The Berry Pickers

Content Warning: This section of the guide examines substance use disorder and domestic violence.

Joe remembers time he spent in the Canadian Rockies. One day, he lost his footing after noticing a doll that a child must have misplaced on a hiking trail. His ankle hurt enough that he couldn’t walk, and he spent the night drinking whiskey and thinking about Ruthie and his daughter Leah. The next morning, he is found by some hikers and taken to the hospital. He resolves to return home to his daughter, but ends up traveling back into Maine instead.

He returns to the berry fields and finds Ellis’s son is the new owner. He asks for a job. Juan, who worked there when Joe was young, is the only person left from his childhood days picking berries. Joe brought his mattress to the old cabin where he had stayed with his mother and Ruthie. After the season, the young Mr. Ellis allows him to stay on in the cabin, and he gets a job at a local dairy farm. He fixes up the cabin. Joe recalls enjoying the solitude. Joe ran into Frankie, the man whom Charlie had been defending when he was killed.