’s play.”
“I don’t think of it as a game.”
At his daughter’s stubbornness, Frederick Harrison ruffled his hair in distress, then spoke with difficulty.
“It can’t be helped. Aphids appearing is bad luck, but that too is part of farming.”
“What do you mean it can’t be helped! And while we’re talking about it, the aphids appeared because Mr. Raymond used excessive nitrogen fertilizer, unlike usual!”
“What? He used too much nitrogen fertilizer?”
“Yes. The reason I didn’t say anything before was because I hadn’t checked the excessive nitrogen either. So I’ll take care of this myself too!”
“Chloe!”
“Competition or whatever, the trees will be damaged!”
For a moment, Frederick stared blankly at his daughter’s face.
“If we control it with chemicals, we can deal with it right away, but the trees will be damaged. Ladybugs and lacewings are natural enemies of aphids, so we can take care of it in a month.”
“And what if you fail?”
“Even if you give the cherry farm to my brother, I won’t resent you.”
“......”
At that moment, Brandon burst through the door and sneered as he cut in.
“Dad, if you listen to Chloe’s words...”
“Enough.”
At Frederick’s hardened expression, Brandon sensed the mood and shut his mouth meekly like a lamb. Then Frederick looked straight into his daughter’s eyes and said,
“Fine. I’ll do as you wish.”
“Thank you. I love you, Dad.”
Frederick watched with a strange look in his eyes as his daughter hugged him tightly, then quickly turned and rushed out again.