Cabbages and Adages

The Farmers in His Den

– 1 –

A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

It was expected. Expected of him. No anticipation. It was not questioned and he did not question it. Keeping it in the family; family tradition.

That was all that Giles knew, and that was all that Giles expected.

There were no great expectations. It was expected that he would continue the family trade, the family tradition.

And he did.

Giles was a farmer - as were his father and grandfather before him. The tradition probably went back further but Giles did not have any recollections before that time and, as usual in these types of families (farming families), they did not talk much except about the weather conditions, and the progress of the crops.

Giles did not know the names of his great-grandparents. He had never been told and, if truth be known, he had never asked. Such was the way.

Such was their lives.

Lives of a few words.

Giles was an arable farmer. He took pride in what he grew. It was nurturing. A seed planted, a growth – a result.

It was a life he enjoyed. He reaped what he sowed. All good things come to those who wait.

And Giles waited.

Waited for the cabbages to grow.

And they grew.

Year upon year.

Every year in succession.

A secret also grew. It was a secret that Giles kept in the attic. It was a secret for him alone.

It was a box full of words.

His secret.

Giles was a farmer. This was a fact that everyone knew. Everyone.

Everyone knew that about Giles.

However, nobody knew about Giles.

His secret.

In the box, in the attic, there were words.

Giles, the farmer – the farmer who grew cabbages.

Giles, the farmer, wrote poems.

The Farmer wants a wife

– 2 –

The Cat that got the Cream

Opposites attract. Giles was steady and reliable. Fiona was flighty and outgoing. Forever going out – on the go. Excitable, was how Giles’ mother would have described her. Fiona was nothing like his mother. Giles’ mother was steady and reliable. He took after her, but now he had taken a wife.

Despite their differences, there was a link - an attraction. Fiona did not want to be a farmer’s wife. If truth be known, she did not really want to be a wife, but she was now. She just kind of fell into it. There was no dramatic moment.

Fiona was content enough.

Is being content enough?

At the end of the day, it was not enough for Fiona.

She was in the farmer’s den, and a den is entrapment.

Giles did not notice. He did not notice that he was restricting his wife, entrapping her. Giles engulfed his wife with kindness, smothering her to the extent that Fiona felt that she could not be free. And, despite the gifts, the endless gifts, the only present that Fiona wanted, was freedom.

Fiona wanted freedom from comfort and warmth and …love. It was a love that was strangling her – that made her lose her breath.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Fiona was weak.

Fiona would break the chain.

Fiona would break Giles’ heart.

When Giles met Fiona, he thought his heart would break. He thought his breath was stopping. He knew she was different to him, that the life he could offer was not what Fiona aspired to. It was not her dream, and he knew that Fiona dreamt of the stars - reaching for the stars.

Giles just wanted to be the star that Fiona aspired to.

And, for a while – for a long while – they were happy, treading their own paths.

Giles never questioned where Fiona went during the day, when boredom set upon her.

Fiona never questioned Giles when he retreated into the attic at night. He spent hours up there. She didn’t know why, but she never questioned it.

So, they trundled along. Fiona still had her dreams of excitement.

Giles could not meet her expectations. Perhaps if he had told her. But the words of dedication and love were only written down in his poems; the ones he kept in the attic. He never had the confidence to speak them.

Fiona wanted excitement, passion – the passion that, if she knew, was in the attic.

Fiona wanted excitement.

A leopard cannot change its spots.

Seeds

– 3 –

A Bad Penny always turns up

If there was an honour amongst thieves then Myles did not have honour. He was returning home, to Giles’ home, simply because he did not have anywhere else to go. Myles had not been the slightest bit interested in the farm, in the cabbages. That was always Giles’ domain and, as Giles was the elder brother, it was assumed, expected, that he would take on the farmstead – and he had, in his steady and reliable way.

It had been six years since the brothers had met. Six years away for Myles, six years since he had avoided the outdoor life of the farm and the cabbages. Myles had not been outside much in those years, because Myles had been inside.

Myles was a thief – and he had paid the price.

A lot had changed in six years. Giles had modernised the house and the farm, and Myles barely recognised the place. But, more significantly, Giles had changed, because Giles had fallen in love and had taken a wife.

When they were children, Myles always wanted what Giles had. Not that he preferred the gifts bestowed upon his elder brother. He just wanted to take them from him. Myles had always been a thief. It was as if Myles needed to deal out punishment to the one who was steady and reliable. Maybe that was the cause. Because Myles never had those trusty traits; their parents knew it, and Myles knew it too. So, it was resentment. He wanted to destroy all that Giles had.

He did it again.

Germination

– 4 –

I am not my Brother’s Keeper

Fiona wanted excitement. She had been strangled and smothered in love. Fiona did not want love - she wanted lust. She wanted passion. Giles was a passionate man, he just never told her about his feelings. He never told his wife how much he loved and desired her. He kept that in the attic.

They didn’t talk much in his family. Giles could not remember a time of caring between his parents but then, he didn’t remember his mother much; a vague recollection of how she looked but nothing to remind him of her voice. There were no photographs. Giles’ only memory was just that his father always seemed angry with her. He had been a lad when she had died and Myles was barely a toddler. That was all he remembered. Silence and anger. Not much of a childhood memory. Not much of a childhood.

He remembered how much Myles hated him, although he never understood it. Now he was his brother’s keeper and held, as always, responsibility for him - like he always had. Myles had never known, or not, at least, acknowledged, the many times that Giles had protected his younger brother. Myles had never known, or never acknowledged, the many times that Giles had received a beating from their father for a transgression that Myles had committed and never owned up to. Giles had owned up, dishonestly, and taken the punishment. Myles had never known, or never acknowledged these things. And yet, he still bore resentment. It was an ugly trait. Not like Giles who was steady and reliable.

Just like his mother.

The thoughts Giles had about Fiona were reserved in the box in the attic. So, the discovery, for Fiona, was not of the box, but of the one who wanted to take everything away from Giles; the one who had always wanted to do that. This time the prize was more precious because Myles knew that Giles loved her.

Myles did not.

It did not stop him from stealing her.

Infestation

– 5 –

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool

than to speak and remove all doubt

It was an accident waiting to happen.

It had started as a trickle, and then the trickle became a stream. Then it was a flowing river - and you cannot stop a river from flowing. And Fiona’s love flowed.

For Myles and Myles.

They all lived under the same roof, so they had to share. Fiona thought that Giles was unaware. He seemed so complacent about life. Fiona did not know about the poems in the attic. She, as everyone else knew, that Giles grew cabbages. But he was not one. She, as everyone else, did not know the passion Giles felt for his cabbages; the passion he felt for his wife.

The attraction was instant. Myles offered everything that Giles could not – excitement and fun. The stuff that dreams are made of. The affair was clandestine; under the same roof.

What Fiona did not understand was that, to Myles it was a game. The winner takes it all.

There’s none so blind as those who will not see. There’s none so deaf as those who will not hear.

Giles was not blind or deaf.

What can’t be cured can be endured.

Endurance was a fallacy.

It was hate that was strangling him – that made him lose his breath.

Myles.

Everyone thought that they knew Giles. He was the cabbage farmer.

No-one knew that Giles was a poet. He was a man of words.

Today he had no words.

He was asked to give his brother’s eulogy.

His brother who had died in his sleep. That was what everybody knew – thought they knew.

Nobody knew Giles, or Giles’ secret.

His secrets.

Giles could think of nothing to say.

Giles’ words had always been about love.

But Giles had hated his brother. Not for any particular reason.

It was because Myles always hated him.

For no particular reason.

Ploughing

– 6 –

You Reap what you Sow

Everyone thought that they knew Giles. He was the cabbage farmer.

He didn’t remember his mother much; a vague recollection of how she looked but nothing to remind him of her voice. There were no photographs. Giles’ only memory was just that his father always seemed angry with her. He had been a lad when she had died and Myles was barely a toddler. That was all he remembered. Silence and anger.

Accidents will happen.

All Giles could remember was silence and anger.

Giles was older and taller and could see. Myles was younger and smaller and could not see.

Giles did not remember her voice because, at that moment, she did not have a voice. Strangled by love, or hate. It was a fine line. A fine line that wrapped around her.

The sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons.

The cabbage farm had been in the family for years, but now there was no family. Fiona had stayed and had curbed her dreams. She did not look up to the stars any more, she looked down. Fiona always looked down. Her get up and go had long gone. Fiona was almost relieved when she got the diagnosis. She was tired of living. She just didn’t want the pain.

There was pain.

Giles comforted her. Fiona was engulfed with comfort and warmth and …love. It was love that was strangling her – that made her lose her breath. She was smothered. In the end it was a relief. A final act of relief that Giles could do for her.

Smothered.

Then Giles died, peacefully in his sleep. A natural death; no pain.

No cause for concern.

Harvest