Len and Norma Lose a Body

Chapter 11

Spring was ticking along like normal. Field by field seeding was nearing completion and everyone in town had their eye on Lucky. The oil field company didn't do much work that wasn't supervised by someone or another out "checking crops". Sharon didn't think much of it as she would have to squeeze as far off onto the side of the gravel road as she could to let all the extra equipment by as she drove into her last weeks of work for the school year. "Might as well drive through the ditches," Sharon mumbled as she watched the machinery inch by.

June was a hectic time of year at school with finals and grad and report cards, but it was hard to be in a bad mood in June. The teachers had a bit of a tradition of going out on the town after the local grad and Sharon was looking forward to it more than ever since she was going to be away for the next year. She was suddenly self-conscious of being replaced, or even worse being forgotten. This year she was going to be funny and charming and friendly and warm. She would make sure she would be unforgettable, and also she secretly hoped Aaron would be there.

Lauren, who was also not impressed with all the oilfield trucks and equipment hogging the road all the time, sighed loudly as they waited for it all to pass. She didn't necessarily love school, but she liked it. Most importantly, her friends were there and sitting half in the ditch was seriously cutting into her friend time. This was so annoying and it seemed to be happening all the time. She wondered what Carlsons were even going to do with all that extra money anyway. Probably buy a hot tub Lauren thought to herself. Rich people have hot tubs.

"What would you do if you won a million dollars?" Lauren asked her mom.

"Hmmmm," her mom didn't answer right away, "travel, I guess."

"Ya, but what would you buy?" Lauren continued to press Sharon.

"A fountain of youth," she said jokingly.

"No, like something real," Lauren couldn't believe her mom couldn't even be rich right.

"I just want experiences, just go places and see things," she said as she maneuvered back onto the gravel road.

"I would buy a hot tub," stating it as if this was the right and only answer.

...

Dave Olson was heading out of town early this morning. He was heading in to the city this morning to get some parts, so he had hit up coffee row early. The sun was up early and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day. Dave had been doing more this year than he had in previous years around the farm and wanted all the other guys on the row to know about it. He complained about the low spots still being too wet to seed, and the price of fuel, and listened to and retold stories of getting stuck and unstuck.

After a half hour or so Dave pushed back his chair to announce he had to be getting on the road. He wanted to make sure everyone know that he had something to do and wanted to seem in a rush and busy busy. Everyone knew that his son Mike had been back working with Dave for years, but it was important to Dave that everyone know who was still top dog on the farm.

On his way out of the café Dave gave the oil field guys a silent nod of acknowledgement on his way out. They'd been around for a couple of weeks now at breakfast time, but they were all strangers – young, unshaven. They kept to themselves it seemed. They had work to do and spent long hours doing it. Dave could respect that, but then again, you can never really trust an outsider.

...

Mike was spending this morning in the farmyard. Seeding was done, but the work was far from over. He was grateful that he'd had an errand to send his dad on. There had been lots of "help" in the form of supervision this spring. His dad seemed so restless. A hobby. His dad definitely needed a hobby. He was going to be turning 65 this summer. It was time for him to sit back, relax and let the old age pension checks roll in. For a minute Mike let himself try and think about what kinds of things his dad was into, but it would be easier to tell Sharon. Sharon would do it, she bought all the gifts for everyone, she would know what to get an old bored guy for his birthday.

...

Sharon hadn't given Dave's gift a second of thought. She was in June mode, which was always busy, but was particularly looking forward to the festivities that popped up at this time of year. They had a staff party tonight, the weather was nice and she was ready to drink some sangria on a deck. Spouses were invited, but for some reason hadn't really pushed it on Mike. I guess if he wanted to come she wouldn't necessarily object, but she wasn't going to ask either.

The students were restless in their desks and Sharon was too. She shifted in her chair behind her desk as she tried to ignore the increasing volume from the class. It was evident that the kids were either done their work, or were just done with their work, and the classroom erupted into little conversations in every corner of the room. It was hot, it was last period, and Sharon didn't feel like steering to class back to something productive. These were pretty good kids, she could ride out the next 15 minutes without doing much.

Aaron popped his head into the room finding Sharon at her desk at the front of a very noisy classroom with 5 minutes left in the school day. Sharon suddenly became self-conscious of her classroom management or lack there of and tried to shush the kids and failed at directing them back to their work. Their books were already closed and they just carried on with their own conversations but at a lower volume.

Sharon didn't fret for long as Aaron sat on the side of her desk. "You coming out tonight?" "Ya, of course," Sharon answered more enthusiastically than she intended. "I was hoping you'd be coming out since you're abandoning me next year," Aaron said making an over exaggerated sad face. Sharon laughed and dropped her head and she scrambled to come up with something witty or cool to say, but settled for, "Oh ya." She wanted to roll her eyes at her own lame response, but Aaron was already talking again. Sometime during the conversation the bell had rang and the students had shuffled out without Sharon even really noticing.

...

Lauren also loved this time of year. Most of the work in class was done, the weather was beautiful, and the days were long. It helped that it was a Friday and she had a weekend planned with her friends. She looked out the classroom window and saw nothing but blue skies with a few wispy white clouds. It seemed like such a shame to be sitting in a desk while it was so beautiful outside. They only ever got a couple of nice months of warm weather and it always seemed to rain on weekends. Lauren said a silent prayer that the rest of the weekend would be as nice as the past week had looked from her seat in the middle of her classroom.

At the end of the day Lauren wasted no time making her way to the bus. She made her way to her seat half way to the back and waited for her seat mate to join her. Nicole slid into the seat beside Lauren, "We still on for the pit tomorrow? Amy's coming tonight and is sleeping over tonight and tomorrow. We can meet there?" Nicole squeezed in a few more rapid fire questions before Lauren could get a word in edgewise. The answer to every question so far was yes. Lauren had been looking forward to another weekend spent hanging out with Nicole and Amy. Nicole mentioned with exaggerated distain that Jill, Amy's little sister, would probably tag along because their parents would force them too. Lauren didn't mind so much, she got a kick out of Jill, and really how much trouble could she be?