Try

Part 4 of 8

Days turned into weeks and before anyone realized how long Cooper had been among the family, harvest set in two months after he arrived. He had been right in claiming to love mechanics and picked up rather quickly to the mechanics needed for daily farm life. His new father-in-law was always there with helpful tricks and a watchful pair of eyes looking for mistakes. With time, the mistakes were fewer, and the shadowing was finished. With harvest preparations claiming most of the last few weeks, there was little time for Matilda and Cooper to talk and get to know one another, but Matilda often found herself studying him from afar. How can a big city lawyer fit so well into a small-town farm life? During the past week, Cooper has been eagerly learning to drive a truck, both grain truck and semi-truck. He followed Morgan around for a day, learning where to go and the process of loading and unloading the truck. Though Morgan grumbled at the task, Matilda was rather surprised and pleased to find them returning in good spirits.

Reaching higher and further into a small compartment on the combine, Matilda finds the broken bolt and withdraws it with a triumphant smile. She is the smallest and often finds herself in small spaces the others cannot fit. They are three days into harvest, and of course, something always goes wrong. It helps, however, to have four people working on the problem, while still having another running for parts. "I believe this is the problem." Matilda chimes while dropping the sheered bolt into her brother's flat palm.

"Yeah, yeah. What do you want, a cookie?" Morgan mumbles though he cannot hide the grin that appears on his face.

"I would love a cookie." Matilda returns with a small shrug. She turns back to see her father looking up at the combine with a frown. She knows that look, but their little operation cannot afford a new combine, and they must make do with what they have. Her father knows this, but he still hates when things repeatedly break down. Cooper stands beside him staring up at the combine as well, but with a look of confusion. "What?" She questions with a raised eyebrow.

Cooper lets his gaze fall to hers, though the look is the same. "How could you reach that?"

The bolt had been sheared off, causing a pully to fall out of place and break a belt. The bolt fell into a small hole, halfway up the side of the combine, and only accessible by scaling up the side and wiggling into a spot. "Oh, that is nothing." Matilda waves it off, though truthfully, she did not like heights, even little ones, and her ribs hurt from wiggling into such a tight spot. "Just wait until a straw-walker goes out or something gets stuck in the back. Those grates are like lying on nails." She gestures to the bigger of the trucks in the line. "I see you got an upgrade."

"Oh, don't get his ego all fired up." Her father grumbles in his usual humorous way. "It was only because I couldn't stand the broken air conditioner."

"Well, at least I haven't hit the building at the elevator yet." Cooper shrugs, but Matilda can see that he feel a bit of pride at being upgraded from the old grain truck. "But there is a suspicious yellow streak on the concrete over there that makes me wonder why part of the fender on the semi is a brighter yellow."

"Because it is newer." Matilda fakes a cough, though everyone knows it.

"That was one time!" Morgan yells from the top of the combine. She supposes he is checking oil levels while they have a break. "And I warned you ahead of time that I shouldn't be driving a truck. At least I haven't hit multiple telephone poles with the combine." He fires back at his father who Matilda looks at just enough to see the seething glare.

Knowing the blame-game could go on for hours, Matilda decides to cut in. "How much more you think you got out there?" She hollers up at her brother as he starts to descend the ladder.