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“Stop listening to old men gossip. It’s time to dance!”
“They’ve never owned their own land or worked their own farm. They don’t know the satisfaction in harvesting the crop you sowed and nurtured, feeding your family, and planting the seed you saved from your fall harvest to start the process again in the spring.”
“You are terrible.” Bobby glared at her. “So suspicious.” “Or are you so naïve?” Cassie folded her arms.
“She told me everyone has things in their past that makes them sad, but you have to push through it.”
“Just make it through today, and hope tomorrow will be better.”
They want us to do the work and then depend solely on the Soviet government to pay us back with the fruits of our own labor! No!”
The ice she’d imagined running through her couldn’t keep her safe from this pain. She was melting.
A farmer plants and nurtures today, so he can harvest a good crop in the future. You must always look to the future.”
“It doesn’t bother me.” Cassie hesitated. “It’s just different.” “Different because it makes you feel happy? And you haven’t been happy in so long?”
“What do you think being a mother is? It’s a constant battle. It’s endless fear. It’s continuous worry. And it’s always work! But it’s worth it, Katya; I swear to you, it’s worth it.”
“What made you decide to plant sunflowers? I thought they made you sad?” “I decided it was time I stopped disliking them for the bad memories and choose to enjoy them for the good memories. It’s something I’m still working on.”
But her battle-weary heart didn’t have the strength to fight for its desires anymore.
He was gone from her life now, his memories a sweet haunting melody that thrummed in her heart, but no longer pained her so constantly. She’d moved on in her own way, because she had to in order to survive, but she would never, could never, forget him.
“Bobby, you were put in unthinkable situations. You did everything you could.” “I’ll never really know that, though, will I?” Bobby said. “Life is a series of choices, each one pushing you towards the next. Maybe if I’d chosen differently in the very beginning, things would have been better.” “Or maybe they would have been worse,” Cassie said.
