The second morning, it was barely light. I was carrying seed bags from the trailer to the planter when I heard boots on the gravel.
I turned around.
Luke was crossing the road. Walking, not driving. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket.
Behind him, at the edge of their field, his dad was standing beside the pickup. Watching him go.
Randy didn’t call him back.
I remember that. He could have. And he didn’t.
Luke stopped at the end of my rows. He looked at my planter. At my tractor. At the stack of seed bags on the trailer.
Then he looked at me.
He had his dad’s face. But he had his Uncle Jeff’s way of standing, with all his weight on one leg.
“Aunt Melissa,” he said.
“Morning, Luke.”
“Number six is skipping,” he said. “I could see it from over there yesterday. You’ve got a gap every few feet on that row.”
“I fixed it,” I said. “Bent finger.”
“Okay.” He looked at the seed bags again. Then he said, “Let me run the tractor. You haul seed. You’ll get twice as far.”
“Your dad needs you.”
“Uncle Scott’s running ours this morning,” he said. “Dad can run it after dinner. They’ll be fine.”
He swallowed hard.
“I didn’t know about the funeral thing,” he said. “The check. I didn’t know they were going to do it that day, or I’d have said something. I found out after.”
“I believe you.”
“And I didn’t ask for the house,” he said. “I want you to know that. Dad offered it, and I said yes. Because I didn’t think about where you’d go. I just didn’t think.”
He looked down at his boots.
“Uncle Jeff taught me to run a planter,” he said. “This exact same model. I was eleven.”
“I know,” I said. “I packed your lunch.”
He laughed. Sort of.
Then he climbed up into the cab. Abby was already sitting in the buddy seat, waiting. She looked up at him from under the brim of that green cap. And he looked at her.
“That’s his,” Luke said quietly.
“I know,” Abby said.
“It looks good on you,” he said.
And he started the tractor.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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