Nina Rosemarie Garcia Rodriguez didn't like dirt. But oh how dirt loved her! Dirt liked to smudge up her toenails, creepy crawl up her feet, caress her knees till they turned mushy brown and then stain her seventy five percent pure white cotton t-shirt. Nina Rosemarie tried to stay away from dirt but inevitably, at the end of every day, her mother Ana would exclaim, "My how filthy you are Nina Rose! Take that shirt off right now and get some water on you!"

In minutes Nina Marie would be forced into the wooden stall around back, brush, towel and soap in hand. Sometimes, if it was early enough, Nina Marie would get a warm bath but most of the time the water was tepid and cold. Today was one of those days. As she scrubbed and scrubbed, Nina Marie promised herself that she wouldn't get dirty tomorrow, no matter what happened.

Early the next morning, Nina Marie woke up before the sun did and snuck away into the eating area. She looked around for something to wrap her feet in and could find nothing. She rose up high on her tippy toes and tried to reach over the sleeping forms of Alfonso, Carlos and Victor. Afraid to wake them, Nina Marie gave up and decided that she would just have to be extra careful with her feet today.

Nina Rosemarie slipped on her sandals, pulled on her long dress, the gray one that hung well past her knees, and pulled her short thick hair up into her sun hat. Dressed for success, Nina carefully opened the screen door and slipped outside, careful not to disturb the little pile of dust bunnies that had gathered there. Mrs. Lopez was already up and making breakfast and with a long finger motioned for Nina Rosemarie to come closer. Nina Marie took one look at the cloud of stinking smoke rising into the sky and the sizzling of the cooking oil and decided that she didn't want to risk getting all smelly and greasy. Mrs. Lopez's hands didn't look so clean either. With a quick wave and a smile Nina Marie trotted along into the fields.

The sun was starting to rise by then so Nina Rose had no trouble finding her basket left over from yesterday. She had put it on the right side of Row Thirty Two and there it was, sitting quietly and looking empty, waiting just for her. Nina picked up her basket carefully, with only a thumb and two fingers, checking the underside for slugs and snails and spiders. Seeing a few clumps of dirt and what looked like a pink worm, Nina Rose held her basket out as far as possible from her body and gave it a good shake. And then she gave it another hard shake, just for good measure. Satisfied that her basket was clean, Nina rushed back in the direction of the camp.

The ground felt a little mushy from the early morning dew and Nina Rosemarie tried to make sure that she didn't push too hard into the dirt as she ran, for fear that the edges of her sandals would sink in and her toes would get mucky. Nina Rose was serious about staying clean and nothing would stop her.

Ana was up and about by the time she returned and was dressed in similar clothing to Nina Rose's, a long skirt past the knees and a straw hat. As the sun started its dance across the sky, Nina Rose headed off with basket in hand to pick strawberries from the fields. On a clear sunny day like this, picking strawberries wasn't difficult, it was almost fun. Nina Rosemarie would lean over at the waist, careful not to brush her t-shirt on the ground, and pluck strawberries from the bushes. Patch after patch of strawberry bushes stretched as far as the eye could see. In every row of green bushes a few men and women would be crouched, plucking the red jewels.

Nina Rosemarie was just old enough to start helping out with the harvesting and she took particular delight in leaving the perfect strawberries remaining on the vine. Nina Rose tried to take the ugly lumpy strawberries first, leaving the pretty ones for later. She left the little ones alone too because they needed time to grow. Once in awhile Nina Marie would stop to look carefully at a strawberry and try to count the number of seeds. The highest she had gotten to was two hundred and sixty three and that was just last week. She was hoping to find a strawberry with three hundred seeds this week.
Nina Rose had to be very careful picking strawberries, especially when trying to stay clean. She was very gentle with the strawberries, cradling the berry in her palms while pinching the stems with her thumb and index finger. Nina didn't toss the strawberries into the basket either. They had to be placed very carefully into the basket to avoid bruising.

Out of the bright blue sky a drop of water fell next to Nina Rose. She stared long and hard at where the drop fell, watching it ooze it's way into the dirt. Next to that first raindrop, another one was worming its way into the dirt. Nina Rosemarie was afraid to look up. She gave a little shriek when drops started to splatter on her hat. Stepping quickly out of her bush, Nina Marie grabbed her basket of strawberries with both hands and started to run.

Oh how she ran. Strawberries spilled out from her basket onto the ground but Nina Rose didn't care. She pounded the earth with her little sandals, sending up a dust clouds as she sped past Ana, Alfonso, Carlos and Victor. Nina Rose's sun hat flew off her head she ran so fast. Finally, just as the rain started to really pour and churn the dirt into mud, Nina Rose skidded in through the screen door and huffed and puffed her way to the window. The rain was really falling now! Even with a beautiful blue sky the rain kept on coming, pouring down in a big fat mess, showering all the patches of strawberries and the people kneeling inside those patches.

The kids were all running outside now. Running from their homes and from the fields to laugh it up and play in the rain. Little boys picked up handfuls of mud and slung them at each other while dogs nipped happily at their heels. Even as the rain slowed down the boys kept on getting dirtier and dirtier. Nina Rose saw some boys fall down and go sliding in the mud, screaming with joy the entire time.

Nina Rose watched all this from her window, thankful that she had run so fast to avoid the rain and the mud. Nina Rose was a little proud too. Her gray dress was just a little damp and her sandals were just a little muddy but she was hardly dirty. As she continued to gaze out at the muddy boys and the even muddier dogs, Nina reached over to her basket for some strawberries. Nina Marie wondered if her sun hat was okay. It probably got all soaked in the rain and now she would have to wash it. At least that would be easier than scrubbing herself.

The door slammed behind her and Ana walked in with Rosemarie's sun hat.

"Here's your sun hat Rosa, it flew off when you ran inside. Oh my goodness! What is that on your dress! Is that strawberry? What a sticky mess! You take that off right now and go get clean!"