The Potato Farm | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Potato Farm | Previous Challenge Entry
By Nana Quaicoe
06/04/09
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The Potato Farm
Gates moved in with his family two years ago. I prefer to call him by his first name only. I do not think he would be very much pleased if his last name is known to everyone. The reason is only known to Gates and I would like to keep it as such. You see, Gates is the kind of fellow not to be reasoned with. He had an awfully quick temper and he felt his ways and reasons were always right. He knows I am writing this particular story. He knows I love to write and did not stop me when he got to know what I was writing about. I think he wants everybody to know his story. Gates would not admit it though. Somehow, I knew he would end up here in Sioux Center, a town he always complained about. I felt he had to play a part in this little agricultural town. I had worked with Gates’ father since I was 20. I knew Gates before he went to college and how he squandered his life there on alcohol and drugs. I was a caretaker and helper on Gates father’s potato farm. I liked his father. He was a kind hearted man and was loved by everybody in the community. A frequent church attendant, he took part in absolutely every activity and donated to charity as much as he could. What made him famous however were the potatoes he grew. They were extraordinary sweet. Mrs. Lewis a widow and the oldest woman in town described Gates’ father as the sweetest man she had ever known and his potatoes as the sweetest she had ever tasted. Sales from the good potatoes helped finance Gates education at college. I however, do not blame Gates for not succeeding at college. He met the wrong friends who influenced him to making the wrong decisions. His life got wasted and through the help of a good friend moved to New York City. He however could not make it there and lived in a rundown apartment with his longtime girlfriend at college. His father’s death however brought him here as his father had willed him his only property, the potato farm.
For some period after Gates arrival, the potatoes tasted surprisingly bitter. The crops failed and the harvests were awfully poor. At first, I thought this was because Gates was a very poor farmer and had no idea of what he was doing. I also contemplated the weather was unfavorable but these thoughts were washed out of my mind when other farmers rejoiced over a good harvest and favorable harvest. The potatoes we grew were very dark during the harvest and tasted very bitter. No one knew the reason why. We did try good fertilizers and assorted pesticides but the potatoes were very stubborn. They just would not change for the better!
At this point of the story, I have to mention that Gates was very much unlike his father. I would not call him a good Christian. He was a terrible one but alas who am I to judge? He had a very hard heart. I used to think honestly, it was made of stone. People wondered if he was indeed his father’s son. Such differences! He did go to church though. He did this he told me one day because he felt he had to. Stunning, for a guy like Gates who always got wasted on Saturday nights at the town bar.
Church was the turning point in this strange story. Holley, a little girl of the Anderson’s was suffering from kidney cancer and had to replace one of her kidneys. This announcement was made at church the day Gates had dressed in his best suit (I had no reason why) and looked the most bitter. Somehow the announcement touched the stone heart of Gates. He came back from church that Sunday looking very remorseful. It was shocking when he told me and Mary, his girlfriend, that he will donate a kidney. He said he felt God speak to him that day in church and he was supposed to do it. Unbelievable, but I do know miracles do happen. God did speak to him somehow. Astonishing, that a cold hearted alcoholic would donate his kidney to a little girl he barely knew. That night after a successful kidney operation, we had potatoes (as usual) for dinner. The potatoes tasted very sweet.

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