Planting Rice
by Rika Osanai

"Wake up, Rika, it's time to plant the rice."

My father's voice broke through my dream. It was only five o'clock, but even my little sister Megumi, who always slept late, was up and getting dressed today. My mother was just finishing making lunches for everyone. As she wrapped everything up in a bundle and prepared to go, she said to me, "Be sure to eat a good breakfast before you come, Rika."

I wanted to hurry up and join the others, so I started gulping down my rice as fast as I could.

"When your brothers wake up, tell them to come, too," my father said as he got into his tall boots. Then he went outside. I heard the sound of an engine starting up, and a moment later they drove away. When I finished my breakfast, I put on my old jacket and old pants. I put on my boots at the back door and headed for the rice paddies. The sky was a beautiful blue, with a few fluffy white clouds floating here and there. A perfect day for rice planting. I got more and more excited as I recalled the rice plantings of earlier years.

Actually, I hadn't done any real planting before. When I was in kindergarten, my parents said I couldn't help because I was too little and might hurt the seedlings. So I just played in the mud. In first and second grade, I stayed home because I was afraid of frogs. I did help in third and fourth grade, but only with hauling the seedlings. In fifth grade, the planting was held on a school day. I rushed to the fields when I got home, but it was too late: all the planting was finished. So I was worried that I might not actually get to plant anything again this year. But I also thought this year might finally be my chance, so I was really excited.

When I got to the paddies, Grandpa was riding the planter, and Grandma was putting plants in by hand. A man from another farm had come to help, and he was planting by hand, too. Megumi was going around collecting empty seedling boxes. I did the same thing at first since I didn't know what else I could do. After a while my father called out to me. "Rika, you want to try planting?"

"Yes! Yes!" I yelled back. Since my boots weren't tall enough, I took them off and rolled my pants up to my knees so I could go in barefoot. When I stepped down into the mud, it felt slimy and weird. The water was really cold, and just sticking my toe in sent a shiver through my whole body. The place where I first stepped into the mud had already been planted by someone else, so I had to walk slowly and carefully to keep from knocking the plants over.

Cars drove by on the road running beside the paddy. Since it was Sunday, a lot of people were going on family outings. But my family was down in the mud, planting rice.

When I was ready to start, my father showed me how I should do it. "Look, Rika," he said. "You hold the root of the seedling against your index finger and third finger with your thumb, like this. Try it."

I held the root the way he had said and pushed it into the mud. Then I pushed the mud in around it to make sure the seedling wouldn't fall over.

My brother and I planted side by side. I planted three rows and my brother planted four. Afterward we all looked back over the planted paddy. Since there was a strong wind, a lot of the plants were blown over. We had to go in and firm them up, or replace them with new plants. The seedlings that my father and the others had planted were all standing, but the ones my brother and I planted needed a lot of fixing.

"That's because you haven't had much practice yet," my father said. "In fact maybe it's because you haven't had much practice helping out at anything, even around the house," he added, laughing. Then he said, "Let's eat lunch."

We talked and laughed as we ate our lunch, and gradually I started to feel my energy coming back. "Let's finish it all today," my father said, and we all went back to work.

My brother and I still stayed near the edge of the paddy. This time we made sure we pushed the seedlings in more firmly, so they didn't get blown over by the wind.

"You seem to have the hang of it now," my father said.

The wind died down. The blinding light of the sun was gradually starting to weaken, but I was dripping with sweat. Since I was bent over as I worked, the sweat from my forehead ran down to the tip of my nose. It collected in a big drop and then fell silently into the water below. The towel I had around my neck turned black from wiping my sweat so much. But I kept on planting without resting.

The sun was going down, and the cheerful singing of the warblers had stopped. Finally the planting was done. There were some seedlings left over, so we decided to plant them in a bucket and bring them home for observation.

A cool breeze started to blow, gently rippling the water and swaying the rice plants. Looking at that scene, everything seemed so peaceful, and it gave me a really wonderful feeling all over. I hope we always have those rice paddies, where we can sweat hard and feel so good afterward, and I want to go on helping with the planting every year from now on.

Rika Osanai, sixth-grade girl, Yokouchi Elementary School, Aomori, Aomori Prefecture. Seiichi Hashimoto, teacher.

Source: Treasures 3: Stories & Art from Students in Japan & Oregon [Orders]

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