|
|
"How's the website traffic?" Jessica asked. "We may have a connection here," replied Alex. "Give me a minute to finish clearing out the spam." Jessica watched as he finished. "OK, let's see what we have here." Alex clicked on the message and they read it. "Her mother. Wonder how old she is." Jessica said. "Or her mother. It's mostly older people in those places, and they have it bad if they don't have anyone to visit." "Yeah. Dirty, that sounds about right. 'Almost every time I visited the call button was out of reach. Nurses rude.' Sounds like she visited regularly." "She says when she asked to see the doctor it sometimes took a hour or more to see him." Jessica said. "It was longer than that sometimes when you were in there." "They may only have one." Alex said. "Mary Ann hasn't turned up any besides Copeland." "They're definitely operating on the cheap." "I'll contact her," said Alex. "See if I can get a conversation going. Wonder if we should check with Harry, see if he has any recommendations." "That might be a good idea, couldn't do any harm." "I'll shoot him an email, see what he thinks. About ready to go?" They were planning a day at the farm. Alex wanted to check on his equipment and get back to using it. He was now driving regularly, even in city traffic, and was becoming comfortable with it. "Let's do it."
Alex parked in the driveway and they went into the house. "You kept the equipment keys here," Jessica said, indicating one of the key boards on the wall. The door keys are on the other one." "Might as well try one of the small ones first," he said, taking one of the orange Kubota keyrings. "I'm guessing the battery's down." he said. "Let me give a try." He turned the ignition key and heard a click, as the instrument panel lit up dimly for a few seconds and then faded. "Yep. Where'd I keep the battery chargers?" "Usually in here," Jessica replied, "back on the workbenches. Let's take a look." Yeah. Get it over to the tractor. OK, where's the battery? There. Take off that screen under the steering wheel. Got it. Jessica plugged an extension cord into a wall outlet and handed him the other end. He located the correct terminals to connect the charger. Red goes there. Didn't even have to think about it. OK, needle moves way over when I plug it in. Little hum. Guess it's working. "Well," he said, "probably going to be a while. Couple of hours I'd guess. Want to take a look around?" "Let's go. Take a look over the place, see if everything's in order." The place was much as it was on the last visit. The grass would need cutting soon. Neighbor was taking care of it. Who? Henry. They walked the perimeter, taking their time and stopping frequently. As they neared the buildings they turned to walk along the fence. The small depression near the post where Alex had dug up the gold was barely noticeable, and there was no sign of digging around any of the others. "Guess it's still there," he said. "I'm thinking when we move into our new place we should move it. We'll be staying here some until then, so we can keep an eye on it. He lit a cigar and leaned on the fence as he smoked. "I'll miss this place," Jessica said, "but I think I'll like new one more. Do you plan to keep this one?" "Probably, for now. It'll probably be a year before we have place ready there. Money's no problem, and having another place can come in handy. "Need to get that place in Paragould sold though, now we know the gold isn't there. I'd about forgotten about it." "Laura could probably handle it for you. It's about as close as Scott's place, in the other direction." "Yeah." Alex grinned. "She'll be glad she met us." "The market's good for sellers," said Jessica. "It may not be for long in most of the country, but a lot of people are moving out of the cities into the southern states." "Might as well have her get on it, if she wants it. Guess it's been long enough to see what I can do with the tractor." Alex dropped his cigar on the gravel outside the door of the shop and they went inside. Needle's moved some. Guess it's been puttin' some juice in. He climbed into the seat and turned the key, the engine turned over but didn't start. How'd I do it? Diesel. Hold it there until the light goes off. He turned the key to the start position, after a few seconds the engine came to life. Throttle. Bump it up just a bit. Good. Smooths out. Dunno how much fuel is in it. Don't need runnin' indoors anyway. At least it's still workin'. He turned if off. "Great." Jessica was smiling. "Can't wait to see you out there working again. It seems like forever now, since we were coming out here almost every weekend." "Gonna have a bigger place to play now. Have to buy some new toys." He climbed down. Jessica hugged him. "I can't wait," she said. The walked around looking at the other tractors. Another 2230BX. Both with mowers. Guess I did a lot of mowing. The John Deere 3038E and 4044M looked as if they'd had little use. The bucket of the loader on the 4044 looked as if it had never been used. "You bought that the summer before." Jessica said. "You wanted a tractor with a loader, and the smaller ones didn't look practical. You practiced with it a little, but hadn't found much to use it for." "Wonder if I can remember how." Jessica smiled. "You're kidding, right?" "Yeah. Hope so." "Wanna get some lunch?" They locked up and drove back to town. The Olive Garden had become a favorite place for both of them, and they enjoyed a quiet lunch after the midday crowd had dissipated. "You OK?" What? How long I been... "You went quiet on me," Jessica said. "I wondered if..." I vapor-locked? Nah.. "I was thinking about that kid," Alex said. "Kid? Oh, Jennifer. Yeah, I think about her lot too. She's got to be hurting bad." "What I was thinking. Harry said he'd see about having her at our meetings, but I wonder what she thinks about, all alone." "Yeah. I didn't ask, but apparently she isn't married." "We need to contact her, get her the website info. I'm working on a chat module, let us send messages." "We do need to keep her engaged," said Jessica. "If we're making progress it'll be encouraging to her." |
|