#jonah capp

Olive the cat didn't come in for a snack post barn patrol, and after much treat-bag shaking and calling and familiar scent spreading via blankets, it was concluded she had gone off on an adventure. Hermia didn't want her daughter to be too upset so she entered pragmatic mode and involved her in the process of putting up a notice online and making posters to put on village lamp posts and the town centre noticeboard. It made everyone feel better to be doing something, rather than shivering in the barn, waiting for a meow to reach them.

It was also decided that Autumn would become more involved in day-to-day farm life. Her tasks now included taking care of Dora the dog (and Olive, on her prayed-for return), and shadowing the adults when she wasn't at school or doing homework. At the same time, Leod was passing on every piece of pastoral knowledge pie he could to Jonah.

The villagers chuckled in the queue that was nearly out the barn door and Leod exhaled the tension out of his shoulders. The lighthearted lilt of his voice seemed to take the edge off the average market customer's expectation of a speedy till transaction.

It was Leod's idea to swap roles with Jonah for the day: where the younger lad was out harnessing his horticultural skill, Leod was trying his hand at being the people person. He now wondered if he'd underestimated his ability to handle such things. The till was a tricky beast that often spat its drawer into Leod's stomach, but even the Capps in line were showing their pearled teeth in smiles rather than bared grimaces. Poor Jonah had worn the ire of the upper-class when he was fresh-faced in the past, but that Capp in question was now his mother-in-law, and he knew how to let the cloak of curmudgeonly customers (and Capps) slip easily off his shoulders. Maybe the lad could set a new example for those with the name to be proud of dirt under their fingernails instead of hiding it with manicures.

Hermia certainly set a top-to-toe example of being different from her family. Her hair was several different colours and you could see her coming a mile away, and hear her too, with the clump-clump-clump of chunky boots. She clump-clump-clumped around with the clipboard in her role of stocktaking, which was something that her sharp mind took to with ease. The farm was running smoothly with extra capable hands. Leod just hoped it didn't lose its identity when the land was passed to the lad, and therefore the Capps. He'd had a nightmare about a garish billboard being dropped on the farm, declaring it to be PROPERTY OF THE CAPP CORPORATION, INCORPORATED. The cows had run for the hills.

"Can I have my change, please?"

Leod blinked and started scrabbling for coins in the drawer to give to the very polite Virginia Beech. "Of course! Don't know where I went just then, sorry lass."

It didn't make the loss of Jonah and Dora hurt any less. Hermia would stare into space at the counter, not hearing the greetings of customers because she was trying to recall his reassuring voice instead. "Take your time at the till. Breathe. You've got this." Feeling Dora's hot doggy breath on her legs, Hermia's eyes would crinkle up into happy tears, 'til Tybalt waved in her face and gestured at the forming line that was nearly out the barn doors.

Her brother still had that living-under-a-rock, couldn't-read-a-room energy he'd had since he was the firstborn of the new generation of Capps, silver spooned and what-can-I-do-for-you-Master'd. Marrying Cyd had only mellowed him out enough to roll up his sleeves on the farm and get his hands dirty (grimacing all the way). He'd actually been the one to find Jonah while out on a stroll to survey one of the further fields; he'd called Cyd and the ambulance but there was nothing they could do.

Hermia wondered why Jonah would go so far from the house if he wasn't feeling well. She felt sick at the thought of him curling up in a paddock to protect her. It was the sort of thing she'd expected Dora to do, as she was slowing down and retiring from farm duties. She curled up on the living room floor instead, tended to by Olive the barn cat and Cyd's dog Peanut, so she wasn't alone.

It didn't bear overthinking. Hermia and Autumn just couldn't help it. Their family had been halved; the farm wouldn't feel the same for a long time.

Market customers were ecstatic to be served by Cyd, famous for his natural ease with animals and people. Tybalt had the Capp family connections to restock at wholesale prices that would make other market holders show up with furious pitchforks, and Jonah... well, he was the quickest with the cash register. So everyone had their part to play.

"I've been working this farm for years. One day it will all be up to Autumn here. I've heard great things about your agricultural studies programme, Mr Jordan."

The headmaster smiled over his cleaned plate of pork chops that Jonah silently thanked the heavens for not burning. "Please, call me Vince. It goes without saying we look forward to having Autumn on our roll. Her mother is still one of our top students to this day. I'd love to catch up with her, before I head out."

Jonah nodded and directed Mr Jordan out to the telescope on the deck over the pond, where Hermia liked to unwind after work and chart the stars. When the sliding door slid shut, Autumn flew into his arms and they jumped up and down. "Oh, dad, I'm so excited!" she said, pausing for a breather to readjust her woven cowgirl hat. "Thank you - I need to call Robyn! Thank you." She galloped up the stairs to call her girlfriend; Jonah gathered up the plates and grinned to himself at the sink. He could've sworn she was just a little girl only yesterday! This firecracker was going to give three grown men a run for their money when she took the reins of the farm.

She had to let the repo men get his grubby fingers on it, lest the farm's accounts be gone over with the finer comb of the financier. Her family had auditors on the payroll so the only consequence would be everyone learning that Hermia perhaps wasn't so sharp with numbers after all; it was exactly the consequence she feared most. She'd pushed the envelope since her teenage years with her non-standard hair and clothing style. She needed to be good with the accounts, otherwise what was she good for? Luckily, she was able to make a trade with the collector - one nerdy item worth thousands for a lifetime of none-of-my-business.

Jonah had been confided in by Hermia, and he decided to hit go on his personal training business to boost income. Autumn was growing like a weed out of her wardrobe and Dora needed special senior food for her digestion. Solutions for such things - high quality solutions, anyway - did not come cheap.

Old Lee McGreggor was not in the loop. He was fishing with Autumn during the repo man's visit and thought Jonah had been a personal trainer on the side all along - "Those abs of yours, lad! Cut like a statue!"

Hermia's quiet question surprised Jonah. The weather had been calmer lately and they'd been working hard on the farm under the layer of cornflower blue making its spring debut. All that, alongside raising their smiley girl. It had never occured to Jonah, an only child himself, that Autumn might be missing something - specifically, the sibling experience. He took Hermia's hand and caressed it with his calloused thumb; dirt under the fingernails that she didn't mind.

"Baby - she smiles everyday. She has us, and Lee, and the dogs. The cows!" The couple paused to chuckle at the memory of Autumn in Hermia's arms, mooing politely at the fenceline of the curious bovines. Jonah continued with a firm nod: "I think she'll be okay."

In Jonah's embrace - he smelled like fresh hay - Hermia realised he was right. Autumn was already surrounded by love, and what's more, there was more!

A visit from Patience was arranged and the cousins took to each other instantly. They laid out a picnic rug under the orchard trees and Patience was true to her name in taking Autumn's stop-start, sometimes repetitive toddler chat seriously. Hermia would glance out every so often from stocktake in the barn to see nothing but smiles. Ladybugs danced around them.

The farm felt like harder work since the fire had faded from his hair, so although Hermia needed a lot of sustainance and rest with the baby due soon, so did Jonah. On the other calloused hand, he didn't want to let his duties slip and let Leod down either. There was always something to do: crops to tend, machinery to repair, and now, a new extension would have to be built on the property to accommodate another family member. He put his stew spoon down - now was not the time to kick back and indulge!

A cat named Olive was adopted to assist with the important duty of being a comforting companion. To everyone's surprise, especially Leod's, the pedigree puss also took rather well to the duty of clearing pests from the barn. Granted, she chose to chase rather than chomp, but it was better than nothing.

Autumn was born just as the farmhouse extension had its bones and was insulated from the elements. It was a new era for the farm - this was the future. Leod thought back to his younger, insulated self. That lad could never have imagined a bubba being born here, much less the one of a farmhand and an heiress! But here she was, with fiery wisps of hair on her head and bright eyes.

Hermia was keeping on top of her nutrients during the day and receiving showers of affection from Jonah at night, when he and Leod returned from working the crops. The lads were going out of their way to send aside fresh fruit just for her since she'd expressed cravings; they were good lads, after all. Dora would usually trot along with them, giving sparrows warning barks to keep them away from the strawberries, but she was sticking to the farmhouse lately. Leod believed she was keeping Hermia company - she was a good lassie.

There was much to be done to prepare stock for the next market. Daily produce was filling customer baskets, therefore emptying the barn, which was now becoming somewhat famous thanks to online photographs taken by millenial market-goers. While Hermia worked on the new social media presence for the McGreggor Market (meeting the demographic on their level with an official Instagram), Leod and Jonah happily got dirt under their fingernails.

"Kinda crazy the whole world's gonna know we are," Jonah said at one point, knee deep beside Leod in the soil of thriving eggplants. A long time ago, that would've been Leod's worst nightmare, but here they were, thinking about "reels" and "stories" that would apparently have their growing customer base hanging on to every "emoji". Leod pointed to a nearly-ready eggplant. "Is there an emoji for this?" he asked, seriously.