The biggest, ripest berries were often in the center of the bush. Blackberry bushes have thorns, so I’d have to contort my body in order to reach far enough into the bush without being poked. Sometimes, I’d reach the cluster of berries, pick them with my fingers, and hold them in the palm of my hand, only to realize, as I started to slowly inch my body back out of the bush, that I couldn’t remember the complicated contortions I’d performed to get in. And I couldn’t turn around to see where I was going. There were thorns all around. So I had to make slow backwards movements, until I felt the sharp point of a thorn press against some part of my skin. Then I knew to go forward and come back at a different angle. The worst parts were when I proceeded backwards too quickly and a thorn poked into my skin. The thorns are at an angle. So I couldn’t just keep going past that point, or else it would tear through my skin. I had to go forward in the bush until the thorn came out and then proceed backward at a different angle.