The Summer Of My Life

Chapter 2

Later that day, the three of us sat around the old, wooden table in front of the house right next to the gazebo on a kind of terrace on ground floor.

We ate dinner, which was open-sided sandwiches, chatting about this and that as the sun was setting, painting everything orange. I, being raised in a valley framed by mountains, found that stunning, all the colours and warmth it was spending, as we hardly had that at home.

Therry had soon accompanied us, eating with us and chatting with Fran and Kiki about what had happened over the last year. Foals were born (Fran was quick to memorize their names), Loki, the dog of the family, had to undergo a surgery as Hannes, Inge's husband, a vetenarian, had spotted a tumour in his stomach. Apparently, the dog's life teetered on a knife's edge which had taken quite a toll out of 'Lee', no clue though who Lee was. Pizza, the stud's cat, had gone off on peregrination for two months, coming back fatter than she was before. And lots of other things, until they were interrupted by Inge's husband, Hannes, who called out for Therry.

She went over to him but returned to us soon, opening her mouth and pointing into the direction of the garages. "Could you help us quickly with collecting the hay?" Looking at Fran and Kiki, I nodded, making her sigh. We had nothing to do anyway.

Hannes got in, telling us to sit/stand beside him and off we went, the five-minute drive passed like nothing.

Half an hour later, we were sweating our butts off, collecting hay with the forks and putting it onto the giant trailer of the tractor. Hannes showed us a technique how to get more hay on the fork and left afterwards as his phone rang, an emergency call informing that one of the cows in next town had difficulties delivering her calf, leaving us three with the tractor. We finished an hour later, the trailer fully loaded with hay.

"So, and what are we going to do now?" Looking around, I conceded Fran a point.
We sat down, waiting for someone to come until it slowly started to get cold. Kiki was already shivering from time to time and no one was speaking anymore, the whole chatter having died down.

Sighing, I shook my head.
"Waiting doesn't make it any better." I got up, making them look up. "Throw the forks on top and I'll help you up, I've driven a tractor before." They eyed me widely, making me shrug as if there was nothing else we could do, they complied.

"You're out of one of the best motorcyclist families there are, I think we can rely on you." Fran said, climbing up, making me laugh.
"Thanks for the trust, Fran."

I got in, turning the key around and started the tractor, putting in first gear and pushed down on the throttle control. We rolled off the mowed field, heading towards the stud. Not going too fast to keep the two on the trailer on the trailer, we went along the way we came from a few hours earlier. As a car was coming our way, I slowed down until Fran shouted at me. "That's a car from the stud!" I brought the tractor to a halt, flashing the headlamp flasher at them. The car halted as well in front of us, the two doors opening. Hannes got out, squinting at us. I waved quickly, and got out as well.

"Turn around, I'll follow you!" Over the motor noise, Hannes mustered me, then the tractor, then me again. "Can you drive that thing?" On my nod, he got inside again and I turned around, climbing the tractor again. I reversed and drove a few metres back to make turning for them easier, before following them back to the stud.

When we got there, we found Inge, Therry, the housekeeper and another man standing there in their pyjamas, waiting for us to arrive and obviously having gotten out of bed again. Fran and Kiki thought that was hilarious and started to wave like the Queen of Great Britain herself, making Therry laugh.

Hannes guided us to a big barn before he stopped the car and engine. I did as well and climbed out of the tractor. Kiki and Fran meanwhile had climbed off the trailer. "Girls, I'm so sorry I forgot you!" We laughed. "No worries, the ride just made up for it." Fran grinned. Hannes mustered me. "Where did you learn to drive like that?" "I've been shifting gears as long as I can remember. It's not a that big challenge as soon as you've driven the first couple of metres." I smiled sheepishly.
"Wow, not bad. Could you then just park over there?" He pointed somewhere and I nodded, repositioning the whole vehicle including trailer right next to the hayloft.

Kiki then got the honourable job to unload the hay with a crane boom into the hayloft.
"To the left, LEFT!" Fran was directioning for her, but guessing from Kiki's expression, she wasn't exactly aiming at the hayloft. And wooosh, a second later, Fran was covered in hay. I nearly doubled over in laughing.

When we walked back to our house, the clock neared eleven pm. Fran still had hay all over her, as it seemed to stick to her hair like dried clay. Our occasional laughers were swallowed by the dark and just the minute walking from the hayloft to our room made us calm down and sleepiness overrule any thoughts about doing something else.

I didn't even notice Fran get out of the shower again, I was out beforehand.