“I think I’m going fast enough.” Suddenly, he realized he was driving the combine, by himself, and Dusty hadn’t actually given him a lesson. I needed a lesson. His stomach knotted with threads of panic. This was another part of farm life he was having to adjust to big time. Sure, he got lessons, and explanations, but sometimes he was thrown into the deep end and expected to swim, old-school style.
“Will the header thing just start working.” Blaise could feel himself beginning to become stressed. “How do I do that?”
Dusty chuckled softly. “I’ll help you. It takes too much to explain, and you won’t learn it all on your first go.”
“Okay, and that’s meant to make me feel better right now?”
“You’re doing fine.”
Her words helped to ease the tension within him and boost his confidence. That was big praise coming from Dusty.
The crop was close now, he could see the individual stalks. “Should I start to turn now?”
“Yes, see you’re a natural.”
Blaise turned the wheel to the right slowly. The header was getting close to the crop. Panic began to rise inside of him. He felt like there was something he needed to do, but of course, he didn’t know and had to rely on Dusty. “What should I do?”
“Don’t panic.” Dusty reached over behind him. “Concentrate. I’ll lower the header down this time for you. Just line up the crop and slowly go deeper until the header is full.”
It sounded way too easy to be true for Blaise. He held his breath, doing exactly what Dusty had told him. She moved a lever. The header lowered closer to the ground and began to rotate.
Shit, this is real.
He was about to harvest for the first time.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, despite the coolness of the air conditioner.
“Move a bit further into the crop.”
He adjusted. Looking down in front, seeing the stalks begin to fill the header, the blades moving quickly which made him nervous. At thirty feet long it took a few seconds for him to line up the combine, so the header was full of the stalks. The rotating blade made quick work of the long stalks, chopping them off, and pushing them back into the machinery where they would be thrashed and the valuable seeds collected.
“Steady.”
Blaise kept his focus, staring firmly at the edge of the crop to ensure it was filling the header and not leaving any behind. There was a lot riding on him right now, and he felt every bit of that pressure.
“You’re a natural.”
Blaise smiled. Another big compliment from Dusty. Maybe things were slowly beginning to change with her.
“Should I ask what the pay rate is?” Blaise dared to take his eyes off the front of the combine for a moment.
Dusty sighed. Reached over and turned the steering wheel.
What?Blaise sat stunned for a moment.
“Look out the rearview mirror. There.” Dusty pointed to the mirror on the left.
Blaise glanced out.
“See the bit of crop you left behind.”
Blaise saw it. “Yes.”
“That’s your pay.”
A sinking feeling hit Blaise’s stomach. Damn! It hadn’t taken him long before he messed up.
“Sorry.”
