“Hurry up Mari, we’re going to be late for school!” yelled my older brother as he rushed to the door. I saw the bus and ran through the door down the steps and stepped onto the bus. Before I begin my story, let me introduce myself. I’m in fourth grade and my name is Amari, but most people call me Mari (well, except the teachers). I live in Jackson, Mississippi with my mom, dad, and my older brother Ayden. I also go to Jackson Middle School. Well anyway, as the bus stopped and we stepped off, my brother and I met up with our friends and walked into school.

   After school, my brother and I were walking home since we both decided to not ride the bus. While we walked, there was mostly silence, other than us talking about how our day at school was. When we both got up the steps and opened the door, we heard our parents talking. Then they turned to us and said that they needed to have a conversation with us. My brother and I both looked at each other with worried faces. Usually, when our parents say we need to talk, it means that one of us somehow got into trouble or something serious happened. When we sat down, our mom said, 

     “Children, we have decided it might be better to live in an environment that is surrounded by a close community and be able to see your family more often.” We both nodded, wondering where she was going with this. 

     “Ok kids, me, and your dad talked about it and we decided that we are going to move to Jacksonville, Alabama, where my family lives!” I could tell that she was full of excitement, about moving to her hometown, but I wasn’t very fond of this decision.

   “Why do we have to move? Can’t we just go to visit?”, I said, feeling like the world was going to end. 

     “It’s ok, sweetie” mom said as her voice softened. “You can still chat with your friends on your computer, and I promise, you are going to love being there.” I smiled slightly, knowing that it’s still not going to feel the same. 

The next day, we started packing our things. While we were packing my brother goes, 

     “Are you excited to move Mari?” he said curiously. 

     “No, not really. Why are you so excited?”, I asked. 

     “Because there will be so many different sights that can become potential photographs.” 

My brother has a dream of becoming a photographer. It makes sense though because he loves taking detailed pictures of everything that he thinks looks amusing. 

      “That’s the last box,” dad said while he placed it into the moving truck. My dad got into the truck while I said good-bye to my friend as we packed into the car and started to drive. It didn’t take long. Just an hour or two and we had made it to Jacksonville, Alabama before sundown. When we got out of the car we headed towards the house to start unpacking our things. Everything was so different in this small community than in the city. It wasn’t as noisy and it also had many insects that I wasn’t so fond of. The next day we visited our mom’s parents. They made sure to tell us how everything works around here. 

     “ In order to pay for the house that you are living in, you would need to help us and the rest of  the family to keep our farming as healthy as it can be.” 

I was definitely not a fan of this, but I kept listening. 

     “We sell the crops that we plant to the market and each family will get some of the profits based on how much we’re able to sell. You can start working tomorrow.” my grandfather said.

So before the day ended, all the family came together and decided to have a welcoming feast. When everything was ready, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. There was so much food laid out on the table. There was cornbread, greens, green beans, chicken, fish and so much more. Looking at all the food made my mouth water and my stomach growl nonstop. While we were dining on our feast, grandfather stood with his glass raised into the air saying,

     “ I would just like to say cheers for having another close part of the family join our community.” 

Everyone cheered and dined until no one could take another bite.

     The next day, we started working and tending to the crops on the farm. I could smell the wonderful essence of flowers that whistling winds carried as we were picking grapes from their vines. And, I noticed that not all of the insects here were pests. I could see butterflies fluttering while sipping their nectar from sweet-smelling flowers.  I was surrounded by vines that rise many feet tall and crops as far as the eyes can see with small kids playing in the maze of the farmland. The farm was so peaceful and so beautiful.                     

     “Mari,” My grandfather exclaimed, as I quickly turned around. He could see that I was distracted by the beauty of the land.

     “Those grapes aren’t going to pick themselves!”, he yelled as I smiled jokingly and continued picking. 

      At the end of the month, we got our profit. Everything was going well until a drought started. Many of the families that helped on the farm started to panic. But they figured out a strategy. A way to keep the farm from drying up their crop. After two weeks of trying to keep the plants alive, the rain started to fall and so many people cheered and started to dance because of such a miracle. I danced with them. In the rain. All the while thinking,

      “I just might like it here after all.”

The End

By Nyah Afi Song