The sun is shining and after two days of it the red raspberries are starting to ripen. The long slender and lithe brambles bending down and touching the earth with the weight of the red berries. I pick off a handful and eat them, checking each one carefully for a worm. I have found only a few worms inside of a raspberry ever in my life, but I wish to avoid them, and so I dutifully turn each cup upside down before I pop them into my mouth one by one. It is like an obsessive compulsive behavior, but unlike touching each fence post one by one for no purpose, that tiny white maggot not getting into my mouth makes the endeavor so very worthwhile. I think I have found three in my life long quest to avoid the worms. It may have been more but I distinctly remember three. Three small worms. I shudder to think.
There are more on the vine nearly ripe, but the long and heavy rain and grey afternoon means it may not be until Wednesday’s breakfast that once again am compelled to flip the handfill of berries one by one, before I eat them. I lie down on my bed, sleepy, with a book in my hand, my eyes grow heavy after the first paragraph. I am so tired today. I had one wish when I gave birth to my daughter, and that wish has been fulfilled, an 18 year obsession with this moment now on a shelf. What is next in this life I do not know. I dream, and hope that it is a handful of raspberries, with only the occasional worm.
Red Raspberries hiding
Juicy Red Raspberrys
