Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) by A. American (ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“Oh, introduce him. I get it. Good for you. He’s a good guy. Just remember, he comes with an annoying pet.”

Janet looked down towards the lake. “I think his dog has a new chew toy and won’t be a bother.”

I looked down at Mike and Crystal; they were obviously getting along pretty well. But I was curious about something. “I’ve got to ask. Why is everyone so casual about her hooking up with someone you don’t even know? I mean, I’ve known these guys for a while and I don’t want them hooking up with my daughters.”

“That’s because they’re your girls,” Mel replied.

“Crystal is a grown woman. She’s been stuck on the ranch since the Day. We all have. So, seeing new faces is nice. That and we always worried what would happen to her. Whether or not she would be able to find a man when the time was right.” She looked off into the distance and added, “And it’s like Daddy says. After all we’ve been through, we need to grab a hold of happiness whenever and wherever we find it.”

“That I agree with,” Mel said.

“I’ll leave you two up to your shenanigans,” I said as I walked off. I found Danny where I’d expect to find him, out near one of the large barns.

The place was scattered with old, broke-down and discarded farm equipment of all kinds. Danny was looking at an old row planter when I came up behind him. “You seen any corn harvesters?” I asked.

“Not yet,” he replied as he stood up.

“It would be a life saver if we found one.”

He pointed to another larger barn a short distance off. “Let’s go look over there.”

We walked around the big metal building for a while marveling at the vast variety of equipment quietly rusting under the sun. When we walked around to the back of it, we saw something interesting.

“I think this is a corn harvester,” Danny said as he ran his hand over one of the large cone-shaped pieces on the front.

I knelt down and looked into the machine. “I don’t know anything about corn pickers, but it looks like it could only harvest two rows at a time.”

“That’s twice as many as we can pick by hand.”

“Looks like you pull it with a tractor.”

Danny walked around to the rear of the machine and said, “Here’s the belt where the finished corn comes out.”

“I think you’re right. Let’s go up to the house and talk to Dave about it. If we could use this, it would save us so much time. Even if it only does two rows at a time.”

We walked back up to the house. Dave and Sarge were still sitting beside one another in the rocking chairs. It made me smile to think of the old show, The Odd Couple. Because if ever there was such, they were it.

“Hey, Dave.” I said as we walked up. “Out there behind that big barn is what I think is a corn picker. Am I right?”

“Oh yeah. That’s a New Idea 2540. It’ll pick two rows at a time. But ain’t nobody got no corn now, so I don’t think it’ll ever run again.”

“What if someone did have some corn? Say, about fifty acres of it?”

He looked up and asked, “You folks have a cornfield?”

“We do. We found some feed corn and planted it. It did well and is about ready to harvest. That machine would make the job a lot easier.”

Dave got up from his chair. “That thing’s been sitting for years. It probably doesn’t work now. But we can damn sure fix that!”

“Morgan, go over and get Cecil,” Sarge said, giving voice to what I was already thinking.

I returned with Cecil and introduced him to Dave. Shaking the man’s hand, Cecil said, “Good to meet you. Thank you for having us over today.”

“Morgan here tells me you got a field of corn about ready to pick.”

Cecil nodded. “I do. And it’s going to take everyone we know to get it done.”

“What if you had a New Idea two-row picker?”

“I ain’t seen one of those in years!” Cecil announced. “It sure would save the corn crop.”

“Well, it just so happens that I have one.”

Cecil looked surprised, “You pullin’ my leg?”

“No, we saw it,” I replied. “You want to walk over and look at it?”

“Yes, I do!” Cecil nearly shouted.

We all walked back over to the barn. After pulling weeds up from around it and scraping out all manner of rat nests and who knows what, we got a look at the machine.

“She’s going to need a lot of work,” Sarge said.

“It does,” Dave replied. “But these were made to be used on small family farms. They were simple machines that anyone could work on. Not to mention, they were built like a tank. We’ll get this thing pulled out and back into shape in a couple of days.”

Pointing at the contraption, Cecil asked, “You mean I can have this?”

Dave laughed, “You’re the only man I know of with a cornfield. Hell yes, you can have it! If it’ll help bring in that corn, you can damn sure have it.”

“That sure will make it easier. Say, you don’t mind if I come over and help put it back together? I like to know how to work on the equipment I use.”

“Feel free, we could use the help.”

Just then, a loud clanging erupted from the direction of the house. I looked up to see Janet ringing a very large triangle hanging from a post in the backyard and announcing, “Supper’s ready!”

“Gentlemen, this thing isn’t going anywhere, and I’ve been smelling that cooking meat all day. What do you say we go up and get us a plate?” Cecil said.

“That’s a fine idea,” Dave said. With a sweep of his arm, he added, “Come on, boys. Let’s eat.”

The spread of food was rather impressive. Of course, there was plenty of beef. But there were to my amazement also French fries. They were a huge hit with