Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher Read Free Book Online

nearby didn’t look much better. The walls and the roof were gashed with holes. Out back was a faltering windmill with no blades, and off to the side was a short building with a dust drift pushed against it. The place looked completely abandoned.
    Joe couldn’t help but think that this was what could happen to his family someday. It was just like Frank and Dad said—when the land was scorched to nothing but blowing dust and no amount of money could change it. However, this place was out in the middle of nowhere. Their farm was close to a river and a still-functioning town. It couldn’t possibly shrivel up like this.
    They moved on. By mid-afternoon, Joe dozed off, only to jolt awake and squint into the melting distance. He blinked and tried to focus. The sky and the burnt ground remained hazy. He didn’t know what he was seeing, so he made his eyes go fuzzy to give them a rest, but that only made him doze off again. The next time he awoke, it took him a minute to realize the wagon had stopped and the girl wasn’t in the cab with him.
    When he finally saw her, she was standing out in front of the horses, staring over a lip of earth. A hot breeze blew her dress against the back of her stick legs.
    Joe jumped out of the wagon, but the instant his feet hit the ground, his legs buckled and he fell. His muscles were so stiff and cramped from sitting in the wagon for hours and hours that they were basically useless. He tried to stand up, but his legs still felt rubbery. He swayed backward a little before he stumbled forward and landed on his knees again. This time he hobbled a few steps on his stumps and then fell flat on his face. 
    The girl stood there watching him flail about without even lifting a finger to help. He pushed himself up and stared at her.
    “You could’ve given me a hand,” he said.
    He got to his feet slowly, just in case his legs decided to betray him again. Then she led him to the crumbling lip of earth. She pointed down a sheer six-foot drop to a smooth plane of moving water.
    “Wow,” Joe said.
    They’d made it to the river, Joe thought. The other side was lined with small trees and pale grass. Along the bank were sandbars that rose above the smooth water like the white bellies of floating bodies. He looked up and down the river.
    “I don’t see any bridge,” Joe said. “That’s not good.”
    Somehow they had gotten off the road and veered up to the crest of this hill that had been carved away by the river. Where were they?
    Back at the wagon, he got out the map and tried to figure out which direction they’d veered. The map showed the river bending sharply south of the bridge. Joe thought he would follow the river a while to see if it led to a sharp bend. If it didn’t, they’d turn back the other way. There was no reason to panic. They were at the river now, and water was the most important thing they needed. They got back in the wagon and rode down the side of the hill to where the ground flattened out along the river.
    Joe unhitched the horses and led them to the muddy water to drink. He grabbed the empty water bucket and slapped it down in the river. When it was full, he lugged it up to where the girl stood and set the bucket down beside her. He caught a whiff of his smell and realized he stunk, ripe and sour.
    “We’ll wait till the dirt settles to the bottom and then we can drink it.”
    In the meantime, he decided to wash and cool himself in the river. He stripped off his damp green shirt and brown pants and stood in only his undergarments, which consisted of a one-piece top and bottom. He felt the heat of the sun burning into the exposed skin on his arms and legs.
    “You want to wash off?” he said to the girl. “It will do you good.”
    The pregnant girl crouched beside the water bucket like a little bird.
    “I guess that’s a no,” he said. “Your loss.”
    At the edge of the river, he dipped his toes into the slow-moving water before he stepped in with both feet. He