Chapter 7

Spring

This was the best time of the year! School is almost done; final exams are being held and Don has one more to go, advanced algebra. He went from being dead last to the top in the class, thanks to Lanh’s expert tutelage. Having a tutor who cares and a goal to reach helped Don’s grades skyrocket to untold heights. Was it Lanh’s style of teaching or was Lanh the carrot held before the horse?

For her part, Lanh loved the Campbell’s farm. As farms go, it’s nothing special. They have a small dairy herd, some corn, some row crops, but their number one cash crop is hay, which they sell to other dairy and livestock farms. The farm has a small lake that Lanh was learning to pull perch, trout, and bass out of with regularity. And springtime meant calves! Lanh wanted to be present for every calf born, which with school was impossible, but she harassed her brother into driving her out to the farm at 3:00 AM on a Saturday morning to help her favorite cow, Spot, with her birth.

Little Lanh looked almost hilarious at the birthing. She was dressed in small waders and birthing gloves that were far too big for her, so they were bunched up at her elbows. Don showed her how to help the momma cow have her baby and soon Spot junior was stumbling around in the cold dark farmyard and Lanh was there to name her Sylvia.

Baby cows are so cute!

But now the calving season is almost over, planting is done, school is almost over, summer is almost here! It was such a beautiful day that Don and Lanh studied for tomorrow’s exam in the hayloft. After several exercise exams, Lanh declared Don ready for the real thing and they packed up their books and headed down the ladder.

“Are you going to farm after you graduate?” asked Lanh.

“I think I want to try the Air Force. I want to learn how to work on machines. After I enlist, I’m just going to stay in the military long enough to learn a trade and get the G.I. Bill so my college is paid for, then I’ll come back here,” said Don as the two exited the big side door.

“Then what?” asked Lanh. She looked up and saw Don’s dad walking toward them. He pulled a camera out of his pocket to take a picture of the kids. He was so enamored with Don and Lanh that Ralph was constantly taking their pictures.

“I’ll run the farm; with the skills I learn working on military equipment I’ll work on the machines here, and with my college education I’ll do accounting, y’ know, inventory and sales and taxes and stuff, I’ll manage the farm’s finances.”

Lanh grabbed the straw hat off of Don’s head, put it on her own, and put the stem of hay she was holding in her mouth and said, “Sounds like a plan,” as Ralph’s camera flashed, while inside her head she said, ‘let’s do it together.’

“Wanna go swimming?” he asked.

“I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” she said. She’s been waiting since January for the opportunity to take a dip in the pond and she was severely disappointed. She knew she should have left a suit here at the farm, just for opportunities like this.

Don thought for a moment, then said, “You can wear one of my old t-shirts, I have some small ones.”

“Ok,” Lanh nodded while eyeing the tractor, “can I drive?”

Not long later, while wearing one of Don’s old t-shirts, tied off in the back so it didn’t balloon out in the water, Lanh eased up on the clutch of the old Ford tractor. This time, she didn’t panic when the wheels turned. She continued to ease out on the clutch and rather than stalling like it did the previous six attempts, this time it started rolling. “I’m driving!” she cried, her grin of accomplishment spread across her tiny face. Her braces glittered in the sunlight of the hot late spring afternoon. Don stood beside her, leaning against the fender of the tractor, an incredibly unsafe thing to do, which never stopped a Minnesota farmboy from doing it. He patted her shoulder for encouragement and left his hand there, because it felt right to be there touching her.

Unseen, Lanh and Don’s invisible audience gave each other a ghostly high five and cheered on the tiny girl’s accomplishment. “I love watching this,” grinned the angel with purple tips in her ghostly hair, “but I hope it is the last time I have to watch,” she said with a sidelong glance at her ghostly companion.

As Ralph stood in front of the tractor to capture the moment on film, Ralph had more than enough time to step out of the way of the tractor that putt-putt-putted off toward the pond at a “breakneck” four miles per hour.

Not long later, Tam’s old Toyota pulled up into the farmyard. She had just returned from university, and she wanted to say hi to her little sister. She knew from talking to Lanh and their mom that looking at home for Lanh would be fruitless, as she spends all her free time at the farm and is only at home to sleep or when she can’t talk her way out of working at the restaurant. When she is at the restaurant, Don is there learning to cook in the kitchen. It’s the only way Duong can keep the two separated and working. Tam stopped at the restaurant long enough to pick up Kim-ly and some supplies, then they headed out to Campbell’s farm with a picnic lunch and a cooler full of Old Style beer.

After checking in with Ralph, who was working on an implement that looked like a bunch of leaf rakes that were turned into pinwheels. “Whatcha working on Mr. Ralph?” asked Kim-ly as the girls walked into the shed.

“Just getting the hay rake ready, the first cutting is coming up soon. Your sister says she wants to help with the haying once exams are done.”

Tam smiled at the thought, Farmer Lanh! A year ago, she wanted nothing to do with anything or anyone but Marissa. Lanh’s only plan for the future was to avoid it at all costs. Now she’s milking cows and cutting hay. If that’s what a good man will do for you, then Tam couldn’t wait to find one of them. “Where are those two at?”

“Back at the pond, they finished their cramming for the exam and headed back for a dip.”

With a couple of borrowed folding lawn chairs, Tam and Kim-ly headed back to the pond, carrying the cooler between them. As they drew near the pond, they could hear Lanh occasionally yell, “Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên!” (Hurry! Hurry!)