Ann reluctantly spends her summer at her grandparents' farm, feeling bored and lonely. She meets Maggie, a 14-year-old farmhand, and the two girls become unlikely friends. Maggie teaches Ann farm chores and they have many adventures together. Though very different, the girls bond over their time spent on the farm. By summer's end, Ann has grown physically and mentally stronger from her experiences, and leaves looking forward to returning next year to see Maggie again.

1. A Summer to Remember
BY ESHNA SHARMA

2. “This is just not what I thought I would be doing THIS summer!”
Ann muttered, furiously copying out French verbs in her notebook. A cool breeze blew in
through the windows, and the thin curtains in the room bellowed in, revealing momentarily the
breathtaking view that lay beyond. Ann thought of all the fun her friends would be having in the
city while she was supposed to get bored out of her mind at her grandparents’ farm. Ann
snapped the book shut and looked out of the window. She thought nothing of the rolling green
pastures, the wild flowers that dotted the landscape and the creek that eddied along the farm,
instead, she saw that there wasn’t another house for miles to be seen, and this observation only
added to the girl’s growing unhappiness and loneliness.

3. Suddenly Ann straightened up. She noticed a figure walking slowly from the gate towards
the house. A visitor!!!
She scrambled down the stairs, her ebony hair flying behind her.

4. “Well, well, John, our farmhand has finally arrived. About time too!” said Ann’s grandmother,
addressing her husband as she emerged from the kitchen. As the stranger stood on the
threshold of the house, Ann stared at her. She was a young girl, no more than fourteen or
fifteen, about as old as Ann. Her boisterous orange-red curls were securely trapped
beneath a thin headscarf. Her eyes shone like emeralds specked with gold, her nose and
cheeks were dotted with freckles and her skin was lightly bronzed due to the summer sun.

5. At the lunch table, her
cheek resting against
her palm, Ann sullenly
wrestled with the beans
on her plate. On the
other side of the table,
the ravenous stranger
had wolfed everything
down and was digging
into her third helping.
The table had been set
with the best of
Grandma’s dishes, but
Ann’s appetite was
poor.

6. Excusing herself, she ran upstairs to her bedroom, angry and irritable.
From the afternoon through evening, Ann watched from her window as
the young girl laboured on the farm, her lithe body moving from one
place to the other, carrying buckets and shovels, cleaning, and doing all
sorts of things that Ann couldn’t imagine herself doing. To her, the very
thought of it seemed preposterous enough!

7. That night, long after bedtime,
Ann felt the urge to eat some
of her Grandma’s pecan pie.
Tiptoeing downstairs to the
kitchen, she caught sight of a
faint light emanating from a
room that was seldom used.
Opening the door a few inches,
she saw the orange-haired girl
sitting on a tattered mattress,
studying intently. A burning
candle proved to be the only
source of light, but the girl
seemed determined to study.
Ann turned around to go back,
but the girl had already seen
her and called her inside.

8. “My name’s Maggie,” she said, holding out a hand for Ann and
smiling warmly.
“Ann,” came the stiff reply.
“Do you know French verbs?” Maggie asked, with childlike
innocence.
When Ann replied in the affirmative, Maggie begged her to teach
her too, and Ann, reluctant at first, taught Maggie all through the
night.
When finally the sky grew rosy in the east, Ann trudged sleepily back
to her room, feeling surprisingly happy.

9. That day, Ann helped Maggie with the chores. Maggie taught Ann to milk the cows and
feed the horses, to dust the carpets and to wash the dishes, to scrub the kitchen floor till it
shone. All through the day, the two girls giggled and laughed like old friends who had been
reunited. The evening twilight brought with it a new adventure, for Maggie took out the
horses and taught Ann to ride one.

10. The two girls were quite unlike. One was as fair as snow, the other with olive skin. One had
a posh city accent; the other was village-born and bred. One’s delicate hands had never
seen a day’s work in its life, the other’s were rough from all the dishes she washed. One had
never touched a mop, the other made a living out of using it. One couldn’t eat the food on
her plate; the other wished she could get more on hers. One spent most of her time sulking,
the other looked for more and more reasons to smile. They were as different as chalk and
cheese, but at the same time, they were as alike as two peas in a pod.

11. They lived in two completely different worlds; when Ann would describe to Maggie her life
in the city, full of riches and glamour and extravagance she could only dream of, her green-
gold eyes would grow wide in amazement. Ann, on the other hand, would never cease to
be amazed by the great, daring tales of adventure that Maggie spoke of; how she had
once ridden from one village to another, alone on horseback, or how every fishing season,
she would catch trout all by herself for her family to eat.

12. The summer came to an end, although sooner than Ann would have liked, and it
was finally time to pack her bags, for school was about to open. She had swum in
the river, run races across the field and even played in the wet mud. She had
fallen, too, but Maggie had always been there to help her back to her feet.

13. Ann’s skin was nicked and bruised and her skin
wasn’t as snow-white as it had once been. But
she felt better than she had ever felt before. Her
bones were stronger, she had gained an inch or
two, muscles rippled in her arms and legs from all
the work she had done. She was fitter, both
mentally and physically.
When it was time to leave, Ann hugged Maggie
tightly, promising to return the next year.

14. Ann returned to the city with hundreds of memories, and fondly and
remembered the orange-haired girl who had made her a better human being
and had made her summer, the best one EVER!