The Buried Book by D. M. Pulley Read Free Book Online Page A

tractor, covered in grease. He walked over and shook Wendell’s hand. His uncle was taller than his father and had fewer gray hairs. “Nice to see you, Wendell. Feelin’ any better?”
    “Fair to middling. How’s it been?”
    “Can’t complain.” Leo shrugged.
    “I heard you had some trouble with a cow?”
    “My poor ol’ Sally took a fall. It’s a damn shame too. Her meat’s tougher than an old shoe.” He chuckled.
    His father laughed back, while Jasper scowled at the both of them from behind the shed. He didn’t really think it was all that funny. The ground where Sally had been butchered was still red with blood. He could still smell it on his hands from holding the knives.
    “I hear the boy was some help to ya?”
    “Yep. He ain’t a bad boy. Not real used to this sort of life, though, is he?”
    “I’m afraid he’ll have to manage for a while . . . if that’s alright. A boy his age needs a mother around, and I’ve been workin’ all these extra shifts. I can’t ask the landlady to do more than she already has. I can’t in good conscience just leave him alone . . .”
    “Still no word from Althea?” Leo went to the tool rack to grab a larger wrench, then climbed back under the tractor.
    “Nope . . . She was by the bank the other day, I do know that. She withdrew every last cent we had. Must be one hell of a vacation she’s takin’.” He forced a laugh.
    Uncle Leo’s wrench stopped cranking. “What are you gonna do?”
    “What’s there to do? Half that money was hers, right? I just can’t wait to hear her excuse . . .” His father shook his head and sat down on the rear axle next to where Leo was working. “What’s the trouble? Drivetrain?”
    “Oh, the old jalopy’s got a bad gasket here somewhere. She’s been droppin’ oil like grease through a goose.”
    “John Deere’s been known to have a bad crankshaft seal. Didya look there?”
    The two men talked tractors and engines for the next ten minutes while Jasper sat there aghast. His mother had taken a bunch of money from the bank, and his father had no idea where she’d gone. And there he was talking about gaskets like it was nothing.
    Jasper slumped down against the side of the shed with his head to his knees. He had to find her. He frowned and tried to think. She didn’t have friends, none that he’d met anyway. All she did was work, and when she came home, she hated to sit still. She’d sit for just a few minutes before she’d leap up and start moving again. Once she painted the kitchen bright yellow in a single afternoon. Once she’d dragged him over the bridge to Canada just to buy a soda. Jasper could picture her standing at the kitchen sink with that look in her eye like she had to go. But where?
    His father and Uncle Leo kept talking. “You see that new Model R they put out? Forty-three horsepower engine. You believe that?”
    Jasper was only half listening. Why did she always want to leave? he wondered. Did she hate being with me? The little leather book filled with her writing was his only clue. He had to find a way to read it. He’d tried for thirty minutes that morning but couldn’t make sense of her tightly curled penmanship.
    “Pretty soon those machines will be puttin’ us all out of business.” Uncle Leo threw the wrench down with a clank. “Price of wheat keeps droppin’. Damn government won’t let anybody plant more than fifteen acres of the stuff now as it is. Had some company man out poking his big snout around my field just last year. Made me cut out three acres.”
    Jasper sighed to himself. The conversation was going nowhere. He waited five more minutes and gave up. As he was standing to leave, he heard his father say a name he’d never heard before.
    “You talk to Sheriff Bradley lately?”
    “Nope. No need really.”
    “He still hangin’ around the Tally Ho?”
    “Beats me. I haven’t been down to the tavern in months. It’s the busy season, you know.”
    “What do you say