Chapter 19

Nobody was talking much. The field was still and green in the early morning light, the vines running dense across the ridges in every direction, and the air had the cool, clean quality that follows a hard storm.Bryson stood at the edge of the planting area with a digging fork in his hand and looked at the field for a moment. He chose a row near the center of the southern section: not the best-looking spot, not the worst, just the middle—a fair read of what the field had actually done.He pushed the fork into the earth at an angle, working it in beside the base of the plant, angling away from the crown to avoid cutting the roots. The soil gave more easily than it had before the storm, the rain having loosened the upper layer without destroying the structure below. He felt the fork reach the depth he wanted, levered it back slowly, and lifted.The sound of the earth releasing a root mass is specific and immediate: a low, soft tearing as the lateral roots let go. And then the whole plant came up, and with it a cluster of sweet potatoes that made him go still for a moment.They were large, long, and tapered, with the deep reddish-brown skin of a crop that had been drawing from good soil in good conditions. None of them were split. None had the soft, waterlogged texture of roots that had been sitting in excess moisture. He turned one over in his hands and pressed his thumbnail lightly into the skin at the tip: it was firm; the flesh beneath was dense and dry.He set the plant down, moved three ridges over, and put the fork in again. The second plant came up the same way. The third was larger.By the time he'd lifted the fourth cluster and laid it beside the others on the ground at the edge of the row, the people who'd been standing quietly near the fence had begun moving onto the field without being asked. Earl picked up the second harvesting fork from Bryson's truck and started working the adjacent row. One of the neighbors took the handcart and began moving the pulled plants toward the staging area near the barn.

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