Like Bees to Honey | gxg

32. Clearing the Dust

It felt strange to go back to the farmer's market after everything that had happened at the festival, but Sabina wasn't about to abandon her responsibilities just because of a little heartbreak. Besides, being busy meant less time to think about how Mel had left without saying goodbye.

She did make an effort to avoid looking at the Verger Orchards stand, though, and even took the long way around to the washroom so she didn't have to walk by it. The last thing she wanted to do was look at that stand and not see Mel's sly smile.

When Sabina got back from her roundabout break, Helena sat in the folding chair under the awning, watching videos on her phone of the Three-Legged Showdown. Apparently, the feud had gone viral in the valley. Sabina sat down beside her with a sigh. She was afraid to look at the farm's social media accounts. What if this reversed all the progress she'd made this summer? She'd meant to help reduce the farm's financial troubles, not make them worse. All day, she'd been expecting to hear comments from customers, but to her relief, no one had made jokes about it yet.

"You're lucky you're leaving High Valley," Helena said. "I'm gonna get teased about this at school forever. How old do you have to be to disown your family?"

"I'm pretty sure older than you are."

Pulling out her own phone, Sabina typed a set of keywords into the browser. So far, her search for the truth of the family feud had turned up almost nothing. She'd asked her parents and been told the same stories she'd heard all her life: the fight over the creek, the false accusations of corruption when her grandpa was mayor, the Vergers poisoning the hives. After Wyatt's mostly baseless accusations had turned into an all-out brawl at the Festival of Peaches, though, she couldn't help wondering if that was all any of these incidents had been- conspiracy theories. And besides, the stories were all hideously one-sided. If any of it had any basis in reality, then the Vergers must have their own stories that painted her family in a less favourable light.

Mel had told her that when they were at the diner. Would things have ended differently, if she'd listened then?

"I can't believe I bought into this family feud for so long," Sabina said. "Is this really what our family has been doing for a hundred years?"

"Losing their minds over the pettiest things? I would believe it."

"But it must have started with something real, right? People don't just start hating each other for no reason."

Helena was only half paying attention. "Wasn't it something to do with water?"

"Yeah. It's supposed to have started with the fight over Swedish Creek, which ran along the property line between our orchards and the Verger Orchards."

"Well, we must've won that one. It's named after us, right? We're the Swedes. Or, well, great-grandpa Eng was, anyway."

"See, that's what I'm trying to figure out." Sabina frowned and clicked through another link. "The story Mom and Dad always told is that the Vergers moved the fence so that we couldn't access the water from the creek anymore. But did you hear what Joan said at the festival? Something about our family diverting the creek. Nothing to do with a fence at all. So what's the truth? Who was actually in the wrong?"

"Who cares? That's ancient history."

"Obviously it's still relevant if Mom and Dad are willing to embarrass themselves over it."

"They're not the only ones who embarrassed themselves over it," Helena said under her breath. Because she was trying to be the bigger person here, Sabina ignored this.

"Besides, a hundred years is like, yesterday in human history. There are still people alive who remember a hundred years ago!"

"Okay, you've proven you're a dusty old. What're you gonna do? Go bother people at the nursing home?"