The Farmer's Son

Chapter 40 Between Dreams and Home

"Oh," Stilton said, truly caught by surprise. He cast a quick glance at Alan from the corner of his eyes. It would have been better for both of them to complete this meeting in secret.

Alan and Ray stared at each other, blue eyes calm and deep, sugar-colored eyes translucent in the sun. After a few terse moments, Alan took a breath and turned to Stilton. "Thank you for your time, Sir," he said, smiling and extending a hand.

Taking it to mean Alan would deal with the situation, Stilton shook the hand with a smile of his own. "I'll be in touch."

With a brief pleasant smile at Ray, the man got behind the wheel of the town car and backed into a turn. As he drove through the gate, his eyes shifted to the rearview mirror, where the two young men stood in the dappled light of chestnut trees, before a curve in the road took them out of view.

"How did you know I was here?" Alan asked, tucking his hands into his back pockets.

"I didn't," Ray said, voice even and mild. "Your Pa called, asked me to check the back door."

"Oh."

A cool breeze swept through the shade, rustling the leaves and leaving goosebumps on their necks. Pushing off from the truck, Ray turned up the collar of his denim jacket and moved towards the driver's door.

"Aren't you going to ask me?" Alan called after him, his voice mixing with the rustling grass.

Stopping with one hand on the open window, Ray spoke with his back turned. "If you wanted me to know, you'd have told me."

"Then why did you stay?"

"So you'd know I was here."

"And what do you know?" Alas asked, hinting at what Ray might have overheard.

Eyes closing under a frown, Ray lowered his head and saw the memory of Alan, sitting at the base of a roadside stand, looking up at a sky of fireworks and talking about seeing the world. "Nothing," he said quietly, "that I didn't already know."

Alan looked away, then back. "Stilton offered me a job, one that would let me travel, and I'm taking it. And you can't make me feel bad about that."

Ray's frown deepened, and the sense of loss was replaced by a sudden flare of annoyance. "Make you feel bad about it?" he repeated incredulously, turning around to face Alan. "When have I—why would I ever do that?"

"What do you call just this morning? Telling me how much you missed me, and how much Pa missed me, and how he's only in a good mood when I'm home."

"The truth," Ray retorted. "Which is more than I can say for you," he added, slamming the truck door closed behind him and making Alan jump. "Why are you hiding this, Alan?"

"You know why," Alan said in a hard voice. "If Pa saw me with Stilton, he'd—"

"He'd what? Get the wrong idea? Or the right idea: that Stilton couldn't get the farm out from under your Pa, so now he's trying to lure you away. And with you gone, he's got access to two farms. You said yourself you're on the lease; what do you think will happen when your Pa no longer has you for support?"

"You don't think I have merit on my own? That my only use is being used against my Pa?"

"Can you say for sure it's not a possibility?"

Out of his pocket, Alan's hands curled into fists at his sides as his lips pressed together. "Even if it is," he said, voice as tight as his fists. "This could be my chance—my only chance, to leave without worrying about leaving Pa on his own."