Behind the Stars by Leigh Talbert Moore Read Free Book Online

Tell me. Do you know about cows?”
    My eyes were fixed on my shoes, and I debated how to answer. I knew everything about cows. Working with Dr. Green for nine months had taught me about cows, horses, dogs, pigs. He’d even shown me a few tricks for chickens, although he said they were dumb birds only fit for giving eggs two years and then eating.
    The cow emitted another frustrated groan, and my eyes tensed as I studied my shoes. Her milk had let down, and I needed to finish the job. I knew she was hurting.
    Cato exhaled loudly and moved back to the front of the room where her helper Oma proceeded to teach us to milk a cow. Soon I was back on my stool relieving my beast. The three of us would milk the cows and then churn for butter.
    As I sat with my head pressed against the warm, smelly flank massaging rubbery teats, I remembered being back with Jackson in what would one day be our barn. I could still see his lean body propped against a dismantled tractor, twirling a hay stalk in his mouth.
    ––––––––
    “D addy says he’ll start transitioning the farm to me when I’m twenty,” he said. “What do you think about that?”
    I squinted up at him from where I sat against the shed wall. “Sounds great!”
    “It’s damn hot working a farm. You sure you wanna do that forever?”
    He knew I hated the summer heat, but it was the first time I could remember Jackson complaining about it or questioning our plan because of it.
    “There’s not much else I know how to do.”
    I’d given up on my wild idea of becoming a doctor. Besides, my daddy’d been a farmer before he’d been a drunk. My brother probably would’ve done the same thing if he hadn’t gone crazy and started talking in tongues and preaching Jesus at everybody.
    Anyway, we were too poor for me to go to college, and I wasn’t smart enough for a scholarship. Getting to be a doctor would take years, and I’d have to move away and leave Jackson to go to school. That kind of scared me.
    “I could work at the glass factory,” I said. “Maybe answer phones or be a receptionist in an office.”
    “They gonna close that glass factory in a few years.” He pushed off the tractor and walked over to sit beside me. “Haven’t you heard everybody talking?”
    I shook my head. A pang of sadness hit me thinking of who all’d be out of work. Flora’s mom, Mrs. Magee, for starters.
    “That’d never happen to us on a farm,” I said. “We’d be our own boss, raise all our own food, have our own cows and stuff.”
    I watched him gaze out at the acres of land he’d have to plow year after year. It had never struck me that Jackson might want to do something different. He’d never mentioned it.
    I kept talking, trying to get him excited about our plan again. The one we’d made at the beginning of last summer. We’d graduate high school, get married, and make this place our home.
    “We could try some of those new techniques,” I said. “Like those green farmers. Then we’d know what was in everything we ate. We’d know where it came from, when it was harvested, how it was grown...”
    He was unimpressed. “I guess there’s people who care about that stuff. But we’d go broke trying to find them. That kind of farming takes money, and there’s always somebody bigger out there taking shortcuts.”
    I slid my hand over his. “It was just an idea.”
    He pulled away. “You just wanna be dirt poor and working hard all your life, don’t you, Prentiss Puckett?”
    “I don’t mind if I’m working hard with you.” I didn’t understand why he was so angry all of a sudden or what had changed since last summer. “If your daddy gives us the farm, we can make it one of those big farms and hire workers—”
    “I’ll still be slaving myself to death,” he growled, getting up and dusting off the back of his jeans.
    “No you won’t.” I caught his arm and tried to ease the tension. “We’ll have us a little boy cute as you who’ll help and