Sixteen
EVEN OPERATING ON hardly any sleep, I am up early as I promised EJ I would be, though not in time for one of her world-class breakfasts, stopping just long enough in the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee on my way to the barn.
I’m ready to help Charlie Hall and his boy, Les, harvest our wheat crop so the planting of this year’s soybean crop can begin by the end of the week.
Charlie Hall’s at the barn waiting for me.
I know he’s waiting for me because I can hear the music from the sound system he installed in here himself. It’s Hank Williams, of course, just because it’s mostly Hank with Charlie Hall:
Move over, little dog, ’cause the big dog’s moving in.
I stand in the barn doorway, knowing he hasn’t seen me yet, waiting for the song to end.
When it does, I say, “You know, there’s been a few other good singers since your guy Hank bought the farm, so to speak, about nine hundred years ago.”
“Not for me there haven’t been,” he says.
He spits some tobacco juice and grins at me, just a slight crinkling around his eyes. Charlie Hall’s face has always reminded me of worn-in leather from one of my old baseball gloves. He is, in all ways, a real beaut.
“Bring it in, big dog,” he says, and opens up his arms.
I walk over and we briefly hug it out. Even more than some coaches I’ve had along the way, and college professors, Charlie is the closest thing I’ve had to a father figure since my own father died.
He’s careful with the hug, I can tell, like he’s afraid I might break.
“Which parts hurt the most?” he asks.
“Only the broke ones.”
When he steps back, he says, “What I hear from your grandma, might be easier for me to know which parts ain’t broke.”
“I’m okay.”
He takes one more step back and squints at me from underneath an old John Deere ball cap that’s been on top of his head for as long as I’ve known him. Then he nods and says, “You ready to work?”
“Like a dog,” I say.
“Gotta want it,” Charlie says.
“More like I need it right now.”
I could explain to Charlie Hall just how much I need the work, but probably couldn’t make him understand it.