AN UNFAIR SIDE OF LOVE

slamming through the flat fields like it had something to prove. Dust flew everywhere, coating the old-looking

his sweat-looking face. He was just Sixteen years old, but already twice his age, h

d," he muttered, bracing

ng it first, cussing and sweating until the heat finally drove him off to check the irrigation pump on the f

again, and Ken ne

ed out behind him

stling it like a grizzly

rn around to know who it

shoulder, bits of hair curling free in the wind. Her T-shirt had smudges of grease and dust, and her sneakers

e doesn't work on this bolt. It only understands br

cadas and the constant low hum of summer worry. She dropped the

she said, nudging him a

canned the ground until she spotted a lonh old pipe near the woodpil

he said simpl

d pulled. The bolt groaned like something alive. He pull

n-C

just loosen, It

his backside in a cloud of dust. Shar

hands on her hips like she'd just won a trophy. "

the dust. For a second, she looked like something unreal, some kind of spirit sen

Point taken. You s

f-smile. "Somebody's gotta keep you from bre

little. "How's i

roken bolt on the ground, then at the tract

ent's coming up. Ma's working extra shifts cleaning out by the highway; And this thing.

t it was like there was a stone sitti

teasing, just quiet understanding. Her hand touch

, the one she loved, Just to pay for my lab fees and the yearbook.

er. "Why do the

nd steady. "This farm, This life, It's your family's

rows of corn, bending slight

r my future," she added. "Your dad'

de by side, in the shade of a half-de

ou, Shari Hayes?" Ken aske

ind it now. "You'd probably still be fighting

-

much of a ridge, just a hill with a crooked old tree, but from up there, you could see afar. The sun low

the stars startin

nk we'll be in te

. not just here. I want to see the world, Ken. Cities,

come back, too. To this s

round her. "So... fu

ght. "Maybe, Or engineer, Or school

t him, "And

A better tractor, House over there by the fence

blushed

u're around to keep me

for drought-resistant soybeans. They talked about the world being unfair, and a

ith his thumb and said, "No matter wha

and in the fading light, sh

matic. It was quiet, certain, and full of everythi

-

o his house, the weight hit him again. His mom was washing dish

e vanished in the thi

d," Ken said. "

ed. "Goo

didn't want to hear. "West field pump'

was hot and still. He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, h

ripped throu

l. Then a flash of a

door and rushe

s like bruises boiled in the sky. Then came t

houted, "M

tmare ha