"She’s special, Juan. Basically, there’s coffee flowing in her veins. If you know what I mean?" Sara shielded her eyes with an outstretched hand on her brow. The sky looked mean, ready to blow in a storm.
"You’re such a superstitious old bat. You know that, don’t you?"
Sara turned toward him. "The trees aren’t thriving. They’re not flourishing."
"What are you saying?" His head snapped, accompanied by a clap of thunder from the sky.
"We have to get her back. We have to rush and try to stop her."
"Are you crazy? I fired her. She’s got a black heart, Sara. Black!"
"She’s the only thing that’s kept us going. She’s the reason we won the prize at the coffee festival last year. She’s the answer."
"I’m the one who caught her; spells and incantations on her lips. She was holding a conversation with the unseen. I heard her!"
"…and so?"
"Don’t you care? She’s evil personified."
"Bullshit, Jaun. You don’t understand her. She has a conversation with nature. A conversation we could never understand. She knows how to convince the coffee borer beetles to find alternative hosts." There, she’d said it. It was out in the open.
The orchard, the giver of life. Their savior, their investment. Their hope. Maya, The Beekeeper, had been with them for four very good years. The only way to describe it was that she "whispered" to insects. To plants. Life outside of the human realm listened for her voice and answered in turn.
But now she was gone. Banished by Juan for "inappropriate behavior,"
Juan looked at Sara, and she looked at him. In that fathomless communication, a spark of realization was born.
"We have to get her back," Juan acknowledged.
"Yes" was all Sara said.
Then the clock was ticking, and it was all systems go!
Sara found the car keys. Juan searched online for the train schedule.
With their paraphernalia in hand, they jumped into the family car and raced after Maya, "The Coffee Maker, Beekeeper."
"Do you know that I once saw her talking to bees?"
"Shut up, Sara. I’ve heard you. Isn’t it enough that I’m racing against the clock to save our plantation? Isn’t it?"
They sped up the street. They detonated at the train station.
...and then there she was. Innocent as ever. Standing waiting to board the train in her white dress and girlish wicker hat.
"Maya," Sara called.
"Maya?" Juan pleaded.
"Maya, come home," they begged in unison.
Maya turned away from her boarding and looked them both in the eye.
"I’ll take a share of the profits. That’s what I’ll do. It would never have come to this, but humans never know a good thing when they see it. If that’s okay, a split of sixty, forty in my favor, and this race is over."
Then the heavens released their storm, and rain beset them in their newfound alliance.
Coffee cup digitally drawn by me
Girl in hat generated by Dall-E
Tell us about a race that involves coffee