Peggy Cobain and the Farmer's Market Trophy

By John Leader

Mature theme with psychological emotion. What can Peggy do with no one helping her reach her goal? Why is it so hard to move forward and does Mike end up helping her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Leader
• Release date: Oct 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005421816

John Leader

John Leader enjoys writing science fiction, his first choice. He writes horror just as well. He works using commercial arts techniques and creates his own book covers. His science fiction stories take on action adventure themes.He reads general and technical magazines and books when he can find good materials.He is a part time martial arts practitioner and is familiar with a variety of defense systems.

Book preview

Peggy Cobain

And

The Farmer’s Market Trophy

by

John Leader

Copyright 2022 by John Leader

Smashwords Edition

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Peggy Cobain

and

The Market Farmer’s Trophy

Table of Contents

Chapter

One

Chapter

Two

Chapter

Three

Chapter

Four

Chapter

Five

Chapter

Six

Chapter

Seven

Chapter

Eight

Chapter

Nine

Chapter

Ten

Peggy Cobain

and the

Farmer’s Market Trophy

Chapter

One

Peggy Cobain kept up the farm even after her husband died on the highway. They had stopped to change a flat on the small trailer haling their vegetables to the local farmer’s market for sale. The driver, a drunk never stopped, and the sheriff found the guy at his home. Her husband’s hat caught in the grill of the old rusty truck. The guy was sentenced for manslaughter although Peggy felt he should have been given the death penalty. Even after the conviction Peggy did everything she could but nothing happened even when she wrote to her political representatives and the governor. All she got was talk to your local county attorney which was just another dead end political runaround.

She took another sip of wine as she sat on the house porch where she and her husband relaxed after an intense hard day. The cultivated fields of vegetables lay out across the fields. Her dead husband, Daniel Taylor, everyone called him Dan, had completed tending the fields that week and the crops were coming in and some almost ready for picking. Her husband had hired several hands that came on the farm to work the fields. She knew she must set the schedule because in the next days and possible weeks the vegetables had to be collected and the soil readied for the next crops.

It had been a long day and the hands had helped her set up the hauling trailer for early morning the next day and the vegetables she planned to sell at the farmers market. Going to the farmer’s market was something Dan, her husband, had started and she wanted to keep up. It had been about six month since her husband had died, but for her and for now and in her mind he was still alive just out working on the fields. He always wanted to get an early start and be ready with their fresh farm vegetables set up at the local farmers market. One reason he worked so hard to be ready and set up was because he wanted to earn a place on the luncheonette wall next to the counter. Once a month the winner received a write up and a brass plaque placed with the other names on the wall. Each year on the first day of the year the plaques were given to the winners and a new board with space for the plaques set up. Dan wanted to win a place on the winner board. He did business with the local grocers and from time to time they would call for more the crisp pristine vegetables. His vegetable business was growing and Dan wanted to show off the plaque and write up that came with the local acknowledgement about winning vegetables. But no matter how hard he worked and tried he never received the monthly award. It always went to someone else, a woman who sold, what Dan thought, were adequate produce, but not with the same quality that came with the crop he cultivated so diligently. Dan had his suspicions but he never acted on them.

As Peggy finished her glass of wine she decided that she must win that plaque for Dan. She felt he deserved it. They had lived in New York and Dan was a very successful executive, but he had always wanted the farm life and so when he decided to quick his job and invested the money he had saved, and it was quiet a bundle, Peggy thought she should give his type of dream a try. She found that it was hard in some ways, but what isn’t, and she soon adjusted to the different life style. In some ways it was quieter but their success came from the sweat of their brow and she found it extremely satisfying. To her surprise she adjusted well on the farm until tragedy hit and now she felt emotionally all alone. She was having trouble without Dan who was her life force. She could stay home and live a sedimentary life, never leave her house, because Dan was an astute business man and had set up and left more than enough money for both of them, but the farm life was what he wanted and he enjoyed the company of the people and groups he met. He had been asked to talk to small groups and he help people with their businesses, it was the kind of life that made him whole and he told Peggy how important she was in his life. But now Peggy felt empty, drained and dry, but she knew she could do a positive thing for Dan and that was win the plaque and get the write up, and that she could show people like Dan would have wanted and brag about it in his own way.

Dan liked cultivating vegetables year round like banana squash, bell peppers, black eyed peas, bok choy, cabbage, carrots, white and red potatoes and more. And from time to time he tried other vegetables if enough grocers asked for them. Sometime he grew seasonal vegetable that he could sell at the farmer’s marker like pumpkins popular for Halloween, he liked jarring and selling pickled jalapeno peppers, radicchio, turnips, and some he would jar for sale. He especially liked jarring a combination of jalapeno with cauliflower; he said he liked the spicy flavor and that it made great picking in party hors d’oeuvres.

Everything moved as before early in the dawn but without Dan, she had one of the farm hands drive and help her with setting up the vegetables at the farmer’s market. Peggy and Dan always sold out and then headed for a late dinner at Dan’s favorite home-style barbeque restaurant. Dan certainly loved his juicy ribs and had some packed for takeout. This day was different. If Peggy sold out her vegetables she picked up a simple burger and headed home with the ranch hand Alfredo Manzano, Dan called him Fred. Alfredo was an older gentleman and like Dan he believed in the land and what it could produce. Dan had told Peggy that Fred should have been an executive in one of the corporation but not everyone enters without an opened door or waiting opportunity. Dan had attended and transferred from one of the high end university to another one and graduated with honors but he told Peggy that he took to the land when his parents took the family to stay at a farm for the summer, a place Dan never forget and that worked into his psyche until he made the move to own his piece of farm land. Life had been moving well until the unexpected tragedy with Dan’s death.

Well, Senora Peggy, I’ll park the truck and unload the vegetables, Alfredo Manzano turned into the drop-off before he parked the truck near the area where the shaded roof covered the outdoors market.

Ok, Fred. I think I see Mr. Sharp’s red truck parked by the luncheonette. Drop me off so I can pay for the monthly rental fees. I’ll get us some hot coffee and be over to help you as soon as I’m done, Peggy quickly jumped out of the truck and dashed inside the luncheonette. She wanted to peg William Sharp before the other renters arrived because she didn’t like to wait and pay when the other farmers were there.

As usual Mr. Sharp was seated in the back at one of the tables; he had order breakfast, but had his account’s ledger open for business.

Hey, Mrs. Cobain, I see you’re the first one as usual. Please take a seat while I write you up a receipt. I’m letting everyone know that I may have to raise the fees, taxes you know, utility expenses and other fees to keep the place running, said William Sharp or Will as most people called him, he smiled.

Peggy sat waiting for the receipt. She didn’t like the idea of fees going up, not that she couldn’t pay them, but she wondered if Sharp really needed the extra money. He certain owned half the town, small as it was, as least that’s what the people gossiped and yapped about from time to time.

Here you are Mrs. Cobain, Please check it, Sharp handed the inked receipt to Peggy. She quickly did a scan of the retuned receipt. She noted the date, the amount and Sharpe’s chicken scratch signature, it was hard to read but better than the name stamp he had used the year before. He must have stopped using