Disking and Feathering
INT. 3720 W. BETHEL RD. - DAY
JIM (77) sits on a recliner with a hot bean bag on his knee and JUDY (81) sits on a sofa with a mystery novel. ADAM (32) sits across from Jim & Judy on an ottoman covered in dog & cat hair petting HALEY (63 (dog years)).
JIM
It’s those big rocks. You have to get those out of there while you’re disking so it’s easier to feather after, you see? You don’t want to be trying to rake through boulders. Now that disk I have out there. It’s probably seventy or eighty years-old. About as old as me. You know how much I got it for? John Thayler - the old man on Hadley Street - he had one sitting out there in his pasture for - Christ - thirty some years. He let it sit there and just let it rust and - it was a nice disk! So I went over to him the other day and asked him what he was planning on doing with it and he hemmed and hawed a minute about how he was gonna do this or that and he had a buddy who said he needed for a hill he was trying to get grass to grow on and I said, ‘well, Thayler, I’ll give you $100 for that disk.’ And he grabbed my hand and shook it before the words were out of my mouth. I think he was just as heartbroken watching that thing rust to junk as I was and was happy to see someone finally doing something with it. That or he’s lazier than I thought he was. I’ll bring it over Sunday with the tractor and we can start on that field. That’s what that field needs is a good disking and feathering and you can get that stuff to grow. You’ll have to water it, now. It’s gonna need quite a bit of water it’s been so dry. You might want to water it before you sew and you’re for sure gonna want to throw straw over it after it’s all sewn. You have any straw? I reckon I can bring a few bales on the truck when I get over there. Make sure you have beer, too.
JUDY
Well, Kroger isn’t that cheap, I don’t think. I went over there the other day for cat food and Mia, she’ll only eat the Fancy Feast Shrimp Mousse and I can’t find it at Meijer and I’m not driving all the way to Walmart. And Jim and I like to have a couple frozen pizzas in the freezer when he gets home late an evening and it’s too late to start a mess in the kitchen so we’ll just have one of those a night or two. He likes Red Baron and Red Baron is hardly ever on sale. We could order a pizza and have it delivered for what a Red Barron costs at Kroger. He’s been clearing brush just about every day and doesn’t get home until way after dark anyway. I told him he better be getting paid well for all the work he’s doing. By God we have plenty to do here but it must not be fun to clear your own brush and clean your own gutters or mulch your own beds. Did he tell you he found Vernon caught under a tree? Veron, he’s older than me, was sawing an ash tree down and a limb fell and pinned him. He was laying there for half the day. Nobody was home. Jim just happened to stop by and was able to get him out from under it. You can’t tell a man to quit. It has to kill him first. I told Jim that if he’s going to be gone all week avoiding work at our house then he’s going to drive me to some yard sales on Friday. Are you looking for anything? I found Corey an old, old tackle box and the lady I bought it from was tickled to get a dime for it and I feel a little bad because it’s worth more than that but she wouldn’t take more.
ADAM
Sounds good
ADAM continues petting HALEY and listens to the pressure cooker SPUTTER in the kitchen. JIM moves the hot bean bag to his other knee and JUDY goes back to her book.
Adam Jeffrey Jr. lives with his wife in Franklin, Indiana. He writes stories too quaint for print.