TOMATOES

It was the first hot day of spring. The smell of rich, warm earth was in the air. Jamaal turned over some ground with a spade. He watched the worms wiggle out and go back in the dirt. “I’m done with this row,” he said.”good,” said uncle hamza. He came over and took the spade from jamaal. “ you have to break up the big lumps,” he said. He hit the clods of dirt with the side of the spade. Then he smoothed them out. Uncle hamza leaned on the spade. He took a deep breath. “this is just like pakistan,” he said. Jamaal laughed. Then uncle hamza laughed. It was not like pakistan at all! They were in the middle of a city in america!  “I mean the ground smells just like pakistan,” said uncle hamza. “ when I was your age, we stilllived in the village. When we planted the crops, it smelled just like this.”  “it didn’t look like this,” said jamaal. “no,” said uncle hamza. He lookd at the tall buildings. “it did not.” Uncle hamza and jamaal were in an empty city lot. There were lots of other children and adults there too. It was behind the mosque. City streets ran dehind and in front of the lot. Buildings were on both sides of it. A month ago the lot had been full of trash and broken glass. Now it was all dug up into rows of clean, dark earth. The children of al-aziz school had cleaned up the lot. Now they were planting a garden there. It was a big school project. They were going to plant flowers and vegetables and even some trees. Jamaal’s second grade class crowded around uncle hamza. He was talking out the seeds. “now,” he said. “who is planting flowers?” “me! Me!” hands shot up in the air. He handed out the seed packets. “wait by our first row,” said uncle hamza . “I’ll come and help you. Now for the vegetables.”  Uncle hamza handed out all the seeds and told the children to wait by their rows. Only the tomatoes were left. Jamaal liked the tomatoes, because they were not seeds. They were little plants in tiny holders. “here you go,” said uncle hamza. He picked up the flat box with all the plants in it. “these are for jamaal and adam and noora.” He handed the box to adam. “take them to our last row and wai for me.” Uncle hamza went to all the children. He showed them how to plant their seeds. Then he came to the last row. “you make a hole like this,” he said. He pushed his finger into the soft dirt. Then he took a tomato plant. He took the holder off the roots and put the plant into the hole. “cover the roots with dirt up to here,” he said. “then press the dirt down lightly. Put them almost two feet apart.”  Jamaal and his friends did just what uncle hamza showed them to do. Soon they had a whole row of tomato plants. the other classes were also working. Each class had its own rows. When everyone was done planting it was time to water the plants. “I’ll get the hose,” said brother umar. Brother umar put the long hose out of a window. Brother lamont took the hose across the street. He waved to brother umar and water came out. All the children took turns watering the garden. Lost of  children got watered too. The garden grew quickly. In a month the flowers were out and the whole garden was green. You could see tiny, little vegetables already. The tomato plants were big and tall. They were tied to long sticks to hold them up in the air. Small, green tomatoes were starting to grow. Jamaal was very proud of his plants, but he wished they would hurry up.”why do they take so long to get ripe?” he asked. “they don’t take that long,” said uncle Hamza. “you’ve bee growing for years and you’re not rope yet.” “I’m a boy,” said jamaal. “I’m not a tomato.” “yes,” said uncle hamza. “you’re growing at the speed for you. The tomatoes are growing at theire speed.  Everything grows just the way allah has made it. You can’t make a tomato in one week or a boy in one year. Everything takes time.” Every day after school the children watered the garden. All the plants grew. Weeds grew too. Every weekend the children worked in the garden to take out the weeds. “I never knew a garden was so much work,” said jamaal. “it is a lot of work,” said uncle hamza, “but it feels good, doesn’t it?” “yes,” said jamaal . “soon we’ll have tomatoes.” The next weekend jamaal saw something that upset him. The tomatoes were just starting to get big. Jamaal could hardly wait for them to turn red. He lifted one tomato on its stem. It was starting to turn red.then he saw something wrong. At the back of the tomato of the tomato a spot was eaten out. He looked at another one. A big spot was eaten on that on, too. There was the cause! There was a little, fat, green worm. It had white stripes on it’s side and a curved horn at one end. There were lots of worms. They were eating his tomatoes! “they’re tomato horn worms, “ said uncle hamza. “ if we don’t do some thing quick, they’ll eat the whole crop.” The worms were on the eggplants and the green peppers too. They were even eating the leaves on the potato plants. “where did they all come from?” asked jamaal. “from moths,” said brother umar. He was kneeling whit jamaal in the dirt. “they lay their eggs on the plants. The eggs hatch  into worms; very hungry worms.” “what can we do?” asked jamaal. He was afraid all his tomatoes would be gone. “we could pick them off,” said brother umar. “oh, yuck!” said jamaal. “we can use hot pepper,” said uncle hamza. “if we mix hot pepper with water and spray the plants they will go away,” the next day the children sprayed their plants with hot pepper mix. By Monday the worms were gone. Some of jamaal’s tomatoes were gone too. “that’s the first battle,” said uncle hamza. “and the last,” added jamaal. “we’ll wait and see,” said uncle hamza. The second battle came soon enough. Two weeks later the tomatoes were just getting red. Jamaal pulled back the thick leaves of his plants. There were lots of  big, red tomatoes hanging down to the ground. He lifted one. There was a spot eaten oute on the bottom. “uncle hamza!” shouted jamaal. “brother umar! The worms are back!” “slugs,” said brother umar. “yes,” said uncle hamza. “let’s see if we can find one.” Uncle hamza lifted some thick leaves from the ground. There were tomatoes beneath. He liftrd a tomatoes from the ground. On the bottom of it was a slimy, brown slug. “yuck!” said jamaal. “yuck is right,” said uncle hamza. He thought for a second. “slugs are hard to get rid of. We can’t stop them at night, but we can stop them in the day. We have to cut away a lot of these leaves. Then we must tie the tomatoes up off the ground. Slugs hate the sun.” “I have an idea too,” said brother umar. “while you do that, I’ll get mine ready,” it look all morning to cut off the leaves and tie up the tomatoes. When they were done, brother umar was ready for his plan. He had a big jar of petroleum jelly. He also had a bag of salt. Next to him were some old boards. The children were gathered around. “this is a trick my father taught me,” he said. “salt kills slugs, right?” “yes,”said the children. “slugs love dark, damp places, right?” “yes,” they said again. “all we have to do is put the two together,” said brother umar. He laid out a board. Then he spread jelly all over one side of the board. He put salt all over the jelly. The salt struck to the jelly on the board. Next brother umar did the same thing with two stones. Then he put the board on the ground with the salt down. The two stones were under the board. That made a little, dark space under the board. “I get it!” said jamaal “it’s a trap!” “right,” said brother umar. “that pleace is just what a slug loves. The slugs come under the board and the salt kills them. Now we have to put these traps all over the garden.” By Monday all the slugs were gone. Half of jamaal’s tomatoes were gone too. “that’s the second battle,” said jamaal. “maybe it’s the last,” said uncle hamza. “I never thought it was so hard to get food,” said jamaal. “it’s not really hard,” said uncle hamza, “allah gives it to us. He makes the plants grow from tiny seed with just water and earth.” “but we have to work,” said jamaal. “yes,” said uncle hamza. “we do have to work. That’s how allah has made the world. Remember, the best thing is the thing you work for.” That was the last battle for the tomatoes. The next weekend many were ripe. The garden kept growing. Soon there were green peppers and cucumbers and lettuce, too. There was a huge basket of tomatoes. All the children shared out what was picked. That night uncle hamza and his family ate at jamaal’s house. Mrs. Saeed made a big, green salad. In it were all the things from the school garden. There were even axtra, sliced tomatoes. “boy, didi work hard for these tomatoes,” said jamaal. “yes,” said uncle hamza. “I bet they’re the best tasting tomatoes you’ll even eat.” Jamaal put a piece of tomato in his mouth and chewed. Uncle hamza was right.