“That’s better than I expected.”
“So far.”
“When you have enough for a trial pickup, call.”
“How much is a trial?”
“Depends on size.”
He gave her a target.
The farm woman wrote it down.
After the call, she sat at the kitchen table staring at the number.
Her mother entered.
“What?”
“We might actually have a buyer.”
Her mother pulled out a chair.
“You always had a buyer.”
“No. I had a business card.”
She tapped the notebook.
“This is different.”
December brought cold mornings and steady trapping.
The farm woman began harvesting small quantities.
She weighed every basket.
Sorted by size.
Recorded mortality.
Adjusted handling.
The first sale did not involve a refrigerated truck.
It was only a few sacks loaded into the back of the distributor’s pickup.
The buyer examined the crawfish carefully.
“Good color.”
The farm woman waited.
“Good shell.”
She kept waiting.
He weighed them.
Then he gave her a price.
It was higher than she expected.
She did not celebrate.
She negotiated.
“You quoted more on the phone.”
“That was for larger average size.”
“These are within your range.”
“Most.”
She opened her notebook.
The distributor looked at her.
“You brought records?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
Not mockingly.
“Fine.”
He increased the offer.
She accepted.
When the pickup left, the farm woman stood in the driveway holding the check.
Her mother walked from the house.
“Well?”
The farm woman handed it to her.
Her mother looked down.
Then looked again.
“This is from today?”
“Yes.”
“For those sacks?”
“Yes.”
Her mother sat on the porch step.
The farm woman sat beside her.
Neither spoke for nearly a minute.
Finally her mother said, “Your father would have framed this.”
The farm woman looked toward the pond.
“No.”
Her mother glanced over.
“He’d have deposited it before I changed my mind.”
They both laughed.
The loud local farmer heard about the sale within twenty-four hours.
He did not believe the price.
So he called someone he knew in seafood.
The price was real.
Then he called someone else.
Demand was rising.
Production in several established areas had been uneven.
Buyers were looking for additional suppliers.
That information changed his attitude completely.
In January he arrived at the farm wearing clean boots.
That alone made the farm woman suspicious.
He stood beside the barn.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“That sounds expensive.”