The blackberries had overgrown Wayne’s entire yard, twining their malevolent thorns between fences and over trees, consuming the patio furniture and even reaching into the house.
Weed killer did nothing, and his pallid attempts to trim it only resulted in broken clippers and a severe rash. He found a Craigslist ad for yard clearing and told the man his problem.
Wayne expected him to bring some kind of heavy clipping machinery, but what arrived was a pickup truck full of machete-wielding Hondurans. They leaped out and attacked the blackberries with warlike efficiency, immune to the scratches, laughing as they worked.
What’s more fun than a barrell-load of Hondurans?
Armed with machetes, no less
Good opportunities for those Hondurans in the UK now, all the cheap EU labour brought in to pick fruit has disappeared thanks to Brexit – someone needs to fill the gap, apparently, like your protagonist, we can’t do it ourselves…
Anti-immigrant sentiment is always misguided. I am a strong believer in completely open borders and an end to nationalism of any kind
A machete wielding Honduran – that must be the answer to my problems. Or perhaps not…
I guess they were cheaper than a chipper.
In Botswana, instead of using machines, the government employs similar labourers armed with machetes to clear the roadsides of grass. Less laughter is involved but the work gets done, jobs are provided.
No issues as long as the work is done to satisfaction. Nice story.
I like “pallid attempts to trim it,” very much. Quite a surprise, the solution to the blackberry problem!
We know the evils of the blackberry bush around here! As for the manual labor, its just another embarrassing example of how cushy we expect our lives to be. There are people in this world who are much tougher.
Hah, I love that they enjoy their work. This must have been a sight, too. I think we better speed up with robot helpers if we want everyone to live a better life and not have to do the hard work for the ones better off.
Dear Josh,
And somewhere is a white American complaining that immigrants are taking all of our jobs. Unique and evocative take on the prompt. As always, you’ve used the prompt as a jumping off point as opposed to writing a story that illustrates the prompt. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Highly original take – I loved the imagery. It could be a metaphor for the mess the people who believe they can run the UK are making of everything at the moment.
I am smiling, but I do not know why. Nice to see a lighter side o your writing, Josh.
Happy to work, that seems a rare thing these days, but I feel for the blackberries.
Machete wielding Hondurans? What imagery! :)
I had a go at my brambles last week with similar results – do you have the contact details for those Hondurans? :-)
The difference between the lifestyles brought out perfectly. Good one, J Hardy.
One man’s problems is another’s solution! And let’s face it, some peeps just know how to work!
Very well-written story about a very topical issue.