Pale Harvest. Braden Hepner

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СКАЧАТЬ is as good as yours. You was born into it. When you share the place with Elmer you let me buy some of that piece for my operation.

      —What operation is this now, Woolums?

      Roydn came down on his hands and knees close to Jack, trying to look him in the face, but Jack wouldn’t allow it.

      —Well you know, he said, when I was in Nebraska I seen hog farms all over. I knew some real well-off hog farmers. So it’s a hog farm I got in mind.

      —What happened to the turkey farm?

      —The turkey farm? He sat back on his haunches and let his head drop and stared at the ground. He rubbed his whelked chin as he considered. Well, that failed about a year ago it must of been. Bout the time I got back. Pa wanted to make um free range, but we lost money that way somehow. We’re tending compost piles now, and that ain’t going nowhere. And by the way, Pa wants to know if he can come get some manure with his pickup. Wants to know if you got any drier stuff available.

      —What’d you do with the bull calves you bought?

      —One died, and the other I sold to that halfwit Wrink Poulsen.

      —Make any money?

      —I made a little.

      —How much?

      —Enough.

      —How much?

      —Seventy bucks.

      —That after feed?

      —Nah.

      —So you lost money.

      —I don’t member how it went.

      —That ain’t worth the effort, said Jack.

      —Would be though, if I was to run a feed lot and made a small profit on every bull.

      —That’s a better idea than the pig farm. The town should have a problem with a pig farm.

      —I’ll get um to change their minds on it then, said Roydn. His eyes squeezed up in hurt and frustration. Guy’s got to make a living. I’m a grown-ass man, and what am I going to do with myself, work for Blair the rest of my life? You know that ground behind my house is worthless. It’s full of clay. Can’t get nothing but a few rows of half-assed raspberries to grow on it.

      —There’ll be community opposition too, said Jack. That stink carries for miles. It’ll become the town’s new identity. And you sure as hell can’t put it in the field out there.

      —Ain’t nobody’ll give me a good price. And my pa ain’t got the money to lend me. He’s trying to save for me to go to college. I’ll just wait it out for you to get some land and sell it to me. I know you’re good for it.

      —You better go get the cows, said Jack.

      —Hold up. I tell you I’m going to college?

      —Somebody let you in?

      —I ain’t in yet. But my pa thinks I oughta go. He never got the chance to go, and he wants his sons to have the chance. Thinks they got something to teach me, but I ain’t so sure. Probly be the other way around.

      —No doubt.

      —When he gets the money saved up I’ll go. Plenty of girls at them colleges, you know.

      —So I’ve heard. But not a one of um’ll be interested in an ugly bastard like you.

      —Plenty of girls. One for everybody. Sometimes two. He looked up at the tractor. You just greasing or you repairing something?

      —Do you see any tools around?

      —No.

      —There’s your answer.

      —Two of these tractors are pieces of shit. I ain’t got to tell you which ones. They need to get rid of that Thirty-Twenty at least. Jumps like a mule and the smoke pipe’s busted.

      —They’ll drive it into the dirt, said Jack. The Selvedge way.

      —My pa told me they about got this place paid off. That true?

      —If you heard it, it must be true.

      —That’s an accomplishment. Takes most guys two generations to start a dairy farm from scratch and pay it off, and Blair’ll do it in one.

      —That’s what shafting your hired help will do.

      —Aw, you’ll get what’s coming to you. And you don’t see no brand new toys around neither. All old worn out stuff here. Frugal outfit. Pennywise and niggardly, my pa says. You agree?

      —That’s one way to put it.

      —Hm. This is one big-ass tractor. Wonder will Blair or Elmer ever have me drive it. I’m going to ask one of um if I can drive it in the parade tomorrow.

      Jack slid himself under another grease zerk and cleaned around it with his fingers.

      —You’re going to be in the parade?

      —Only if I can get this tractor to drive. I ain’t interested in the usual bullshit my ma puts me up to. Wonder which one I should ask. Which one you think I should ask?

      —Either one. They’re both liable to say no.

      Jack looked at Roydn and his eyes were unfeasibly large behind his glasses.

      —Now why is that, you suppose?

      —Cause you could go into a fit any minute and kill somebody.

      —That ain’t true. I ain’t got it that bad. I got a damn driver’s license. That oughta count for something.

      —You know how they are about their tractors.

      —They shouldn’t be. It ain’t like they’re nice or nothing. Just thought I’d ask. Can’t hurt to ask.

      —Hand me another tube of grease from that box there, will yuh.

      —I think I’d ask Blair. But he’s a hard old sumbitch. I’d ask Elmer, but he says no to everything. Took him two years to upgrade me from the four-wheeler to the danged farm truck.

      Jack scooted on his back under a set of zerks near the front wheels.

      —Why don’t you go get the cows in the barn, he said. You’re late now. They’re dripping milk into their shit.

      —Hold up, said Roydn. I tell you I just saw something nice down the lane here?

      —What was it, Woolums, a goat stuck headfirst in the fence?

      —A girl. Saw her walking down along the lane. You know who it is?

      —I don’t.

      —Rebekah СКАЧАТЬ