Hattie Big Sky (18 page)

“Next it was dark as night and thick with grasshoppers.”

I shivered.

“Gorley's wheat was gone in minutes.” Traft shook his head in an exaggerated display of sympathy. “Robbins' too. The flax was next. They didn't have enough of a crop left to cover seed money.” He snorted a rough laugh. “Course, it wasn't only crops they got. I left my good jacket hanging on the fence post. Danged if those hoppers didn't munch their way through that, too.”

“What is your point, Mr. Martin?” There was a point, of course. And tingles down my spine made me certain it wasn't a good point.

“Trying to get your attention,” he said. He slipped off his horse. “That's all.”

Crackling prairie noises carried softly on the air. I strained my ears over them to listen for the clicking of grasshopper legs and wings.

“Well, you have it.”

He took a few steps toward me. “This is a hard life,” he said in a gentler voice.

I had to laugh. “Stop the presses!”

“Hattie.” He paused for a moment. “We got off on the wrong foot somehow.”

“Wrong foot?” The levity was short-lived. “You call setting a man's barn on fire the wrong foot? Leading a mob against Mr. Ebgard the wrong foot?” I slapped my palms against my skirt in anger.

He reached me in one stride, grabbed my arm, and shook it so hard, plums went flying from my basket. “I want you to listen to me. To finish what I started to say once.”

Was I getting used to his bullying ways? My legs didn't wobble one bit. I eyed his hand, and he turned me loose.

“I didn't set the fire at Karl's. By the time I heard about it, it was too late to stop them. And don't ask me who it was.” He turned his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “But I was able to drag the burning bundle away from your barn before it went, too.”

“What?” He'd been trying to save my barn, not burn it?

“And that thing with Ebgard. It did get out of hand, I admit.” He shook his head, then cursed. “There's laws that say we got to support this country, this war. And when folks like Ebgard dodge their duty—”

“You have a nerve,” I snapped. “Dodging his duty? What about yours? There you stand safe and sound while people like Elmer and—and—” I wouldn't even mention Charlie's name to this man. “Countless others go off to fight.”

Traft reacted as if I'd whipped him. “You're right. That's what they all think. That I'm shirking my real duty.” He rubbed his forehead. “I didn't wait to get drafted like some. I enlisted.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“Same thing I wondered a dozen times over.” He reached down and picked up one of the wild plums he'd jarred from my basket. “Then I found out. Mother finagled the governor to appoint me to the Council of Defense. The draft board said that could be my service.” He rolled the plum in his hand, then cocked back his arm and fired the fruit off into the night.

The look on Traft's face was all too familiar. I'd seen it on my own face countless times while I lived with Aunt Ivy. I felt as if the final piece of a crazy quilt had just been stitched in place. This was one angry man. Angry at his mother, yes. But no doubt angrier at himself for letting someone else run his life. A thought presented itself to me—an understanding thought. Traft and I had that in common. Before coming out here, I hadn't much say in my own life either.

I couldn't help myself; in that moment, I granted Traft forgiveness for the ugly actions his bitterness had led him to. “I am sorry,” I said, “for your troubles.”
Do this unto the least of these,
the Bible taught. I could almost feel the star being added to my heavenly crown for this gesture.

He turned to face me. “You see, then, why I need your land.”

“What?” My crown slipped. “No, I mean, I'm sorry for your troubles, but that doesn't mean—”

“Is it that fellow you write all them letters to?” Traft's eyes bored into me. “Are you working the place for him?”

“Charlie?” This conversation zigged and zagged like the rickrack on Mattie's dress. “Traft, I do thank you for saving my barn. And for attempting to save Karl's. But this conversation is over.”

“You won't sell?” It was dark enough now that I couldn't see his face clearly, but the tone of his voice oozed barely controlled anger.

For some strange reason, Aunt Ivy's voice came to me at that moment.
A proper young woman turns down at least two proposals before accepting one,
she'd told me once. She'd been speaking of marriage proposals, of course, but I decided to take her advice anyway. “No,” I said, turning down his offer to buy my land for a second time. “Good night, Traft.” I strode up my two rickety steps with as much pride as I could summon. I turned as I opened the door, but he was already astride Trouble, wheeling the big horse around. They thundered out of my yard.

That wasn't the only thunder I heard that night. The skies opened up and rain—glorious rain—quenched the dust-dry prairie.

Listening to the patter on my roof, I sat myself down and wrote the conclusion to my July “Honyocker's Homily”:

My uncle's hero is Abraham Lincoln, surely the ultimate symbol of independence. One of the stories I love best about Lincoln is that after his election to office, he appointed some of his bitterest enemies to his cabinet. It seems then, as now, the greatest freedom is found in forgiveness. Let us embrace that element of liberty as we forgive our enemies as we forgive ourselves.

June 15, 1918
Somewhere in France

Dear Hattie,

I've thought of you often lately. How you used to make me laugh, how you used to wind up like a windmill before you threw a ball, how you used to blow at the hair falling across your forehead. A fellow needs to think of pleasant things like that.

I came here thinking I was going to win this war and come on home in no time at all. Now I think I'll never leave this mud and cold and misery.

I know you expect your old pal to be full of humor, but my best buddy died this morning. I was not twenty yards from him. In all the training, they never told us about the smell of death.

For the first time, I was not so confident of coming home. Not so confident of anything. I always bragged about killing some Germans. Killing is nothing to brag about. Nothing at all.

Yours,
Charlie

         
CHAPTER 19         

AUGUST
1918

THE ARLINGTON NEWS

Honyocker's Homily ~ Reaping What Was Sown

I could now give demonstrations at the state agricultural college on cutting and threshing grain. Plug was joined by his pals Joey and Star, as well as Wayne Robbins' horse, Sage. The foursome was hitched to the binder (by these very hands, after no small effort) and off they went through my wheat field. The flax had already been cut. That had been hard, as I hadn't been ready to give up my own little ocean. For that's what a field of flax in bloom looks like: acres and acres of sea-blue flowers, rippling in the August winds like waves.

Now the horse-pulled machine cut a swathe—literally—through the wheat. A reel feeds the standing grain into the sickle, where it is cut. I do not know for certain what magic is worked inside the binder, but the final product is a tied bundle of grain. These bundles—
shocks
to us farmers—are left standing on the cut end to dry. After my first day of binding, I surveyed my kingdom with no less pleasure than any royal personage. In a few weeks' time, my neighbors will come to help thresh my grain. My grain. Are there any lovelier words in creation? You longtime farmers may laugh at my enthusiasm, but I ask you to think back to your first harvest. I believe you will have to admit to such feelings yourself.

The first weeks of August brought rejuvenating rain. Then the weather turned even hotter. Thanks to help from Karl and Wayne Robbins, we were done binding my fields in a few days. I helped them as they helped me and thus passed the weeks while my grain dried, standing in proud shocks in the field.

The weather may have been good for the grain, but it did nothing for anyone's temper. Even my solid Plug balked when I tried to hitch him up to help at the Robbinses'.

That same night, I went in to fix supper. I set a plate on the table while I tried to think of something to make without cooking. In the few short minutes it took to scrounge up some food, the plate on the table had grown hot to the touch.

After eating, I took the letter I was writing to Uncle Holt and sat on the stoop to finish it. Mr. Whiskers was stretched across the doorjamb, spread out as long as he could be, trying to catch every possible breath of air to cool off. I reached down to scratch his belly, and he didn't even move.
Karl says that with this heat,
I wrote to my uncle,
my grain will be ready to thresh in about two weeks. I'm glad I'm not growing corn—it would pop before I could harvest it!

Outside, puffs of dust rose up above the coulee. Someone was coming on horseback. Maybe it was Wayne on his way home from hunting; last week, he'd brought me two sage hens.

But it wasn't Sage who trotted into view. This horse bore the Tipped M brand. Sitting atop the range horse was Traft Martin.

“May I get some water for my horse?” he called out, pulling up by the well.

“Certainly.” I had no squabble with Trouble, no matter what my feelings might be about his rider.

He pumped some water into the trough. “Things are looking mighty dry around here.” He pushed his hat back on his head. “Mighty dry.”

“Uh-huh.” Hadn't I been lying awake nights, fretting over the very same thing? Once the grain was shocked and standing, there was always the fear of fire.

“You'll be threshing soon?”

“In a few days.”

He nodded. “Hear the harvest over to Glendive was a disappointment.”

I could see where this was going. “That's Glendive.”

He gave a grudging smile. “And not here.”

Now I nodded.

He swiped the back of his hand across his forehead and resituated his hat. “It's not too late,” he said.

“Too late?” I parroted. “For what?”

“My offer.” He hung the cup back up by the pump.

“I really am not interested.” I tried to keep my tone even. Why was he pushing this point again? “For the last time, I can't accept your offer.”

“That's a big mistake on your part.” His green eyes turned gray.

I matched his stare with one of my own. I'd stood up to bullies before. “Perhaps. But it's my mistake to make.”

He jerked at Trouble's reins. “So you think.” He rode out of the yard. My yard.

For now.

         

Two days after Traft's visit, Karl and some other neighbors rumbled onto my place to start threshing. In the morning, I worked with the men in the fields. Then Leafie and Perilee came to help me bake for noon dinner. I suspect it was the promise of Perilee's pies—raisin and chokecherry and plum—that kept the crews working steadily. But my biscuits were respectable; Karl ate a half dozen himself.

“Oh, hon, that's only 'cause he needs some way to sop up Leafie's good buffalo berry jelly!” Perilee teased.

The children played around our feet as we washed another stack of plates. Chase was impatient. At eight, he thought himself old enough to help with the harvest.

“No sirree bob.” Perilee put her foot down. “Those machines are no place for children.” Chase had to content himself with running cold drinks out to the field. He carried water in crockery jugs, wrapped in burlap, and stashed them in shocks to keep them cool. He marked the shocks with a bundle of straw laid crossways on top so the workers could easily find them. Once, after he made a trip out with refilled jugs, I spotted a tiny figure standing on top of the thresher with Karl. I didn't say a word to Perilee.

“Let's sit a minute before we do one more thing.” Perilee sat down, fanning herself with her apron. “Besides, Lottie's hungry.”

“Oof. It feels like an oven.” I poured lemonade for the three of us, and we sat. Leafie had slipped her shoes and stockings off; I did the same.

“What would the Ladies' Aid Society think?” Perilee asked, arching her eyebrows. Then she took off her own footgear and wiggled her bare toes. “Who cares—this is heaven.”

We sat quietly, the only sounds the occasional cry of the curlew and Lottie's contented nursing.

“Saw Traft Martin riding this way the other day,” Leafie said.

“Well, at least this time he left our fence line alone,” said Perilee. She shifted Lottie to her other breast.

“He came by a few weeks ago, too.” I rolled the cool glass against my neck. “And it wasn't a social call.”

“He try to buy your claim?” asked Leafie. “He had the nerve to ask me to sell awhile back.”

I nodded. “He wants to build the Tipped M into something even bigger than the Circle Ranch.”

Leafie exhaled hard. “What did you tell him?”

I held up my hands, swollen from the heat, cracked by water and hard work. “I said this life was much too glamorous to ever give up.”

Perilee laughed. “Sugar, you are a caution.”

Leafie's face grew serious. “You be careful. It's one thing for me to tell him no. He wouldn't mess with me. But—”

“I know. I know.” I held up my hand to stop her words from feeding an imagination that had already conjured up what an angry Traft might do. “I'm going to hang on until November.”

“You need any help with that hanging on,” said Perilee, “you say the word.”

“Same on this side of the street,” said Leafie. She tipped her head upward. “Lord, look at that sky.”

Black clouds rolled over the plains. I recalled my conversation with Traft. “That's not grasshoppers, is it?” My heart throbbed in my throat.

“Don't think so.” Leafie pushed herself out of the chair.

“Rain!” Perilee hopped up, too, and began to gather things together. “We better get everything inside. Mattie!” She waved her apron. “You and Fern come on in now.”

We got everything—and all the children except Chase—inside just as the sky opened up.

“That's not rain.” I had my forehead pressed to my one window. With all the damp bodies, the room was as steamy as if it was wash day.

“Oh, Lord.” Leafie's hand flew to her chest. “Hail.”

The hard pea-sized pellets quickly turned to stones the size of eggs.

“Chase!” Perilee ran to the door, jerked it open, and screamed his name.

“Don't fret.” Leafie pulled her back. “Karl and them have taken cover. Karl wouldn't let anything happen to that boy.”

The sky hurled hailstone after hailstone onto my field. Like a pitcher on fire, throwing fastball after fastball, heaven struck me out and good. The cut flax, all neatly windrowed, was the first to be mowed down. Then the wheat, trampled to the ground as if a giant had stomped through. And stomped all over my dreams. I could do nothing but watch and feel my heart break in two. After what felt like hours, the clattering against the roof slowed.

“Looks like it's over,” said Leafie.

The door slammed open. Karl, Wayne Robbins, and Chase burst inside.

“Karl!” Perilee rushed to him. Blood dribbled down his forehead.

“Blasted things the size of oranges,” said Wayne. “And hard as coal.”

While Perilee tended to Karl, I set about making some tea. “Nice and sweet,” I said, handing a mug to the shivering Chase. “This will help.” I closed my eyes. The tea could warm a frozen boy, but what could help me?

Chase took a shaky sip. “Karl threw me under the tractor. All he and Wayne could do was cover their heads with their arms.”

The quiet was as powerful as the drum of hail had been moments before. I looked out through the open doorway. My kitchen garden was in shambles. Part of the chicken coop roof slumped against the well pump. Albert and the girls huddled, no worse for the wear, under the coop. The sunflower I'd been nursing along was broken in half, the yellow petals pummeled into the dirt.

I forced myself out the door and toward the fields. Wayne Robbins followed me, shaking his head.

“White reaper, my dad called it,” he said as we took in the destruction. “The flax is done, Hattie. But you can save some of the wheat.” His voice went down at the end, as if he was trying to convince himself of his own words. “Sell it for feed.”

“Feed?” During all my months of ciphering, I had counted on selling my grain to the miller at grain prices, not to the odd farmer as cattle feed.

“You won't be the only one, Hattie.” Wayne no doubt meant his words to comfort, but they only added to my worries. How many other fields were destroyed by this hailstorm? There could be dozens of us trying to salvage what we could. How many farmers were there who needed to buy feed? Not as many as would need to sell it, that was certain. Tears burned at my eyes, but I would not let them fall. What good would they be, anyway?

I bucked up and we salvaged. Karl drove the hay wagon, pulled stoically by Joey, Star, Sage, and Plug, through the ravaged fields. One small section of wheat, on a little dogleg of my land, had escaped the storm. Wayne, Chase, and I wielded pitchforks to lift the bundles there—not nearly enough—onto the wagon. Leafie patiently fed small loads into the thresher. I had laid in a huge store of gunnysacks, hoping to fill them all with the threshed grain. Normally, Karl had said, it would take three men to keep up with the thresher's output, filling the gunnysacks and stitching them with exactly seven stitches before tossing them onto the grain wagon. Today, thanks to the white reaper, Wayne Robbins alone could keep up with the task.

Later, I wrote about it to Charlie:
As I thanked my neighbors at the end of the day, I felt as if I was at a funeral. And in a way it was. A funeral for a dream. How could months of work be destroyed in a few minutes?

After I finished the letter, I got out the ledger and turned to this month's entry. I had been so smug with Traft the other day. When the hope of a harvest was in sight. Now I totted up numbers this way and that. No matter which way I did the math, I owed more than I'd make. Even with my newspaper money, I'd be in the hole. How was I going to repay the binders? The threshers? Mr. Nefzger for the fence IOU? And the seed? The only bright spot in the whole mess was that I wouldn't have to make payment on the $100 war stamps pledge. And that only made me feel ashamed, not relieved.