Drive - A Memoir 83rd Installment
to
where we were in the hay field. The tractor suddenly disappeared.
“See that?” I yelled. Russ had seen and we took off running. The
tractor was nose down in a rather deep irrigation ditch, and Vicki
was sitting in the weeds picking cockleburs out of her hair. The
sudden nose dive had pitched her over the front of the tractor like
being bucked off a horse. Carl came driving over with his Farmall
tractor, and he pulled the tractor out. The tractor didn’t seem to
be any worse for wear, although, I always thought the front wheels
‘pointed in’ like something cross–eyed, crazy after that.
Vicki, nonplused, scrambled back onto the machine ready to go to
work. I guess she’d heard the old cowboy rule: “If you get bucked
off your horse you better get right back on, or you’ll be scared of
riding a horse forever.”
“Hey,
here comes old Juan Carlos and his kid, Tobias,” Russ said. Juan
wasn’t that old and his kid was only about twelve. He just looked
old; leathery sun–burnt skin stretched over a tall skinny frame,
and baggy clothes. Besides, ‘old Juan’ sounded like ‘old man’
to us.
“Watch,”
I said in a low voice. “Old Juan is so skinny – when he turns
sideways – there – look now, he disappears!”
Russ
slugged me on the shoulder. “Shut up with your stupid jokes and say
something nice for once. Juan might be thin, but he’s strong. I’ve
seen him work.”
“And
after work he has to run around in the shower to get wet,” I added,
laughing. This rejoinder only drew another punch in the same place on
my sore shoulder. Old Juan was coming out to the hay fields with a
message for Carl.
“You
workers must quit early, the County Assessor man is waiting at the
hacienda to talk to Carl,” Old Juan said slowly, to be understood.
We grinned – only because funny things were rare when you live in a
place without many people, and we were easily entertained.
“Papa,
can I stay with these guys?” asked Tobias.
Old
Juan was already trotting to the hay yard and only waved over his
shoulder. Tobias, Toby for short, was a nice enough kid, slight like
his papa, bright eyed and a trusting soul. Old Juan relayed the
message to Carl, and then Carl stood up on his tractor, circled his
arm in the air and pointed to the house. ‘Quittin’ time,’ Russ
and I somehow shouted at the exact same time. Linda heard and we were
off. Jetting to the ranch house, full speed ahead, we were standing
in the slip where steady balance
for us was easy through experience, but Tobias was wide–eyed, with
his legs spread and arms swinging out for stability.
I
leaned over to Russ and said, “You want to see a ‘Toby Roll?”
As Linda shot around a curve
500 more words tomorrow
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